1. COUNTDOWN is a hardcoreband from Belgium that started out late 2008 and … Read Full Bio ↴1. COUNTDOWN is a hardcoreband from Belgium that started out late 2008 and is often compared to bands like INTEGRITY, RINGWORM, CONGRESS, KICKBACK,...
www.myspace.com/countdownhc

2. Countdown is a progressive metal band from Nancy (France), inspired by the likes of Dream Theater, symphony X, vanden Plas... Formed in 1996 and evolving from Hard rock to metal, it has finally arrived at a progressive style. Demos like"Footpath of stone" and "chains of a martyr" have led to a new album, "Break Rise Blowing", released in 2007
Based on text translated from:
countdown@fr.fm
www.countdown.fr.fm

3. Countdown is a hardcore band hailing from all corners of the Los Angeles area, featuring past and present members from More To Pride and Make Move. Countdown will be releasing their debut full length CD on Forward Looking Records, titled "Between the Lines" very soon. It was released and on the day of the record release, they broke up. Countdown is now dead.

4. Countdown is a new romantic band from the Sunshine Coast (Australia). Sounds like Fashion, Visage, Duran Duran.

5. Countdown is a rapcore / nu metal band from Greece. They released their debut album "Μουσική Πορνεία " in 2015.

The Most Extraordinary Numbers Game Ever?
Countdown Lyrics

We have lyrics for these tracks by Countdown:

A Thing Called Love No New Year's Day to celebrate No chocolate covered candy he…
A Very Special Love Song Babe, somewhere I know I'm gonna find it, babe. It'll have…
All Night Long The day is my enemy, the night my friend, For I'm…
Always Maybe I didn't love you Quite as often as I could…
As I Roved Out Lately I've been runnin' Into our old friends And somewhere …
be with you Monday night I feel so low Count the hours they go…
Behind My baby makes me proud, Lord don't she make me…
Blowing Me Up Saw you 'round the other day, Shorty she was all…
Breathe Lately I've been runnin' Into our old friends And somewhere …

Buy Me a Rose He works hard to give her all he thinks she…
Celebration Someday I'm gonna be famous, do I have talent well…
Come Go With Me Come away with me in the night Come away with me And…
Cowboy Love You drive a baby blue Beamer. I drive a…
Dancing Queen You can dance You can jive Having the time of your life See…
Danny Boy Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling From glen…
Danny Boy (Fiddle Air) 我が子よいとしの汝を父君のかたみとし心していつくしみつ今日まで育てあげぬ古き家を巣立ちして今はた汝は…
Days Go By You are still a whisper on my lips A feeling…
Don't Be Cruel Here's a little song I wrote You might want to sing…
Don't Call Me Baby There's no way to know how this is all gonna…
Everything I Love Spent forty-eight dollars last night at the county fair I…
Fall Into Me And you can dance For inspiration Come on I'm waiting Get in…
Feel Good Time Work, work all week long Punchin' that clock from dusk 'till…
For You I Will I will remember you, will you remember me? Don't let your…
Give Me Tonight The band was playing, kinda, something low All the lovers sw…
Good Hearted Woman A long time forgotten Are dreams that just fell by the…
Heaven Ooh, baby, do you know what that's worth? Ooh, heaven is…
Human I'm only human, of flesh and blood I'm made. Ooh human,…
I Believe in You I believe in you and me I believe that we will…
I Can Love You Better I can love you, (I can love you) I can love…
I Can Love You Like That They read you Cinderella You hoped it would come true That o…
I Love You Spent forty-eight dollars last night at the county fair I…
I Want You I Need You I Love You Sometimes when I'm down and all alone Just like a child…
I'm So Excited Tonight's the night we're gonna make it happen Tonight we'll…
I'm Your Boogie Man I'm your boogie man, that's what I am. I'm here to…
If You See Him / If You See Her If you see him, tell him I wish him well How…
In a dying world Hey, did you happen to see the most beautiful girl…
In Your Eyes I know, that's just it goes And you ain't right, for…
It Must Be Love Lay a whisper on my pillow, leave the winter on the…
Just To See Her If you see him, tell him I wish him well How…
Kill Meeting you with a view to a kill. Face to face,…
Kiss She was a woman on a mission Here to drown him…
Lady Hey sister, go sister, soul sister, go sister Hey sister, go…
Let's Get Loud I've been really tryin', baby Tryin' to hold back this feeli…
Like a Virgin I made it through the wilderness Somehow I made it through D…
Love in the First Degree I once though of love as a prison A place I…
Love Is Nice You're so bad, you're so bad, you're so You're so bad,…
Love Song Babe, somewhere I know I'm gonna find it, babe. It'll have…
Magic Come take my hand You should know me I've always been in…
Material Girl Some boys kiss me Some boys hug me I think they're ok If…
Mony Mony Here she comes now sayin' Mony Mony Shoot 'em down turn…
Never Leave You At first she's gonna come on strong Like she'll love you…
Not In Love I'm not in love So don't forget it It's just a silly…
On My Own I'm wiser now I'm not the foolish girl you used to…
One More Time Last night I had a crazy dream A wish was granted…
Shake Your Bon-Bon Everybody, get on the floor, let's dance! Don't fight your f…
Somebody Like You Even though it's been so long, my love for you…
Something You can't make me speak You can't make me weak Words I…
Theme From Baywatch They're creepy and they're kooky Mysterious and spooky They'…
Time After Time Work, work all week long Punchin' that clock from dusk 'till…
To Make You Feel My Love When the rains blowing in your face And the whole world…
Toxic Baby, can't you see I'm calling A guy like you should…
Turn The Beat Around Turn the beat around Love to hear percussion Turn it upside …
Valentine If there were no words no way to speak I would still…
We Like To Party We like to party We like, we like to party…
What Have You Done For Me Lately What's up, girl? He stood me up again Again? Mmh mmh Well wh…

where the party at C'mon, c'mon, yeah, c'mon, yeah Uh ooooooooooooh uh oh oh o…

The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos

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Most interesting comments from YouTube:

JesusJuenger

4y↑8.7K

To explain why he's done this for people who might not understand:

He wants to go from 318 to 952, and he figures 3x318 - 2 = 952.

