THE TRAIN NUMBERS GAME

Since today is "Leap Year Day" (2/29) a day which occurs only once every for years here is a post to do with numbers.. The “The Train Numbers Game” is a game I like to play to test my brain as well as for a little bit of fun when riding on the train. Perhaps you’ve heard of it before, but surprisingly when I try and play this game with people on the train many are oblivious to such a game existing, hence my blog post. I’d just like to mention that I did not make this game up so I don’t know who to give credit to and secondly this game is basically playable anywhere where you can see a set of four numbers.

The aim of the game is to get to the number ten using the four numbers given in the carriage number.

Rules:
- Each digit must be used
- Each digit can only be used once
- You must not have any spare numbers left over
- You may only use addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication (Although if you’re good with other operations, feel free use implement them)
- If you wish to square or cube a number (etc.) you must have a two or three (etc.) respectively. The same also applies for square or cube roots. This expends the number.

Most often than not it is possible to get a ten, but there are occasions where it will be impossible to get a ten, especially if there are too many zeros.


Upon playing this game with my two Chinese friends Vivian and Lisa, they were surprised to find out the rules in which I was playing by. According to them, there is a Chinese variation of this game which they used to play back in China. It basically follows the rules except makes these two amendments.

1) In order for the game to start, each of the four digits must be different and there must be no zeros.
2) You must somehow get to the number 24 (Instead of 10)

For example in the picture below, the carriage number is 5928

The solutions for each version are as follows.

Standard Game:
9 – 8 = 1
1 X 2 = 2
2 x 5 = 10

Chinese Version:
9 – 5 = 4
8 – 2 = 6
4 X 6 = 24

For additional fun, the loser may be forced to do a dare or a punishment game etc.

Enjoy the commute~ \(^o^)/