A Game You Can Always Win

The 100 game was created by the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson -- who you may know for writing Alice In Wonderland under the pen name Lewis Carroll.

Carroll’s Oxford students were amazed. On February 5, 1856 he wrote in his diary: “... the trick of counting alternately up to 100, neither putting on more than 10 to the last number named, astonished them not a little.”

The Universe in a Handkerchief: Lewis Carroll’s Mathematical Recreations, Games, Puzzles, and Word Plays, by Martin Gardiner

The Diaries of Lewis Carroll Volume I

Arithmetical Croquet

***********************************

Vsauce Links

Hosted, Produced, And Edited by Kevin Lieber

Research And Writing by Matthew Tabor

Special Thanks Michael Stevens

VFX By Eric Langlay

Huge Thanks Paula Lieber

[tristanpowell]

I tried this with a friend, and I kept saying "let me explain this to you" and he would say "no, no, I'll win eventually."
Poor guy.

[mrpiforever]

When the teenager is alone in their room:

"I guess I'll just... play with myself."

[dcrafti]

This is basically what's described early on in the book "How to Cheat at Everything".

[diamondmemer]

Me, who can't even win an argument with my shampoo bottles: it's showtime

[Aboredbulborb]

“I’m gonna play with myself”

If I said that my dad would laugh

[Sam-Pound]

How to always win a game:
Step1: play with yourself
Step2:enjoy :D

[lekatamur]

Me: plays with a friend
Friend: begins with 1
Me: *quits*

[Cole_Is_A_Mole]

There is already a game like this called 21 and I thought everyone knew about it.

Whoever says "21" loses and you count by 1, 2 or 3.

The trick is to go 2nd and play every 4th number (4, 8, 12, 16, 20, )
so that your opponent says 21 and loses.

Edit: as long as you can count, you can rid of anyone's suspicions by changing the evil number.

If it was 22, you'd go first and say 1
If it was 23 you'd go first and say 2

[snowoffwhite]

Bold of you to assume I can do math quickly without making it look suspicious

[salmonpancakes]

1:32 "I win every time!"
Yes you will if you keep playing against yourself

[Tatsu]

I thought it was where you took their number and played the “mirrored” number where it starts mirroring from 5-6 so 1 and 10, 2 and 9, 3 and 8, and so on until its 5 and 6

[coolno]

0:22 congratulations, you played yourself

[dailysacrificedoublee]

“Grab a friend”
I’ve already lost…

Edit: The amount of people offering to be my friend is actually wholesome. The amount of people that can relate is depressing.

Edit 2: We should all get together and play Minecraft.

[yaskko]

“I win every time”
Ye that’s bound to happen if you play against yourself

[kinghightech]

everyone:"wow this is cool"
Me:"wow that white board is so cool"

[Thatguy-nhby]

I’m a normal guy.
I see matchsticks with numbers written below them in a thumbnail,
I click.

[szhzs]

here's another game you can win every time:
you: "pick a number"
them: "45"
you: "46, i win"

[tonas]

The number game was introduced to me in a holiday trip. About 11 years ago. In a vehicle filled with strangers, people challenged me this game and I always lose, I was so frustrated that 9 years later, I had enough math knowledge to actually solve the way to always win by myself, which was this way, I was so proud. That's all my comment is, just wanted to share one of my only successful of something.

[frankiev]

“If I separate your moves by 11...I RULE THE WORLD!!! Or at least, this simple number game...gotta start somewhere”
😂😂😂😂😂You sounded so sad😂😂

[MitchelD]

The struggles of writing on a whiteboard left handes.