81–90 of 116 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah yes - that's true in the BBC 4 version of the rules, introduced in 1968. I think most countries use that now. In Australia we play according to the original rule set, hence the misunderstanding.
Presumably you modify the rules to allow lateral shunts though, as per the the 1963 Davison Reformed Numberwang Rule Set (Version 3)?
Huh?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm really interested to know what his process was, since he didn't seem to actually know the product he was subtracting 50 from.
I'd think of the thought process a bit differently than lclarkmichalek, though of course with the same result. To get close to 952, you can quickly think of 106x9. 106 is easy to obtain and you have a 3. You can get another 3 from 75/25. You're now at 954 with only a 50 left. If you could divide by 25, that would give you the 2 you're missing but you already used the 25, unless you were to divide later. So instead of…
He had the numbers 100, 3, 6, 25, 50, 75. 25, 50 and 75 are big and difficult to work with, but 50/25=2 and 75/25=3 are far easier. He could either do it right away, but that gives him either (2 and 75) or (3 and 25) and there's still a large number. (75x ± 50y)/25 on the other hand equals (3x ± 2y) and he's down to nice small numbers.
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Mornington Crescent!
Do HN users outside of the UK get the surreality and humour of this entire conversation? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mornington_Crescent_(game) You can tell it's currently morning in the UK and night-time in the USA.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Mornington Crescent!
Do HN users outside of the UK get the surreality and humour of this entire conversation? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mornington_Crescent_(game) You can tell it's currently morning in the UK and night-time in the USA.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It makes slightly more sense when you understand the context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfa3MHLLSWI
I'm really interested to know what his process was, since he didn't seem to actually know the product he was subtracting 50 from.
He always chooses 4 from the top row, so he always gets 25, 50, 75, 100 and the rest are chosen randomly.
Using them in combination he can always trade 25/50 for a "2", 75/25 for a "3" and 100/25 for a "4" if he needs them to get the answer. Rather than work that out on the fly he just remembers it.
Taking it once step further he can do (75x ± 100)/25 and get 3x ± 4, or (75x ± 50) / 25 and get 3x ± 2 if that would be helpful.
One of the other answers points out that he can go further and multiply that 50 or 100 by any of the random numbers he's given, which would be equivalent to multiplying the ± constant by the same amount though he doesn't use that level of complexity in his answer.
So he's basically building a toolbox of potential moves based on knowing that he'll always get those 4 numbers. He doesn't need to do the full calculation each time.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do HN users outside of the UK get the surreality and humour of this entire conversation? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mornington_Crescent_(game) You can tell it's currently morning in the UK and night-time in the USA.
There is actually a somewhat similar game on National Public Radio. I forget what it's called though...
C:\> TWENTY48 Loading... Ready. You are in a darkened room. On the floor in front of you are sixteen tiles, arranged in a grid. The tiles are labelled A1, A2, A3, A4, B1 and so on up to D4. There is a two here, on tile A1. There is a two here, on tile D3. > GET ALL The numbers appear too strongly glued to the tiles. > INVENTORY You have a copy of On Lisp by Paul Graham, a thing your Aunt gave you that you don't know…
And it's evil to use A-D and 1-4 with "up" and "left" commands ... and not telling us which side is labelled with letters and which with numbers.
Makes me wonder what TWENTY EIGHTY-FOUR would look like ;-)