Wednesday 13 August 2014

The Wednesday Quiz: Boarding House

It's Wednesday Quiz Time.
Our quiz this Week is brought to you by Alethea. Have a cool idea? You too can sponsor the Wednesday Quiz by just dropping us a line and letting us steal it to feed our addiction.
Our current leader for this season of the quiz is John, with 3 points after 500 years of English-language poetry proved to be outside the experience of most readers. I hope this week is more applicable to the fields of endeavour of a greater majority of the Leaflocker readership, as there's still plenty of chances for anyone new to jump in and give him a run for his money. The rules are simple, answer the questions as best you can without referring to Google or any other references; and show your working, as you may be awarded bonus points for effort.


This week, we will attempt to extract any knowledge you've retained from your childhood about old school board games, as well any knowledge you've retained from your childhood about subtraction. To score, simply leave a comment below with the resulting integer. For example: (Maximum Players in Squatter [6])- (People that enjoyed playing Squatter [0]) = 6.
1) (Full complement of players in Chinese Checkers) - (Players in Checkers)
2) (Pawns in Chess) - (Men per side in Backgammon)
3) (Suits in Rummikub) - (Suits in Mah Jong)
4) (Seats in a car in Game of Life) - (Green Properties in Monopoly)
5) (Suspects in Cluedo) - (Criminals in Scotland Yard)
6) (Centres required to win Diplomacy) - (Bonus armies for holding all continents except Asia in Risk)
7) (Hounds in Fox and Hounds) - (Lettuces to eat in Hare & Tortoise)
8) (Categories in Trivial Pursuit) - (Categories in Cranium)
Meta) For a bonus point, take the results of the eight questions in the sequence given and suggest an English language word whose letters would each score the corresponding amount of points in Scrabble. (ie. QUIZ: 10,1,1,10)
And yes, I know, I've brought up some horrible memories by reminding you all of the Game of Life, but in a glimmering moment of hope for the state of the world, let me inform you that if you Google 'Game of Life' all the top hits are for the much more interesting Conway's Game of Life, if you're not familiar with this little gem of a mathematical oddity you should check it out, it brought me much joy and filled many pages of maths books back in the day.

7 comments:

Mark said...

Your sample answer is incorrect. The answer is five, as I love the hell out of Squatter and will throw down at it any time. My stud ram is better than your stud ram, yo.

Alethea said...

Ooh, interesting
ok, here we go
1) 6 - 2 = 4
2) 8 - ? = 0
3) ? - 3 = 2
4) 4 - 3 = 1
5) ? - 1 = 5
6) 13? - ? = 3
7) 3? - ? = -1
8) 6 - ? = 1

Total = 15

My Scrabble word is... SHEATHED
1 + 4 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 4 + 1 + 2 = 15?

John said...

Well, I'll take my lead. Here's this week's attempt:

1) 6 - 2 = 4. At least, I think so.
2) 16 - 10 = 6. Probably wrong, the second is just a guess.
3) 4 - 3 = 1. Total guess on the first.
4) 6 - 3 = 3.
5) 6 - 1 = 5. God damn you, Herr X.
6) 18 - 12 = 6. Total BS answer for part 2.
7) No idea at all.
8) 6 - 5 = 1. Making that second one up.

I'm sadly ineligible for the meta one, but for the sake of the exercise I'll assume that 7 has an answer of zero and go from there.

4 + 6 + 1 + 3 + 5 + 6 + 0 + 1 = 26.

Let's go with quixotic (10,1,1,8,1,1,1,3). At least it's a fun word.

Hans 'Pichy' Stockmann said...

There is a disturbing lack of Rummikub knowledge going on here. Are we classing the honours as their own suits? What about the flowers?

I'll assume it's just 4 - 3 though for simplicity's sake.

1) 6-2 = 4
2) 16 pawns - 30 men = -14
3) 1
4) 6 seats - 3 green = 3
5) 6 in Cluedo (Wadsworth sadly isn't canon) - 1 criminal = 5
6) 18 centres - 17 for continentals and 10 for the possessed territories (30 territories divided by 3) = 18 - 27 = -9
7) 4 hounds - 18 lettuces = -14
8) 6 categories - 4 categories = 2

Michael5000 said...

1) 10 - 12 = -2. Naw, you wouldn't start off going negative, would you? Let's say 15-12=THREE
2) 8 - (2+2+5+3+5) 22? = NEGATIVE FOURTEEN. Cold. Negative six if you're counting all the pawns on the board.
3) "Rummikub"? - ? = ZERO
4) 6? 8? - 3 = ...THREE!
5) some of the new sets have more, you know - 1 = LET'S SAY FIVE
6) punt! NEGATIVE FIFTEEN!
7) punt! TEN!
8) 6 - let's say 4 = TWO

Meta) Can't be done!

Michael5000 said...

Hmm, seems I read "pieces" for "players" on question 1. Punt!

UnwiseOwl said...


1) 6-2 = 4
2) 16 - 15 = 1 (It's a trap!)
3) 4 - 3 = 1 (Yall need to play more rummikub)
4) 6 - 3 = 3
5) 6 - 1 = 5 (We don't talk about the new versions)
6) 18 - 17 1 (I did say only continent bonuses, Pichy, but I'll give you the point for your encyclopedic knowledge)
7) 4 - 3 = 1 (Hare and Tortoise is the most obscure on the list, I'll grant you. But unjustly)
8 6 - 4 = 2

I had "WRECKING", so yeah. I guess the meta thing was a bit hard.

Anyways, Ale gets 4.5, John 6, Pichy 7 and Michael 3. Good work to all!