But! He doesn't have a 3 or a 2 at that point; he's just got 75, 50 and 25 left. He knows 75/25 = 3, and 50/25 = 2. But you can only use the 25 once. So in his mind he's thinking
3 x 318 - 2 = 952
(75/25) x 318 -- (50/25) = 952
So the only way to avoid using the 25 twice is to multiply & subtract first:
(75x318-50)/25 = 952

And he's worked that out without ever needing to know what 75x318 actually is.

Coldheart322

5y↑57

Carol: That is 318
James: Now multiply that by 75
Carol: and then you're going to divide that right?
James: Yes, but not right away
Carol: ...
Carol: What will you divide it by?
James: 25, but before that I want to subtract 50
Carol: You mean we have to actually work out this value?

Pretty epic answer.

Warren Smith

3y↑1

he basically wants to use the 25 twice and this is the only way you can do that without using it twice. Observe:

First he realises that (3+6)*100 + 50 is no good since he has no way to make 2.

For that he knows that to get close to 952, and leave a way of making the left over.

he realises that 106x9 gets hm to 954 and he will have the 50 left. But thats all he has, and he uses the 25 to make his 3. He needs to use the 25 twice and so he sees that he can do that by doing the following.

75/25 makes 3 so he can make the 9 needed to multiply by his 106 however he also needs the 25 for the 50/25 for his 2.

He needs to do 318 x (75/25)-(50/25)

This is equivelent to ((318 x 75)-50)/25

Just like 5/25 - 2/25 = 3/25

If the denominators are the same you can instead write as (5-2)/25 = 3/25

By making it all one sum you only instruct to use the 25 once.

He will have known this technique in advance and noted that he can make 3 and 2 using just 3 numbers (75, 50 and 25) and 4 and 2 using 3 numbers (100, 50 and 25)

But to execute it in 30 seconds is very good.

Philippe Nachtergal

5y↑1

He is how you can actually find that 952 if you have a very quick mind :

75/25 = 3 and 100 * 3 * 3 = 900
That's a good base.
You add 50 to get 950
Now, you have not used the 6. If you could somehow inject that 6 in the middle of all that so that is essentially ends up being worth 2 in the end, you would have it.
Sadly, there is no division by 3 anywhere in the process so that doesn't work.
Now, transforming that 6 into 52 or 102 would also work since you can decide not to use the 50 at the end or subtract it rather than add it.
There is no way to do that. But 6 * 9 is 54 which is close so let's try that.

To do that, we need to add the 6 at the very beginning so that it ends up being multiplied by 9 overall:
(100+6)* 75 / 25 * 3 = 954 and this time, it is the 50 that has not been used.
Now, if we could transform that 50 into a 2, we would be home.
And yo and behold, there is a division by 25 in there.
So we just have to subtract that 50 somewhere in the middle of that so that is it not multiplied by anything but divided by 25
That would mean pushing the division by 25 to the end and subtract the 50 just before that division, like this :
{{ [[ (100 +6) * 3 * 75 ]] - 50 }} / 25 = 952
You then just have to figure out what those intermediate results actually are.
23850 was ,never held in his mind. For that matter, 318 probably wasn't either.

All comments from YouTube:

Holy Ravioli

5y↑5.8K

While watching this as a kid i always wondered why they bothered having an entire clock if they only used half of it.

John Doe

I wondered about when it went back up

witherblaze

@Holy Ravioli Or just have half the clock and turn turn it on its side (see "Two for the Money")

Kurtle

Same 🤣

quaid667

if you watch it in the mirror, they use the other half

lordsummerisle87

@mrkungfuking23 Only if we assume the clock is laid out similarly to a conventional clock. There are no unit markings, so it could well start at "whatever many seconds are in this round" at the 12 o'clock position (normally 30 but sometimes more) and "0 seconds" wherever it stops and goes "bhew" (usually 6 o'clock position).

Besides which, the pointer starts pointing upwards and then gradually moves to point down, while apparently counting. Ergo "countdown".

77 More Replies...

JesusJuenger

4y↑8.7K

baldheadkid

@Harty Biker I like to think they don't actually play that stupid music in the studio.. and it's only for the TV audience.

Herman Jacobs

Brilliant explanation.

He didn’t have to know what 75x318 is as long as he had what you just explained in his mind.

14thgoat

Normally, the so called 'smarty pants' are ridiculed because of their confectionery or underwear choices
On this occasion, I will happily make an exception. I love this video. I also love this explanation. Thank you.

TheMoonRover

Also worth noting he likely worked backwards from the answer. Using the big numbers, you can easily make a 2, 3, or 4, so his thought process would have been to divide 952 by those numbers and see if there's anything useful there.
952/3 is very close to 318, and it's fairly easy to get that with (100+6)x3=318.
Now working the problem forwards:
318x(75/25) = 318x3 = 954, which is 2 over, so instead you multiply by the 75 first, subtract 50 to get rid of the 2, and only then divide by 25, without ever needing to know the totals in-between

Richard Anderson

Try to explain that to Richard Whitely. He was so thick.

