The best game of the last 50 years - Free

Hi lucky owners of iPhone, iPod touch and iPad!
The free version of the NumberWiz app is now available in the App Store. 
Those of you who have watched Countdown on British TV know that this is probably the best maths game ever. You pick six numbers in the range 1 to 10 and the big numbers 25, 50, 75, 100 at random. Then you add, subtract, multiply and divide them to arrive at a result in the range 1 to 999. To succeed in this takes some numerical skills, but above all it takes loads of creativity.
This free version limits the result to the range 150 - 199. That should give you an idea of what the paid version has to offer.
As the headline will tell you, I consider this game to one of the great mind games of our time. The rules are simple as indeed they are in most great games. It's particularly nice to play NumberWiz on an iPad, with the chunky graphics.
====== You've got to try it! ======

NumberWiz example with the Big numbers freely chosen: 888

Hi fellow NumberWizards, I put to you the question: 
How do you add subtract, multiply and divide 6 9 10 51 69 85 to get 888.


Here's a solution:
888 = (85 + 6) * 9 + 69

NumberWiz example with the Big numbers freely chosen

Hi,
Here's a NumberWiz problem, where I've replaced the Big numbers with numbers of my own choice. In this case I've replaced 25, 50, 75 and 100 with 31, 51, 69 and 85. 
And now the problem is:
How do you add, subtract, multiply and divide 6 9 10 51 69 85 to get 888?
Would be nice to see a solution in the comments.


This example illustrates the new feature in NumberWiz v2.0.
You can buy NumberWiz for $1.99 in the App Store and enjoy many more of these problems.

NumberWiz - Free

Hello App Friends,
The free version of NumberWiz is in the App Store approval process. It should be in the App Store within a few days. The important limitation of the free version is that the result is in the interval 150 - 199 instead of 1 - 999.
That's the 3rd App release this week; a new record for Proctele AB.

NumberWiz updated to v2.0

Hi App lovers.
The NumberWiz App for iPhone/iPod touch/iPad has been updated. The new version is v2.0.
The graphics is new and a feature has been added. 
In NumberWiz there are 20 cards with small numbers and 4 cards with big numbers: 1,1,2,2,3,3, ...,10,10 and the big numbers 25,50,75,100. 
The new feature allows you to choose the big numbers freely from the 10 - 100 range. This means you may end up playing with, say 2,4,18,44,67,98 and a result of 456.

NumberWiz sum 564: solution

Hi dear NumberWizards,


Here's a solution to the question of how to add, subtract, multiply and divide 1 2 5 25 50 100 to get 564.


In the comments I tipped that (100 - 2) would be part of the solution, and here's the one I had in mind: 564 = (100 - 2) * 5 + 50 + 25 - 1

NumberWiz sum 658

Hi Numberwizards, let's have another sum:


How do you add, subtract, multiply and divide 2, 5, 25, 50, 75, 100 to get 658 ?


You're very welcome to present a solution in the comments.


NumberWiz is a classic game of arithmetic played on TV-shows in Britain and France for decades. Read more about the NumberWiz app and other Proctele apps for iPhone/iPad/iPod touch at http://proctele.se

NumberWiz sum 739

Dear number wizards, here's a good NumberWiz sum for us:

How do you add, subtract, multiply and divide 2 3 4 7 8 25 to get 739?

I'll be back tomorrow with a solution.

NumberWiz is a great Proctele app for the iPhone, iPod touch and the iPad. 

World leader reactions to NumberWiz release

There have been several reactions to the NumberWiz app release from world leaders. Here are a few of them:

The US president was among the first to react: "NumberWiz is an exceptional gift to mankind, comparable to the works of Newton, Archimedes or Shakespeare. It will have a decisive influence on our national debt. To my fellow Americans, I promise: I will from now on start each meeting with my advisers with a game of NumberWiz, to check that they are at the very top of their mental abilities. God bless America and the NumberWiz app, for which I switched to iPhone."

The German chancellor commented: "Daily use of NumberWiz will become compulsory for every individual in the German government, from the cleaners of government buildings to the ministers of the Bundesländern and the Federal government. This is the only sure way for us to win future World Cups and come to terms with the unemployment in our country."

The Russian president said: "The modernization of Russia demands that the NumberWiz game be given to each and every Russian student. The strategic skills of our Icehockey team and our military leaders will improve massively and our oil production will go straight through the roof. God bless this application!"

The Swedish minister of Finance commented: "The rate of GNP growth in our country will be closely correlated with the sales figures of the NumberWiz application."

The French president's reaction was tempered: "France will be the European country to prosper most from this application. I will use all my influence to make sure the NumberWiz application will gain widest possible acceptance and ownership rate in France. Our nation depends on it. The NumberWiz writer will be awarded the Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur."

The Swiss minister for finances said: "The NumberWiz application is likely to shift the world's center of financial regulation from Basel to Ekeby in Sweden."

The British PM said: "If we'd had this NumberWiz application earlier, Gordon and Tony wouldn't have had the time to get us into this mess. We must draw the right conclusions and be more alert when the next app from Proctele is released."

The Chinese president commented: "Our export will certainly not suffer from the exponential increase in NumberWiz users. On the contrary, he said, smiling!"

The outgoing Brazilian president Lula said: "I'm going to spend the rest of my life playing NumberWiz on my iPad. I just love this game!"

The above text is entirely fictional.

Chuck Norris NumberWiz Facts

Chuck Norris is an expert NumberWiz player. Here's a very condensed summary of what he has achieved so far:

1. Chuck Norris solved the NumberWiz puzzle even before the clocks appeared on screen 2.
2. Chuck Norris once got the NumberWiz app to agree to use the same number twice. Here's an audio recording of what happened: sound.
3. When Chuck Norris once played NumberWiz, he asked the app to show a solution. The app showed a solution which wasn't exact. Chuck Norris's solution WAS exact.
4. Once when Chuck Norris was playing NumberWiz he computed an answer within two seconds. However the app didn't realize the answer was correct. Chuck Norris got so angry he shook his iPhone and very soon the app realized its mistake and said: sound.

NumberWiz examples

NumberWiz can present quite some challenges. 


Here's an example. How do you apply addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to make the number 390 out of the numbers 3 7 8 9 75 100 ?
A solution: (8-3) x 9 x 7 + 75 = 5 x 67 + 75. Creativity certainly helps.


How then do you make the number 640 out of the numbers 6 7 8 9 9 50 ?
One solution is: ((9x9) - (7-6)) x 8 = 80 x 8 = 640. Less difficult than the previous.

NumberWiz is now in App Store

The NumberWiz app was released to the App Store on Friday December 10. 
If you want to exercise your mental arithmetic skills then NumberWiz is certainly for you.
It works as follows: You pick six numbers out of two stacks of cards. One of the stacks contains all the numbers from 1 to 10, two of each. The other stack contains the numbers 25, 50, 75 and 100. The stacks are shuffled, so you can't select what numbers you get. When you've selected the numbers, you press a button and then the app immediately selects a three-digit number. Now it's up to you to use the four arithmetic operators to arrive at the three-digit result.
It's quite a challenge and you decide for how long you're going to try and find an answer. However after 45 seconds you have the option to ask the app for an answer. I usually press that button to check if the app suggests my solution. 
I've played it a lot myself. It helps to practice and there are tricks you can use, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_calculation
There's a help button in the app, which displays a short explanation of the rules.