Talk:Numbers round

Dose anybody else remember a time when it was 7 points for getting within 3, and nothing for getting any further away? Or know when the current scoring scheme began?

I don't suppose I could have been imagining it. But then again, Episode 1 appears to have been scored according to the current system. Has anybody actually verified the scores by watching the programme? Still, the system could have changed more than once in Countdown's history. -- Smjg 01:35, 19 September 2007 (BST)

I don't ever recall a difference in the scoring. I've been watching since the programme started, whenever ill or on hols (or skiving) until 1989, and then almost continuously since then. Drawoh 11:11, 19 September 2007 (BST)

I watched the first episode and the scores are correct. The scoring system changed after the pilot episode and, as far as I know, hasn't changed since. Soo 11:41, 19 September 2007 (BST)

As I recall Calendar Countdown (which really need a page tbh) used something daft like 10 for spot on, 7 for within 3, 5 for within 5 and 1 for whoever was closest but outside 5 or something similar. Nebagram 16:56, 19 September 2007 (BST)

Statistical information about the numbers game would be good, this article is not very long anyway so more information could be added, but I'll defer to one of you mathematical genii to do it. Mglovesfun 11:23, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

No negative numbers?

Is that actually stated in the rules now? I don't remember it from when I was on the programme.

But whether negative numbers are allowed doesn't make any difference to the solvability of a numbers game – since the target is always positive and under the restrictions of the allowed operations, any solution using a negative number can be rewritten not to. So why do they bother forbidding contestants to make a solution sound more interesting by saying, for example, "2 − 7 is −5, and take it away" instead of "+ 7 − 2"? — Stewart (talk) 16:39, 6 December 2011 (UTC)