211 More Replies...

crackedoutclown

5y↑3.4K

This is how uk men in the 90's stated their dominance, 4 from the top is just madness hahaha.

Luke Reilly

"Let's work it out together" was absolutely a boss move.

pietzeekoe

3y↑1

4 from the top, Jeremy. 4?! That's insane!

J C

@Lee Ball 😂😂

Keegan Bethell

I would definitely like 2 from the top & 1 from the bottom from Carol lol

26 More Replies...

Tommy

4y↑152

What makes this great is that he didn't even mention how unorthodox his method was. He just came out with it casually.

Jimmy

3y↑1

@Zombie69 In France, in the standard number rounds, they use a tablet to write their operations. They don't need to know the results. He would just put 318 x 75 and the machine would give the result. That allows some players to pull off numbers games that are above their level of calculating, thanks to trial and error on the tablet.

Zombie69

3y↑6

It's actually pretty much the standard approach in Countdown, just with bigger numbers. In the French version, you need to also give the intermediate totals so he would have been screwed!

DC

@Oliver McCall lol. That's true. Ya gotta miss Richard.

DC

@Oliver McCall so addition, division, multiplication and subtraction are not normal😂😂😂😂

DC

@Oliver McCall I totally get your point. 👍

2 More Replies...

Mitch Weiner

3y↑7

I love how Carol laughs in disbelief! 😀

Danny62

4y↑21

What I like about this is Vorderman wasn't pretending to have worked out the answers. Which she could have done, but like the rest of us she was so surprised by the turn of events.

Vibe Check Official 🏳️‍🌈

Her reaction makes this all the more comical

michael lavery

4y↑979

Our 952 times table went up to 30 so I saw the division immediately.

Locane256

3y↑1

Lmao 👍

Unpughlievable

3y↑1

Naturally

alZiiHardstylez

3y↑2

@pentagonanimates blinking daftly

Cosetta Pessa

3y↑2

@michael lavery looool clown

4 More Replies...

mtiller2006

4y↑2

...incredible! I'm good at some math, but this was quite a challenge! This really could be the most amazing Number Game that Countdown has ever had to offer! Wow!

PaddyMac

5y↑2.3K

Gerald’s delivery of his 953 answer was just so funny after all of that

Zac Mumblethunder

3y↑3

@Steve Moppett We 'ad ter make do with 953 in my day. We didn't get even numbers 'round 'ere till t'year 2000, tha knowst.

Alex Jones

I’m so glad this comment is here because I laughed so hard at that bit.

Steve Moppett

3y↑5

@Wayne Marsh "953 were good enough for m' grandfather, it's good enough for me."

Eoin O'Connell

3y↑3

Je suis Gerald

9 More Replies...

G- Mez

3y↑17

Is it just me who believes that Carol's laugh was a nervous laugh trying to hide the fact she didn't know the calculations?

Bo Bosschert

4y↑4

I sometimes just return to this video because I really enjoy everyone's amazement at this guy's skills.

Con Mak

3y↑3

That he did that in 30 seconds, on TV, is insane, credit to him, that is brilliant

Weasel Mcweaselson

4y↑19

carols reactions were hilarious. i was in stitches!! brilliant

AD892

@Goran Milić jeez. where are you from?

Goran Milić

English are so polite. When she say "multiply this", he just says "yes, please". I my country it would be like "bitch, do your job".

pentagonanimates

how does this comment not say “12 years ago” because HOW DOES THIS COMMENT NOT SAY “12 YEARS AGO-

Knap- dalf

10y↑2K

The Australian version of Countdown is called 'Letters and Numbers' I think, who here thinks it should be called Count-Down Under?

Any Expat

Australian version of countdown is called Sesame Street

Qudos

Genius

Liam Pike

'Des' in this case means 'some'... so literally, 'some numbers (or 'figures') and some letters,' but in English that sounds a bit awkward.

E P

3y↑1

@I.C. Turner indefinite article?

I.C. Turner

@E P It’s not an article.

45 More Replies...

Laura Gibson

3y↑20

Now THAT is the epitome of ‘method in the madness’. Brilliant 😁

QuietTF2

4y↑21

i love how when carol was asked to divide that she was just like "yea... ill take your word for it..."

Mitjitsu

3y↑1

You only need to times the 238 bit by 4, which will give you 952.

MindstormXL

I actually did the sequence on the calculator and it was correct.

Merciful Zeus!

4y↑892

You could go even higher with the multiplication if you wanted to:
100 + 3 = 103.
103 x 75 = 7725.
7725 x 6 = 46,350.
46,350 / 50 = 927.
927 + 25 = 952.

Vibe Check Official 🏳️‍🌈

Stop breaking the internet

James

Yeah but that took you minutes, not 30 seconds lol

Reactions

It would have topped it, both contestants had gotten the answer right. The first one (which we saw in the video) and then the next opponent with this method. Carol's brain would have exploded.

I.C. Turner

@Robbert ter Hart That isn’t more elegant. It’s equally so. Marginally more elegant than either of you would be to do all the multiplications and the division together, instead of giving the intermediate results for no reason. But the contestant’s version was more elegant than yours (plural) with an addition tagged on the end,

Jase

@mike A Okay Newton.

