Count Down!

Back in 1997, the UK Personal Computing World magazine ran an article asking readers to come up with solutions to the Countdown TV programme (currently running in the UK on weekdays at 4.30pm on Channel 4), where contestants pit their skills against a mathematical guru to find a way to combine 6 randomly chosen numbers using the 4 basic arithmetical operators to get to another randomly chosen number within 30 seconds. The authors had used a RISC 6000 computers and Reverse Polish Notation.

The Countdown macro is contained in the Countdown.Dot template which you can download below. It solves most cases in less than 1 second - even faster than Carol Vorderman! It will generate random problems or you can input your own. 

It is a good demonstration of the remarkable effectiveness of VBA for MSOffice for solving arithmetical problems.

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