Puzzles with numbers and things

[elvaago]

I went for something, but I withdraw the answer for now.

[April madness]

is the break with free ball allowed, d_g?

[davis_greatest]

is the break with free ball allowed, d_g?

No, sorry April That's why it says "ignoring free balls"

Just 15 reds with colours, and then the 6 colours.

[April madness]

Sorry, the free balls rule just escaped my eyes

Congratulations with turning pink, DG!

[davis_greatest]

Thanks April. Pink at last! My life's ambition realised!

[davis_greatest]

I am changing the scoring, to encourage people to post before the deadline, and to assist people to build on the work of others! So now...

- 1 point will be awarded to everyone who puts up a bid (and explains how to achieve it) that is higher than all the bids put up previously. So points can be awarded to several people (but only one point per person)

- an additional point will be awarded to the person who has the highest bid at the final deadline of 23:00 on 24 November (so that person will score 2 points for the round)


Example:

Charlie bids 100 (and explains how) ----> 1 point to Charlie
Gordon bids 101 (and explains how) ----> 1 point to Gordon
Oliver bids 130 (and explains how) ----> 1 point to Oliver
Charlie bids 140 (and explains how) ----> no further points, as Charlie already has one
Oliver bids 200 (and explains how) ----> no further points, as Oliver already has one

Deadline passes...

Oliver was highest, so gets a 2nd point

[snookersfun]

shall I explain then?

[davis_greatest]

shall I explain then?

Yes please. Whoever is the first to put up any bid at all and explain how (provided it is correct) will be guaranteed a point. Can't say easier than that!

[snookersfun]

oh, good, didn't want to give all my knowledge away, w.o. the point 100% sure:

Here it is and I really hope all pots are valid:
For simplicity I just leave the reds out between the colours and count them here: 15 reds-15 points
all the following 15 colours go into the respective coloured pockets, thus each counts twice:
the sequence, I chose is:
1)black-14
2)green-6
3)blue-10
4)pink-12
5)yellow-4
6)brown-8
7)black-14
8)green-6
9)blue-10
10)pink-12
11)yellow-4
12)brown-8
13)black-14
14)green-6
15)blue-10
these are 138 points
now for the last 6 colours
yellow into green pocket-2
green into yellow pocket-3
brown into green pocket-4
blue into blue pocket-10
pink into green pocket-6
black into black pocket-14
an additional 39 points

all in all 138+39+15 = 192 points

and now go Semih!
(after checking me of course...)

[davis_greatest]

Looks OK to me! So snookersfun is in there opening the bidding at 192 ... but can it be beaten?

1 point so far to snookersfun

[davis_greatest]

I did a quick computer program on Excel to pot random balls into random pockets (following the rules of the game). I didn't make it go through all the possibilities (there are a lot of them) but I think I set it to have 50 million goes. The highest break it came up with was 169. So it has already been beaten! (Maybe I'll set it for 50 billion goes next...)

[snookersfun]

I did a quick computer program on Excel to pot random balls into random pockets (following the rules of the game). I didn't make it go through all the possibilities (there are a lot of them) but I think I set it to have 50 million goes. The highest break it came up with was 169. So it has already been beaten! (Maybe I'll set it for 50 billion goes next...)

the triumph of human intelligence over excel

[davis_greatest]

the triumph of human intelligence over excel

Hehe! Of course, I can also use Excel to calculate the optimal solution, rather than just making it pot balls randomly lots of times and seeing which one gives the highest break.

[snookersfun]

...I wanted to add 'while it lasts'
If you would do that, would you have the steps as well? Anyway, why don't you?

[davis_greatest]

...I wanted to add 'while it lasts'
If you would do that, would you have the steps as well? Anyway, why don't you?

Yes, of course I would have the steps. It's just a case of finding the time. I'm a bit rusty so I think to figure out the optimal solution might take me the best part of an hour. Writing the program to pot balls randomly, according to the rules, was much quicker.