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 Forum index » Diversions » TimeWasters
Quiz Night Live on FTN
Moderators: Giskard, ndemeter, ScarpeGrosse
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Danives
Boot


Joined: 28 Dec 2005
Posts: 47

 		Quiz Night Live on FTN
Hey, wasnt sure where to post this really, lol. Does anyone watch this show? It drives me absolutly banana sangwich, lol. I was wondering if you guys could help me. Been on this site for a while and have learnt that all you are so damned clever, I was wondering if you could help me with this puzzle they showed a few weeks ago. The puzzle is:

Quote:
one plus five minus six plus twenty two divided by two


and the question was: "add all the numbers"

The answer turned out to be
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
5800
, which they gave out because no-one could get it. Even I cant work out how they managed to get this number. I was wondering if any of you guys could help me out? Cheers fellas Smile

Dan
_________________
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http://perplexcitytrades.com/Danives

PostPosted: Sun Feb 05, 2006 6:51 pm
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Ciaran_H
Veteran

Joined: 11 Nov 2004
Posts: 123
Location: England, UK

 		Re: Quiz Night Live on FTN
Danives wrote:

Quote:
one plus five minus six plus twenty two divided by two


and the question was: "add all the numbers"

The answer turned out to be
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
5800
, which they gave out because no-one could get it.


*sigh* Let me guess, you had to call a premium-rate number to have a chance of getting on the show? While not scams in the truest sense of the word, they're so impossible to do that nobody will ever get them.

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
For example, you've got the basic numbers:

one
five
six
twenty
twenty two
two

Notice that you've also got a "twenty" within the "twenty two", which counts as a separate number.

Then you've got:

one plus five
five minus six
six plus twenty
six plus twenty two
twenty two divided by two
two divided by two

And then:

plus five (+5)
minus six
plus twenty
plus twenty two

And then all the combinations:

one plus five minus six
one plus five minus six plus twenty
one plus five minus six plus twenty two
one plus five minus six plus twenty two divided by two

plus five minus six
plus five minus six plus twenty
plus five minus six plus twenty two
plus five minus six plus twenty two divided by two

five minus six plus twenty
five minus six plus twenty two
five minus six plus twenty two divided by two

minus six plus twenty
minus six plus twenty two
minus six plus twenty two divided by two

six plus twenty two divided by two

plus twenty two divided by two

...and so on. In some cases you even have to do things like read words backwards, and stuff like that. And we haven't even gone onto the case of which parts to evaluate first. Does "minus six plus twenty two divided by two" mean "-6 + (22 / 2)" or "(-6 + 22) / 2"? Probably both are counted.


These sorts of things are hardly ever solvable without a computer program, or a wild, lucky guess.

Now, think of how the shows work. You have premium rate numbers. That brings in enough money on its own, probably. But then, these numbers typically put you through to a computer who randomly decides if you go through or not. If you don't, tough luck and try again. Of course, the company's making a profit on each call regardless of whether you get through or not.

If you do get through, you'll probably have to wait on the line for a bit (some shows don't do this, they'll just put you straight on). They let you give your answer. Of course, it'll be wrong, so they tell you and encourage you to call again. But they don't hang up on you. You have to do that yourself.

Combine that with the fact that the puzzles typically look extremely easy, and they also commonly show truly easy puzzles in between, and it's easy to see how the shows make a killing on these games.

PostPosted: Sun Feb 05, 2006 7:56 pm
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Danives
Boot


Joined: 28 Dec 2005
Posts: 47

 		I know, but you have to admit it is a fantastic way of making money, giving people a practically unsolvable riddle/clue and not letting 99/100 callers through. Its just the fact that I NEVER understand how they get those ridiculous answers. People guess by substituting roman numerals, taking hex values of the letters etc. Im thinking is it possible ARGs will get to the stage of this insanity...if we arent there already!! Just seemed like a worthy kind of puzzle to solve for a forum with a lot of puzzles in, lol. Never mind.

Dan
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http://perplexcitytrades.com/Danives

PostPosted: Sun Feb 05, 2006 9:04 pm
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Ciaran_H
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Joined: 11 Nov 2004
Posts: 123
Location: England, UK

 		You're right, it would be a good puzzle for us to work out. Just to see how they actually did it here.

I might give it a go at some point just to see how they might do it.

PostPosted: Sun Feb 05, 2006 9:54 pm
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Curlytek
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Joined: 30 Jul 2005
Posts: 112
Location: Melbourne, Australia

 		Oh GOD I hate this sort of show. In Australia we have "The Late Night Game Show", hosted by a complete moron from the last Big Brother.

2 hours of this idiot stretching out time between actually letting anyone who rang up have a go at answering the seemingly easy yet almost always ridiculously ambiguous riddles. Why this isn't a crime, I do not understand........

As far as the example riddle goes....buggered if I know! I've never seen this sort of show give any valid reasoning for their answers, so there MAY be a great concept as to how to go from the single line of 11 words to the answer they gave....but I doubt it!

PostPosted: Sun Feb 05, 2006 10:26 pm
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