c4countdown

Apologies if that has come up before, I did do a search and found nothing.

How does Rachel know when the numbers are impossible?

Does she work it out herself or has someone run it through a program and let her know?

I think it has come up in discussion. Someone must use a solver. If she doesn't get it and it's possible, she says she's going to carry on trying. There's no way she could just know that it was possible or impossible.

Gavin Chipper wrote:There's no way she could just know that it was possible or impossible.

There's only just over a million different games that are unsolvable. Piece of piss to convert that to some mnemonics and arrange into some catchy songs to aid memorization. Apparently.

Jon Corby wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote:There's no way she could just know that it was possible or impossible.

There's only just over a million different games that are unsolvable. Piece of piss to convert that to some mnemonics and arrange into some catchy songs to aid memorization. Apparently.

Actually I think you're right. I remember reading an interview with her (I should have remembered it earlier given that I made up a song to remember that I'd read this interview) where she said that for every possible game she'd memorised whether it was possible, but hadn't remembered any of the solutions because it would "spoil the fun".

Wow. That's impressive. How many possible ones are there?

M. George Quinn wrote:Wow. That's impressive. How many possible ones are there?

There are 11,905,457 distinct possible numbers games. 10,858,746 are solvable, 1,046,711 are not. Please click here for further information.

Thanks!

You're welcome.

M. George Quinn wrote:Wow. That's impressive. How many possible ones are there?

I was lying by the way.

She gets told by Damian through an earpiece whether it's possible

So Damian's the one who has memorised them all?

Jon Corby wrote:So Damian's the one who has memorised them all?

Gavin Chipper wrote:

M. George Quinn wrote:Wow. That's impressive. How many possible ones are there?

I was lying by the way.

I wish you two had a chatshow or something

George Pryn wrote:

Jon Corby wrote:So Damian's the one who has memorised them all?

Gavin Chipper wrote:

M. George Quinn wrote:Wow. That's impressive. How many possible ones are there?

I was lying by the way.

I wish you two had a chatshow or something

Let's make it happen!

I'm going to carry on believing it anyhow

My simulations indicate that the estimates of the number of impossible answers are:
no big numbers: 16.97%
one big number : 2.73%
two big numbers: 1.92%
three big numbers: 5.35%
four big numbers: 10.19%
Do these estimates look reasonable? If I want a solution then I would pick two big numbers.

Vince Fernando wrote: ↑Mon Sep 24, 2018 6:32 am My simulations indicate that the estimates of the number of impossible answers are:
no big numbers: 16.97%
one big number : 2.73%
two big numbers: 1.92%
three big numbers: 5.35%
four big numbers: 10.19%
Do these estimates look reasonable? If I want a solution then I would pick two big numbers.

Not a hundred million miles off, but you could have just found the exact percentages here http://c4countdown.co.uk/viewtopic.php? ... 2&start=60

Elliott Mellor:
There are so many tables in that article and which is the correct table? How do you know they are exact?

We tell Rachel if the game is impossible.

She'll say 'leave it with me Nick' when it's possible, but when it's impossible we let her know straight away to save draining the batteries of her mind. No point her doing her brains in on a game that can't be solved. We introduced this 'impossible' advice when she first came on board, 10 years ago, because she would beat herself up for failing to get the solution, although sometimes there wasn't one.

We're lovely people.

Edit to add......
How do we know it's impossible? We text Elliott Mellor.

Just out of interest, do you tell her at the end of the thirty seconds or at the beginning?

We tell her as soon as we know it's impossible. Usually within 15 seconds or so.

Countdown Team wrote: ↑Mon Sep 24, 2018 8:16 pm We tell Rachel if the game is impossible.

……

Edit to add......
How do we know it's impossible? We text Elliott Mellor.

Only just seen this