University Challenge - Audience gasp at answer 2/4/18

[keeleyg]

Remarkable. Even if he had instantly closed his eyes and put his head in his hand to process this, it would have been impressive to get there in such a short time, but he was actually conferring with his team-mates, meaning he was going through the rows in his head while discussing. Hats off...

[_MSD_]

Those gasps were SO loud, they burst my eardrums and now I'M DEAF.

[christopherpalmer]

I didn't understand the question never mind the answer!

[mysteryman]

Here is the easiest calculation method I know of:
start with 1 (to get 1)
divide by 1, multiply by 6 (to get 6)
divide by 2, multiply by 5 (to get 15)
divide by 3, multiply by 4 (to get 20).
At every step, the number you divide by increases by 1, whilst the multiplier decreases by 1.
You continue as long as you are dividing by a smaller number than you are multiplying by.
You then reverse the sequence to get the remaining numbers (in this case, to get 15, 6, 1).
Hence the answer is 1, 6, 15, 20, 15, 6, 1.
This method works for any row; for example, for the subsequent row, simply multiply by 7 (instead of 6).

[PoisonousPen]

This is seriously impressive.

I can only just spell tryangel 🤷‍♂️

Edit: Tryangull 👍

[mattdaugherty]

“What is your favorite color? Blue….no, wait!”

[csb]

Any old school betting shop manager would reel off Pascal's triangle with ease. It gives the amount of doubles, trebles, 4-folds etc for any amount of selections. His answer was the number of bets in a Lucky 63.

[Karl_with_a_K]

Paxman loves sounding smug while the answers are written in front of him on the card.

[Rufusdos]

I feel good about myself if I can fully understand the question, never mind start formulating an answer!

[ChristopherStendeck]

I was as amazed as everyone else at his answer, but the answer to the third question was the Fibonacci Sequence, which I got and they didn't! Made me feel like a right nerd.

[heronimousbrapson]

Knowing the intricacies of Pascals triangle are all well and good, but will it keep the house clean?

[OriginalRaveParty]

Of course. I forgot to carry the one... and the rest of the answer.

[WhipLashJimmyFrank]

I remember watching that. That was amazing knowledge.

[TehSeanRadcliffe]

that wasn't a gasp, let alone the audience gasping, that was the guy in the grey suit, exhaling/laughing in astonishment.

[blipboop]

When doing a binomial expansion, e.g. (x+y)^n, the coefficients of the terms of the result are the nth row of pascals triangle. Anyone who does a lot of maths (especially combinatorics) will have a great deal of it memorised, so it's very unlikely he's actually calculating it on the fly.

[GodOfVictory]

Paxman: 'What's the seventh row of Pascal's triangle?'
Me: <lengthy pause and blank face> 'It's a ring toss game'

[peterbattey]

With maths I've never understood why that kind of question seems important and why the answer seems even more important. How does it help with problems of today? Enlighten me if you can

[paulrispin]

Quite straight forward if you have taught A level maths as long as I have. I can remember this but cant remember names for the life of me!!

[oddities-whatnot]

I was so shit at maths at school, I couldnt even find the classroom number.

[DenkyManner]

A question so unreasonably difficult that when someone answers correctly there's a gasp