Fruit Machine Chat

A manned space-flight?

Nope, not related to space. He's talking about an event, or rather a practise that was begun in the 17th century.

is it medicine/basic surgery?

No, the practise was begun by churches.

crop-rotation? no, that's a crap answer.
how about microbrewing?

Nope, it's something they did to the church building itself.

a lightning conductor?

Spot on. Issac Asimov once voiced the opinion that science had truely triumphed over religion in the 17th century when churches started installing lightning conductors. Prior to that they had presumably relied on the goodwill of The Almighty.

Over to you...

okay numbers next:

this was a genuine countdown numbers game which was solved by mental arithmetic in 30 seconds. you have more time and a calculator but it is still tricky:

25, 50, 75, 100, 3, 6
target 952

i am expecting his eminence to relive the glory days here but you won't be getting seven points for 953 because that is easy. this has to be spot on.

Bah!

I'm close. I'm sure it could be achieved trickily, by virtue of one of its multiples.

Either 68 * 14 or 56 * 17.

What about...

50 + 6 = 56
75-25 = 50 / 3 = 17ish = 17

56*17 = 952


(it'll come as no surprise that I would have won my show had it not been for me getting an easy numbers game wrong).

This is driving me mad. So far I've got 100 + 25 - 6 == 119. But I need to make 8 from 25, 75 and 3 to get 119 * 8...

EDIT: Have just cheated (using http://www.crosswordtools.com/numbers-game/) and it's one unholy bastard motherf**ker of a solution. There's no way I would've got it, certainly.

i shudder to think what vord at the board would have to say about "17ish"

but i agree; it is a stinker.

the solution which the guy gave in an ridiculous burst of inspiration was:

100 + 6 = 106

106 x 3 = 318

318 x 75 = 23,850

23,850 - 50 = 23,800

23,800 / 25 = 952

you can see the tale of the tape at http://www.thecountdownpage.com/gotw-001125.htm

so i guess weyland gets it despite using a slightly more sophisticated calculator than most of us have.

Happy New Year , everyone. Long time, no post.Hope you are all well.

harry

unknownpseudonym wrote:so i guess weyland gets it despite using a slightly more sophisticated calculator than most of us have.

No, no. I cheated (and I'm off for a while now anyway ) so I think HE gets it, for at least getting the right answer, even if he had to go into fractions.

You're too kind Weyland.

In fairness though, I could have sat and looked at that for the next of my natural life.

Alright. Sticking with Countdown, why is the Countdown clock a full minute, whenever a round never lasts more than 30 seconds?

p.s. Happy New Year Harry. Thought you'd vanished.