28 More Replies...

ChrisMac2489

4y↑7

👏 that was (without A shadow of a doubt ) the most amazing numbers game I have ever seen in countdown

Robert Pink

9y↑436

Carol's laugh is more funny than the outrageous sum, she has a good sense of humour.

no names in space

2y↑1

I agree she brings a good energy to the show

Glyn Wigley

She has the dirtiest laugh since Sid James

Pat Tanackered

3y↑8

I spilt my tea slightly watching this when it first aired. It really was that thrilling

sonoslain69

5y↑1

When he said x75 it made sense.
That's why he didn't know how much 75x318 was ... HE DIDN'T HAVE TO KNOW THAT !!!

318x3 would be 954 so... Using the -50 to get -2 when he divided it by 25 again....BRILLIANT!

It was all about the -2.

Craig Williams

5y↑3

When I was younger, I used to watch the show that inspired this. It was a French show called "Des chiffres et des lettres". It wasn't an exciting show by any means, but I was fascinated by how people could solve the problems.

Nathaniel Harari

4y↑1

I used to watch it as well when I lived in Belgium as a kid.

DarkBabylon

5y↑2

Thankfully my head isn't wired around numbers so this still blows my mind and humbles me.

Matt-O

5y↑917

I just love how much Carol is laughing and enjoying this

Liz Clegg

3y↑2

I think she was laughing to cover her embarrassment because she could only get to 953 so the contestant beat her.

Anti_Immigration

3y↑1

I don't. Lauching at a legitimate answer is annoying.,

jhibbitt 2

@Castafiore PT it's youtube, what do you expect? lol

Breaking Views

3y↑1

She was laughing as a distraction from her not getting it herself

Matt-O

@Castafiore PT no idea tbh I haven't looked at the replies for a while lol

25 More Replies...

example 2844

As brilliant as Carol Vorderman is, even she was stumped on this one

hydorah

4y↑1

I love the way everyone (including me) thought he'd wildly blown it until 23,800 / 25. I mean how does somebody see something like that? Quite amazing

Nullifidian

It's an algebraic technique. James Martin hadn't calculated that huge number in his head, but instead what he was doing was letting 75 stand in for 3 and 50 for 2 because that's what they equal when they're divided by 25. The reason it had to go into five digits is that you're only allowed to use each number once, so the 25 had to be distributed across the whole calculation. If it were admissible to use a number more than once, then the calculation would appear much simpler: (100 + 6) x 3 x (75 / 25) - (50 / 25) = (100 + 6) x 3 x 3 - 2 = 952.

Phil

What an answer, and To get it in 30 seconds regardless of if he had trained using the 25,50,75,100 as some have said is truely amazing.👍😎

Phil Reynolds

Oddly enough, the next most bizarre answer was one that both contestants and Carol failed to get, but Richard got, by going to 2400 and something and dividing by 3.

Isleofskye

6y↑12

Just watched the middle section from " 318 " 6 times now and it's still hilarious because of it's uniqueness and his audacity but also because he stopped her taking the mathematical shortcut by telling her to wait for the large division which would have saved her having to work it out and also what was great was after the " 23,850" Carol is awaiting the large subtraction to get the amount down and he, merely, subtracts just " 50"...Brilliant !

Edos512

4y↑17

her face when he says.... "I'd like to multiply by 75" is priceless

Mitjitsu

3y↑78

I knew I shouldn't have skipped class that day when they were covering the 952 times table.

Immortal SoFar

I learned how to cheat at tables tests as soon as it reached 7 so I guess I never reached 952.

Adeel M

I knew I should stayed for the 30 times table, but it only went up to 951...

Danny Colverson

I remember watching this live. Was pretty mental. Well, as mental as Countdown ever got. Digestive buscuit, cup of tea...Good times. Cant watch it now. The 30 minute show with Carol, Richard and limited "dictionary corner" time was the best.

Nullifidian

@Scintillating Skills Nick Hewer? Yes.

Scintillating Skills

@Nullifidian He was on the Apprentice right?

Nullifidian

@Scintillating Skills Nick Hewer is the current host, but he's announced his intention of stepping down after the current season (and he's already had to turn some episodes over to Colin Murray during the COVID lockdowns), and Rachel Riley is the arithmetician. Susie Dent, who is in this video, went from being a member of a rotating group of lexicographers to being the sole lexicographer for all episodes in 2003.

Scintillating Skills

Who's in it now?

Mike Williams

You youngsters won't be old enough to remember what reality was like before we upgraded it to HD, but this is a pretty good representation.

Walter Kingstone

7y↑5.5K

I can see how he did it without knowing what 318 * 75 was.

What he essentially did was ((318 * 75) - 50)/25

which, simplified, is the same as 318 * (75/25) - (50/25)
which is 318 * 3 - 2.

which is 952. Very clever.

oles schwester

@Shezza Bezza You definitely had that it school lol, that's super basic math...

Johnny Connell

pgI0897 no, and sometimes a RNG comes up with something so simple, e.g. 3 of the numbers added together... that everyone just stops and smiles. In 8 out of 9 cats does countdown they hit the button again for a more complex answer. I’ve seen regular Countdown where no one could get it.

JTV84

@Simon Rodgers no it doesn't.

Daan Vreeswijk

Thank you for that one, I was wondering about this.

JTV84

it was easy to get to 954 using multiples of 3, the genius part was using the 25, 50 and 75 to knock 2 off.

