ITV offers £30,000 for a rather complex puzzle
The British television channel ITV is under investigation for the perculiar British practice of (almost) charging an arm and a leg for telephone phone-in quizes.
The following question was asked:
Add the pence from “Two pounds, 25p, £1.47, 16p, Fifty pence”.
Viewers were then asked to call a premum line number (charged at over £1 per minute) to register their answer. After a while, it was announced the answer was 506, and no-one had won. Anybody want to take a guess at the methodology?
Here in the land of the free, such competitions are almost never charged at a premium rate, a 1-800 number is usually used. In the UK any excuse is used to take money from the poor viewers – a great example are the reality tv shows such as Pop Idol, and Big Brother where the viewers are charged around 50p per vote they cast. Needless to say I never voted whilst watching such shows.
Stuart Said,
March 16, 2007 @ 8:41 am
ITV said the solution was: Two pounds is 200p plus 2p (two p) and 1p (p at the beginning of “poundsâ€) which makes 203p. 25p: 25p plus 5p and 1p (the p symbol) equals 31p. £1.47 equals 147p. 16p: 16p plus 6p and 1p (p again) equals 23p. Fifty pence: 50p plus 50p (fifty p, a shortening of pence), 1p (reference to pence) and 1p (p only) equals 102p.
Adding 203p, 31p, 147p, 23p, and 102p gives 506p.