c4countdown

Has it been stated that fractions are not allowable in the numbers round?
For example in the last round yesterday (August 25th) the target was 342, from 100,75,50,25,5,1.
Could one have said (75+1)x(5-25/50) ?

You have to work in integers, or at least you did when I was on the show (it says in the rules the contestants get sent before appearing).

Personally I always liked the idea of using fractions, as well as being able to use the numbers as powers, although that could get a bit silly

PeterMabey wrote:Has it been stated that fractions are not allowable in the numbers round?
For example in the last round yesterday (August 25th) the target was 342, from 100,75,50,25,5,1.
Could one have said (75+1)x(5-25/50) ?

The rule is that you can not have negative numbers, decimal numbers, fractions, use numbers as powers etc.

Joseph Bolas wrote:The rule is that you can not have negative numbers

Are you sure about that? Negative numbers would never be useful (unlike fractions and powers) but as far as I know it's not invalid.

Charlie Reams wrote:

Joseph Bolas wrote:The rule is that you can not have negative numbers

Are you sure about that? Negative numbers would never be useful (unlike fractions and powers) but as far as I know it's not invalid.

I know there have been a few times where Carol has explained the numbers games and I'm sure she said that you couldn't have negative numbers, but my memory ain't that good.

There's someone on here with a fresher memory than mine, I suspect, but I have vague memories of reading in the stuff they send you it mentioning negative numbers, but pointing out that it doesn't really matter because you can always just rephrase your solution so that the negative numbers don't come into it.

Negative numbers and fractions are not allowed.

Somebody once tried to be different by dividing 10 by 4 to make 2.5, but it was swiftly disallowed.

I agree with the banning of powers, as the problem is to use the four standard operations, whilst negative numbers can always be avoided by a simple rearrangement.
However, it's likely that some combinations of target and given numbers could only be achieved using fractions - my example didn't use the 100, and though there are several solutions using all six, a different sixth number might not give any.

I thought division was allowed!

Jason Larsen wrote:I thought division was allowed!

Yes Jason division is allowed - as long as it does not result in a fraction.

Would someone please give me an example of division resulting in a fraction?

Jason Larsen wrote:Would someone please give me an example of division resulting in a fraction?

3/4=3/4.

So, Ben, in other words if you say "over" when declaring your solution you probably won't get any points.

Damian E wrote:Negative numbers and fractions are not allowed.

Somebody once tried to be different by dividing 10 by 4 to make 2.5, but it was swiftly disallowed.

One wonders why he would do this if it's made clear in the rules.

Ben Wilson wrote:

Jason Larsen wrote:Would someone please give me an example of division resulting in a fraction?

3/4=3/4.

Brilliant.

If you say anything like, 3 over 4, you probably don't get any points. Do you?

Jason Larsen wrote:If you say anything like, 3 over 4, you probably don't get any points. Do you?

You won't. Obviously if someone says something like "200 * 3 / 4 = 150" then Carol would grill them about whether the 3/4 was in brackets or whether they meant 600/4, but I think the case would ultimately be judged on how quickly they said each bit and where the pasues were.

Gavin Chipper wrote:You won't. Obviously if someone says something like "200 * 3 / 4 = 150" then Carol would grill them about whether the 3/4 was in brackets or whether they meant 600/4, but I think the case would ultimately be judged on how quickly they said each bit and where the pasues were.

I think in that situation, the contestant would most likely say something like 200 x 3 = 600, and then say / 4 = 150.

Carol is one inquisitive one, isn't she?

Jason Larsen wrote:If you say anything like, 3 over 4, you probably don't get any points. Do you?

I think you may be getting confused here, Jason. 3/4 (pronounced 3 over 4 or 3 divided by 4) equals three quarters (or three fourths in USA). It's a handy notation and helps people (although in saying this, the majority of kids nowadays struggle to do 3 divided by 4 and don't realise it's three quarters!). You can not have this because it is a fraction.

Saying 8/4 (pronounced 8 over 4 or 8 divided by 4) is allowed as, even though 8/4 is still a fraction (called an "improper" fraction), the answer is 2 (a whole number and not a fraction, like 3/4).

In short, the word "over" IS allowed - just not if the result ends in a number that is not whole (a "fraction")

You might say that Countdown only allows round naturals, but you should definitely Google that to make sure.

So, if you use fractions in your answer that is not allowed?

Jason Larsen wrote:So, if you use fractions in your answer that is not allowed?

Correct. Remember 8/4 is technically still a fraction but I know what you mean - you are only allowed to deal with whole numbers.

So, in your case, Kirk, it would be, "8 divided by 4."

Jason Larsen wrote:So, in your case, Kirk, it would be, "8 divided by 4."

Yes it would, but you can say that as "8 over 4" and that is fine. "Over" means divide in this context.

So, as long as you don't use a fraction, you get points.

Jason Larsen wrote:If you say anything like, 3 over 4, you probably don't get any points. Do you?

Jason Larsen wrote:So, if you use fractions in your answer that is not allowed?

Jason Larsen wrote:So, as long as you don't use a fraction, you get points.

It doesn't matter how you word your questions, the answer is always going to be the same.

If you are going to divide two numbers in your solution, you have to make sure that when you divide one number by the other (starting with the larger number first), the result is a whole number (eg 8 / 4 = 2). If it doesn't then, it's never going to be allowed (eg 3 / 4 = 0.75 or 4 / 3 = 1.33333...). Also divided by and over mean the same thing.

So you can have fractions if the end result of the division is a whole number, but not if the end result is a decimal.

Thank you, Joseph!

Now, I completely understand that!