94 More Replies...

Zelandakh Niteblade

There are a few solutions I think. The simplest for me is: 100*((75/6)-3)+(50/25), which is essentially 100*9.5+2, although I am not sure if the rules of the show allow for non-integer operations.

Onward and Upward

3y↑2

This absolute legend schooled Carol Vorderman, that takes some doing

Maven Frankeus

Incredible mathematics, even more incredible video quality.

Lance Kirkaldy

4y↑1

Vodermann was laughing very hard to cover up the fact she was completely out of her depth and had no idea how to do this. Even multiplication of a 3 digit number by 75 was too much for her. 3rd class Honors in Maths right enough Carol

Davey England

Lance Kirkaldy - yeah, she’s a fraud.

Garrick

4y↑4

He probably started with 106*9=954, which is close, but you cannot use the 6 twice, so the you need to find another 3 or a 6. Well, 75/25 gives you 3, so if you go (100+6)*3*75/25 you get 954. I expect this was what Carol was thinking - if he is going to divide by 25 then she only needs to multiply by 3. But he also noticed that if you are 2 out, then before you divide by 25 you are 50 out (2x25). So subtract the 50 before you divide by 25 and you are spot on.
Of course, he has to do this in 30 seconds, and I could only get as far as the 954. Even the other guy had 953. Generally, though, a good tactic is to look for combinations that give you the same number, such as 3 = 75/25, then you can scale up and back down.

Hakkihan Tunbak

3y↑30

I kinda wished for a moment that he’d get Carol to multiply all of the numbers and after Carol finishes then say that he forgot, Now that would be a good laugh

Elizabeth Bower

4y↑4

Are used to watch this game every day for years… I could always do the words of the anagram but never never could I work out the maths even when it is shown to me… RIP Richard Whiteley

Michael

this just shows that in life you gotta be fearless & go with what you believe. People will laugh & ridicule you until they realise you were right

Coldheart322

5y↑57

Jon Mop jovi

3y↑1

If this man was born 500 years ago he would've been burned at the stake, but in the 90s his talent got him a countdown teacup

Chalba

I think I know how he came up with it and it's not as insane as people think. 318 * (75 / 25) = 954 and so knowing he was close and had numbers leftover to work with he simply needed a way to take 2 away from that answer and it had to be done in an earlier step. Well, in the previous step, he then knows that whatever he subtracts will be translated (divided) down by 25 and he just happens to have 50 available which of course divided by 25 is 2. That is how I think the order of his thought process went. I think math and more often arithmetic lends itself to sort of semi conscious step skipping. Some people know all the tricks and can do things like this, "Mathemagic".. but in general it's pretty remarkable and more exciting to see it happen a little more spontaneously like this.

Millsyboy84

5y↑222

Carol "you want to multiply by 75?"
Maths genius" yes, that's exactly what we're doing"
Carol: throffing intensifies

apnewens

What’s throffing?

Fahad Ayaz

@Colin Richardson Oof, too soon!

Colin Richardson

3y↑3

Don't worry Carol, Rachel Riley is here to rescue you from doing your job.

britecho

6y↑6

That was an incredible thing to work out in the 30 seconds he had. I think that what he realised fairly quickly was that if he adds the 100 to the 6 and multiplies it by three twice he gets 954 - just 2 away, One 3 is there directly so how to get the other 3? Well 75/25 = 3. The only trouble is that we need to subtract another 2 from that total to bring it down to 952 and we only have the number 50 left. But, 50/25 = 2 so, rather than just taking 318 X (75/25), we could do it as (318 X 75 - 50)/25. That way the 25 serves to reduce the 75 to 3 and the 50 to 2 all in one go :) The give away was that he didn't realised what 318 X 75 made. He didn't need to know this intermediate figure with the method above.

1daleym

Little surprised Carol didn't cotton on where they were going a little earlier in the workings out, fair play to James! Some head on him 👍

gligeti

3y↑4

well, he wasn't really doing that large multiplication in his head, but something like this may have been his thought process:
954 , close enough, is 106x9 = 106x3x3. So you can do (100+6)*3* (75/25).
Now you need to take away 2. which is 50/25
954-2=(100+6)*3*(75/25) - (50/25)
But unfortunately you already used 25. However if you subtract the 50 before the division with 25, you get to use it for both:
954-2=((100+6)*3*75 - 50)/25.

gimmeumoney

3y↑11

So he got to the answer without actually working out each step....I can't even begin to imagine how

Nullifidian

It's because he applied a formula that four-large players know. (75 x 50 +/- 100) / 25 = 146/154, (100 x 50 +/- 75) / 25 = 197/203, and (100 x 75 +/- 50) = 298/302.

James used the last of these, employing the two small numbers to alter the formula until it reached the target. First he added 6 to the 100, and then by multiplying 106 by 3 and then 75, he effectively multiplied it by another 3 (because 75 / 25 = 3). 106 x 3 x 3 = 954. But since he's intending to divide by 25 already, that means that 50 is equivalent to 2. So ((100 + 6) x 3 x 75 - 50) / 25 is equivalent to (100 + 6) x 3 x 3 - 2 = 952

Colin Oakes

3y↑6

Algebra

MrBLAQ1000

3y↑1

The moral of this story, never laugh at anyone before the task is completed and even then give them credit for attempting the impossible. Because they had him even doubting his answer at one stage

Tracie Irene

9y↑563

Obviously he mastered those manipulations of the big numbers, that's why he asks for all of them. So there are 3 variables instead of 7. It's a great strategy. I wish my brain could wrap around that logic more intuitively. It was clear he made an equation so he didn't have to do all the multiplication and division, but I would have no idea how to do that.

