Highest 'ones' wins
A car game my wife taught me during a family field trip.
On our way to Pangasinan for an outing trip, my wife got bored and brought this up. Perhaps to keep me awake. I like puzzles. She and her dad used to do this on their roadtrips in her childhood. It's basically an "I spy" variety, but with basic maths.
Here's how it works:
- Spot a plate number of a car on the road (or a parked one).
- Read out the numbers.
- Mentally compute if the ones place is 9, if not state the next highest ones digit.
Rules:
- You can't use the same number twice.
- You can re-arrange the order of the numbers.
- You can use any of the basic operations. No PEMDAS. (Pfff!)
- No scratch papers.
- Using calculators for verification only.
Example:
- 347 (9)
3 x 4 + 7 = 19
So the highest value of the ones place is 9.
Another example:
- 6699 (9)
6 + 9 + 6 x 9 = 69; or
6 / 6 + 9 + 9 = 19
Both statements share the same score.
More examples:
- 311 (5)
3 + 1 + 1 = 5
- 4040 (8)
4 + 4 + 0 + 0 = 8 (winner, because ones value is closest to 9)
4 x 4 + 0 + 0 = 16
I never thought it could be mentally challenging while driving. The use of exponents would make the game way easier. But my wife tells me that it's against the rules. So no. (Boo!)
As long as it keeps me awake on the road, I'm fine with it.