Who is better: Carol Vorderman or Rachel Riley?

[Mark Deeks]

Speaking to Rachel is much more fun than speaking to Gev, let's be honest.

You do need to build up a rapport for when she's your co-host, I suppose, so it's just as well you think that.

About as much chance of me hosting it as you appearing on it.

[Martin Bishop]

I wouldn't recommend discussing politics with Carol, though...

Why on earth not?

She made an embarrassing appearance on Question Time a few years ago. She clearly knew very little beyond what she reads in the Daily Mail and approached every subject with the sort of indignant moral outrage one would expect.

[Gavin Chipper]

Can someone explain the magic in "the product of two primes", Rachel mentions it often and I feel I should know it but I'm afraid it has escaped me. Thanks.

I think it's just that there is a way of getting the target by multiplying 2 smaller numbers, but only one so it's hard to spot.

If someone gets a solution like 17×23 it's quite clever because it doesn't break down any further and it's hard to spot. But unless they're both at least 13, it's not any cleverer than any other solution and not particularly interesting so I'm not sure why she mentions it.

[Jamie Weisenberg]

Carol Vorderman looks better and is smarter.

[Ian Fitzpatrick]

Carol Vorderman looks better and is smarter.

Which day was that?

[Marc Meakin]

Overall I go with Miss V as a person of moral fortitude but Rachel is by far the better mathematician

[Marc Meakin]

Carol Vorderman looks better and is smarter.

On social media for sure

[Jamie Weisenberg]

Hope nobody is offended but .. has anyone ever suspected that Rachel Riley (or even Carol) might be getting fed the solution through an earpiece by the producers ? Surely has to be in some cases.

I find it hard to believe she can get all the tougher ones in 30 secs that the maverick contestants are unable to.

[Gavin Chipper]

Rachel doesn't get all of them and nor did Carol. Sometimes Rachel gets them in the break or not at all.

[Graeme Cole]

Hope nobody is offended but .. has anyone ever suspected that Rachel Riley (or even Carol) might be getting fed the solution through an earpiece by the producers ? Surely has to be in some cases.

I find it hard to believe she can get all the tougher ones in 30 secs that the maverick contestants are unable to.

It won't stop some people suspecting it, but no, she isn't fed solutions through her earpiece. Sometimes she fails to solve rounds which are possible.

When the numbers round is impossible to solve exactly, she is told this, to save her from continuing to work on it during the break. This is why you'll hear her saying something like "two away is the best available". But if an exact solution is possible, she gets no help solving it.

[David Williams]

Graeme, this may belong in a different thread, but years ago you gave figures for how the two of them compared at solving the numbers. As I recall, Rachel was better, but when you broke down Carol's performance by age, Carol in her twenties was very similar to Rachel in her twenties. Now that Rachel's in her thirties, how do they compare?