Isleofskye

@kroppyer Can you go through that again 4 years on kroppyer....

Colin Java

5y↑3

@Paul-Peter Theulings That's spot on basically, its all about 75/25 = 3 essentially.

Lion and Llama trash #1

Tracie Irene p

a1974h

6y↑1

Tracie Irene you done well to explain it

Isabella x

😶

3 More Replies...

Matthew Lilley

3y↑2

I love how the board has grid lines and yet nobody uses them

fluchter1996

5y↑1

I've read someone else's explanation of what he did and understand it. Question however: he was about to start off with 100 x 3, then changed his mind and told Carol to write down 100+6, multiplied by 3. So how was he going to approach it by starting off 100 x 3?

Christopher Benner

@Nullifidian I usually work the other way. My mouth will say something, and then a bit later my brain will realize what I have said. Unfortunately this has led to a fairly serious case of foot in mouth disease.

Nullifidian

He couldn't make with 100 x 3 as the starting step. The only other viable alternative is (100 + 3) x 75 x 6 / 50 + 25 = 952. However, I think he just misspoke. I've been there sometimes when my mouth is still on step one, but my brain is several steps further along.

Criously

Once you get to the 318 you can sort of see where hes going with it, multiplying it by 3 gives you 956, which is essentially what *(75/25) is, subtracting 50 off the total off the multiplication just gives you 956-2 which is the answer, the presence of mind to get there in the 30 seconds is pretty insane though.

Mark Culpan

Maybe rethink your maths! 😆

DJEdg10

3y↑2

952=(100+6)*3*75/25-50/25

He would’ve practiced combinations of obtaining 2s and 3s from the four-from-the-top (25, 50, 75 and 100).
He knew 106*9=954 and needed to subtract 2. So he borrowed the divide by 25 and used it with the remaining 50 to get the -2 needed.
The value 23,850 was never in his mind.

Ben Huffer

soz Einstein

Gaur1983

7y↑6

Ha,remember watching this when it first broadcast. One of Countdown's more memorable moments to be sure -a seriously impressive bit of lightning mental calculation/algebraic insight. Going by memory the contestant was an actual mathematician ,with a degree from Oxford(edit: current Oxford mathematics professor) Consequently, this sort of thing would've been more or less a day at the office for him.

Alex Potts

4y↑1

Sort of; but prof mathematicians at that level don't actually do as much with numbers as you might think. They work on more abstract stuff and get computers to do their arithmetic for them.

DrummerboyUK1

What an absolute legend. Kids nowadays couldn't add 75 to 318 without a calculator...!

musicsavage

3y↑12

01:50 "And then dividing by something": pure definition of anxious waiting.

colin howells

If I was told my life depended on working that out in 30s......absolutely no chance.

s baxter

3y↑7

it took carol almost 3 mins giggling and still needing someone side of stage with a calculator to help her. I wonder what the contestant's thought process was during that 30 sec countdown?

Wayne Calvert

3y↑1

He didnt know the big numbers because he didnt really need to. He did 100 + 6 = 106 x 3 is 318.

318 x (75÷25) is 954 which gets him 2 away.

Taking the brackets away there and sliding the 50 in the middle let's him get that 2 he needs.

Guitari - Guitar Tuition

he was always guaranteed to get the 25 50 75 and 100 .. I think he memorized the possibilties of the other two numbers that's why he couldnt give the figure when asked. Quite ingenious really

Nullifidian

5y↑1

It's simpler than that. The kind of memorization you're thinking of is beyond human capabilities, because the target number can be anywhere from 100 - 999 and you have 20 small numbers (1 - 10 with duplicate tiles for each), which obviously rules out memorizing every possible combination of numbers and targets.

What he's doing is letting the large numbers stand in for smaller ones. Because the ratios of the four large numbers are fixed, you can treat 50 as a 2, when you're dividing it by 25, 75 as a 3, 100 as a 4, and so on. You can also add numbers together like 100 + 75 for 7, or have uneven ratios like 75 / 50 (3 : 2), but these complications don't arise here.

106 is his base number. He then multiplies it by 3, and then by 75, which is equivalent to another three. 106 x 3 x 3 = 954, which is two out from the target. But he has an unused number, the 50, that is equivalent to two when divided by 25. So he multiplies across, then subtracts the 50 before dividing by 25. It has to go into five digits because the 25 has to be distributed across the entire problem, but conceptually it's as easy as calculating (100 + 6) x 3 x 3 - 2 = 952. He didn't know the five-digit number because he was thinking about it in these simplified terms.

Sam M

Cute and clever. Some guys just have it all!

1000000trs

I presume they've changed the high card deck since then. His method only produced about 36 combinations of numbers, which he will have practiced with substantially before hand. Still amazing, but not quite as amazing as it looks.

Nullifidian

It may produce a more limited number of combinations for tiles, but what no amount of practicing with just the tiles alone can tell you is how to solve the randomly selected number that comes up on the board. You seem to be implying that all one has to do is remember the permutations of tile combinations and one can solve for the target. That isn't the case.

rubicous

bumer

evil me

that was real good, he deserved 100 points for that haha

Phil Bradshaw

I was once eating a packet of Rancheros crisps while my parents were watching this show (12 years old) and I got a nine letter word it was "Rancheros"
It was legit like that Leonardo dicaprio meme where he's pointing at something, but I had crisps, instead of a beer in my hand 🤣

deci bel

I got the same answer as the other guy, not in a million years would I get this. You absolute genius whoever you are.

AJ

This clip lives in my head rent free 😩

Bessie Hillum

This is the Carol Vorderman we all fondly remember.

Ḡαღ♭ℓ℮ℳαḓм@η

8y↑2.6K

Everyone else get the obvious 953 in the first few seconds then thought "that'll fuckin do"?

Happy Dude

Except I fucked it up and thought I'd got 952

Verdan Koro

@Jeremy Slaney Yeah I noticed that too... (Using the 50 too many times)

Once to multiply by 18
Then to divide into 100 to get the 2
Then a third time to add to the 900.

They only had 2 50s (the original 50 and the 75-25) so their answer is incorrect.

Jeremy Slaney

@Farhan Ali you've unfortunately used the 2 twice

traida111

@Valkir if your nan is dead you can expect her maths to be on another level of genius. Since being human you have to turn on a lot of limitations, once you turn those off you are a super genius.

33 More Replies...

merlinsdog

The way some people can think always amazes me.
30 seconds to work that out. Incredible!

TwistyMcYeet

Multiplying 318 by 75 is perhaps the biggest power move in the history of mankind. The other guy is shook, he knows he's fucked, he's realised that he never stood a chance to begin with as he stands in the presence of a god, he may have kept up a facade of confidence, but deep inside his resolve had been shattered.

NEOLIVZ

4y↑1

318 * 3 = 954 - 2 he can make 50 by doing 50/25 and 3 by 75/25 but since he has only one 25 he would have to do all together so the equation becomes (318*75 - 50)/25= 318 * 3 - 2
. He never actually multiplied the numbers but that said it took me way way way too long to find the answer doing it in 30 second is incredible.

Xtendia Time

Countdown helped me to enjoy scrabble more, I told friends to watch countdown before playing me again as I'm tired of them with their four letter words.
I gave them the source and games were better, I didn't get anything from countdown besides the being faster at maths, catchphrase helped me with being fast a finding big words in scrabble, putting words to a picture is much more challenging I feel, the brain opens up..

Todd Crabtree

5y↑7

Legend has it that Jon Richardson keeps a copy of this video in his home in case he needs an emergency adrenaline shot.

Kim Smith

3y↑3

Dead ringer for George Osbourne. With those numeric skills it is no surprise he went on to become Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Liz Clegg

He sort of looks like George Osborne, but I think George Osborne is still getting his maths GCSE.

Kenton Baird

5y↑6

For some reason I'm reminded of those parts in sciience fiction movies where they say "we can slingshot around the sun! Trust me, my calculations are correct!"

So THAT'S what that calculation looks like...

DerKiesch

Using brackets and simplyfying makes it clear a bit better what happens:
(318 * 75 - 50) / 25 = 318 * 3 + 2 = 954 - 2 = 952

Beautifully spotted. And I like the fact that she get's to show off that she is not only there for her looks.

Scintillating Skills

3y↑1

What a legend.

John Cooper

7y↑1.9K

Rumour has it, he's still getting noshed off by all the grannies in the audience that day

Elliot Faraday

4y↑1

@Chris Landry r/cursedcomments

Nathaniel Cleland

Last I encountered him - lecturer at Oxford for my first year.

TokyoNinja1467

John Cooper - Art of Social your a sick dude lol

MrMusty

4y↑2

@Bilbobulbousbag Or a no denture adventure

13 More Replies...

Bailey Haddock

4y↑659

At first I was like why tf is this in my feed then I remembered that I had just binged every episode of 8 out of 10 cats does countdown lol

QODAE

Yeah me too...

Polaris Gemini

SAME

I.C. Turner

@Alex Potts I just pause it, trying not to do so for too long, so that I can do them without the antics going on.

I.C. Turner

Same for me too, except for the ones weirdly missing from All 4 with no explanation.

Alex Potts

4y↑5

The thing about 8/10 Cats does Countdown is, I get really annoyed that they aren't taking the Countdown stuff more seriously.

The jokes are fine, but the Countdown stuff actually prevents from enjoying them. I see letters and numbers at the bottom of the screen and I go straight into competitive mode.

3 More Replies...

puirYorick

5y↑2

I was pleased with getting to 953 quickly for one away and stopped there.

Putting it on paper now, I believe his "method" relied on phrasing the problem in terms of order of operations such that actually knowing the product of the large multiplication step wasn't needed. He knew it would be offset by the ratio of the remaining numbers to get him there. It's just a simple subtraction from there.

Zac Mumblethunder

@puirYorick I might track one or two down. I'm at that age where I need to do a bit of brain exercise.
I got involved in an event where we were asked to do physical exercises that cross the right/left brain a d body divide and I did feel more mentally alert after.

puirYorick

@Zac Mumblethunder Certainly a lot of the maths whiz types have a special gift for manipulating numbers in their headspace. I'm okay but nothing special that way.

The concept of left brain & right brain function and the degree of cooperation between the two likely is a huge factor.

There are resource books giving some simple tricks and techniques for "doing maths" but I can't think of any titles myself.

Zac Mumblethunder

@puirYorick Somehow I got grade A maths but I never understood what we were doing or why in the final year. I just did what we were told to do. I used to play with numbers away from school and came up with most of my mental calculation techniques myself, checking my answers on a calculator, as we just didn't seem to cover that sort of thing in school. I hate how it's almost seen as a badge of honour to be able to say "I don't understand maths, I can't add two and two".
I'd say the two subjects most poorly served by modern education are maths and history.

puirYorick

@Zac Mumblethunder Thanks. The gentleman who taught me maths was an older soft spoken African expatriate who often told us some little random fact about whatever concept he was going to introduce in the lesson. Perhaps it helped to make the method of solution stand apart from the "spade work" of actually crunching the numbers.
In fact, years later, my Calculus instructor for the first two years of Uni also brought his sample problems through a method only up to what he called spade work (his term) and stopped.

It was assumed that we could all crunch the numbers by then. He just literally helped us with making sense of the Greek.

Zac Mumblethunder

Why didn't you teach maths at my school? Much more practical and impressive than the weird stuff I had to spend the final year of O Levels doing.

Phillip Phillippson

4y↑2

I loved watching Countdown after school back in the late 90’s

LeftRight

4y↑1

I'm surprised because these days I reckon they would have stopped the meandering answer, accused one of not really working it out (in a complete sense for the 30 seconds given) and default to the competitor. But he had the smarts... and the charm, and ultimately, Carol and Gerald were hoodwinked.
Bravo.

B E N B O B B Y ᵝ

He also changes his mind at the start of how to explain it which would indicate he hasnt got it written down fully too

Warren Smith

3y↑1

Danny Lyons82

3y↑2

I love this so funny makes me rewind it lol

schmetterlingsjaeger

3y↑6

This should be used in math classes to teach the power of the distributive law!

Philippe Nachtergal

5y↑1

Philippe Nachtergal

In fact, given how quick the guy must be, I'm pretty sure that what he was holding in his mind at the start of the explanation was something like this :
{ 100 * 9 = 900 ; 3 * 75 / 25 = 9; 6 * 9 = 54; 50 / 25 = 2 ; PATCH IT UP } Hence his initial error of not adding the 6 immediately : the patching up hadn't be done yet. At that level of competition, you don't just bypass computing the actual intermediate results, the proper process itself isn't held firmly in mind: you are juggling with numbers and operations much more literally than most people realize.

Barry Puccini

7y↑8

My high school maths teacher 'Mad Dog' had a game similar to this. He'd pick a year and then a calendar month and you had to try to use the numbers in the year (in order) to make the numbers 1 - 31.
I remember one in particular when he was explaining his choice of year. I was bored, spinning a ruler on my pen. Suddenly my head was yanked back by my hair and I was staring into the eyes of Mad Dog; the sun gleaming off his long mane of frizzy hair that covered a tattoo of a naked woman on the back of his neck that was deemed to risque to expose to the eyes of minors.
'When was the American war of Independence'?! he bellowed.
The answer to this is not really well known in Australia but for some reason I knew the answer and so responded in a feeble tremble '1776?'.
'Lucky' he growled in reply and continued on with his lesson as if nothing had happened.
Ahh school days. But I'll give Mad Dog this, it was him that got me interested in the broader picture of maths. Escher, the history of maths, the oddities. And who could hate the guy that introduced them to the movie Stand and Deliver.

sirploko

In hindsight, this makes total sense. 318 * 3 is 954. But he needs 952. So he multiplied it by 75 and then divided it by 25, which essentially is the same as 318 * 3. The genius bit is recognizing, that he could take of 2 by subtracting the 50 before dividing by 25. It seems so logical, yet I would not have thought of it even if I was given 30 minutes.

Gordon Kerr

4y↑3

Best explanation out of the 40 i read

Lylat-Mobius Adventurer

4y↑1

I’m wondering if anyone has a clip of the numbers game where the target is 400 and 2 of the chosen numbers were 100 and 4 (I can’t remember what the other 4 numbers were)? The funny thing about that part of that particular episode was that Carol Vorderman, at one point during the 30 second countdown, she is seen waving in the bottom left corner of the screen. Then about 10 or so seconds later, she holds up a board where she has written “It’s pathetic, isn’t it?”. I’d love to see that moment again 😂

G-Reacts

Ok let's be honest... Some of you fired up your calculator apps and did 23,800 ÷ 25 - Because Carols lack of confidence gave us the urge to check 😂

moar cowbell

The solution is not that hard but I really appreciate the circuitous way of presenting it. Enhances entertainment value.

Serolan Perrif

10y↑5

What he actually did: He knows that 318 * 3 = 954, which is two too high. He also had the 75, 50, and 25 remaining, 75/25 is needed to get the 3. He realized that if he used the 50 before dividing by 25, he could use that to subtract the two he needed.

Yabba Dabba Doo

4y↑1

Her laugh was better than the show. Multiply this??!! classic.

Crease Mason

How the hell...?
The man's a genius...

Robert Palmer

3y↑7

Imagine if he had a braille calculator in his pocket the whole time.

Kev Planet Earth

All men have a braille calculator in their pockets. Although i've never heard it called that before -_-

Tia Shenai

4y↑1

if anyone is confused why he did it, he needed a 3, because 3*318 is 952, and 75/25 is 3, so times by 75 and dividing by 25 is essentially just multiplying by 3.

BradSkyNoon Gaming

4y↑1

Dude. 3 multiplied by 318 is 954. 3*300=900.......3*10=30.......3*8=24

M B

8y↑6

Ingenious. I think the process he went through to quickly get this is :
(100 + 6) * 3 = 318.
318 * 3 = 954. (This 3 would come from 75/25)
At this point he's looking for a way to get 2 by using 50.
Since he already divided by 25 right before, he can plug -50 just before the division to get -2 overall.
(x*75-50)/25 = x*3-2
Thus 952.