Game of Nine Solution

[basnayakedamien]

You actualy have over 90% chance of winning if you choose the corner first. Against about 50% if you pick the center ;)

When you play against an untrained person the chances for you to win if your start with a corner are close to 99%, like the monthy hall problem, your intuition is wrong =p

[chaitan94]

Awesome...

[Anonymystik]

What an interesting isomorphism between Cross and Knots, magic squares and Nine numbers problems. Thumbs up!

[JAMamation]

please become my A Level maths teacher?

[Triptographix]

Without realizing it could be turned into tic-tac-toe, all I could deduce was that going first and getting the five increases your odds of winning, simply because it's involved in more winning combinations than the other numbers. The potential of each being: 5(4 combos) 8,6,4,2 (3 combos) 9,7,3,1 (2 combos). I should have noticed the magic square though, after enjoying your previous video about them.

[AtheismIsCorrect]

Interesting video. You know, I've heard from many people that atheists cannot enjoy life without God. Clearly this isn't true, especially to you.

[aleksr04]

solid 0 dislikes

[Crashkiller62]

i think another good strategie might be to pick numbers in the middle between 1 and 9 (4,5,6) because you can easylie variate with those. and youve got more possibilitys to add up to 15 :)

[dtrischuk]

I analyzed tic-tac-toe briefly once (I was bored) and found that, while there is no winning strategy, the best first move is the corner. After eliminating symmetries there are 3 possible opening moves: center, corner and edge. Each has 8 possible responses. The center and edge have 4 which allow a win but the corner has 7 which allow a win. You need the 2nd player to make a random 1st move but if they blunder the corner seems best.

[TheLoonwolf]

Perhaps without even knowing it, you've produced an extremely important video here! :)

[TheLoonwolf]

Hehe. But the opponent doesn't know they are playing Noughts And Crosses, so it's much easier to lure them into a trap. It's like "The Quiet War" currently going on, where the enemy succeeds by having their opponent not even aware they are under attack, by using "silent weapons".

[FHomeBrew]

Before 2020, I expect someone to write "book of isomorphic games" with in the preface "inspired by singing banana".

This was pretty awesome :D

[salerio61]

The winning strategy is not to pick the centre if you go first. If you do so the person who goes second can always force a draw.

Pick a corner and if the person going second doesn't pick the centre you will always win

[Tringard]

Randall Monroe created a memorable graphic of the optimum tic-tac-toe strategy. xkcd.com/832/

[IKNOWITSADUMBCOMMENT]

omg

[neogeo328]

Hi James, hearing you talk about cryptography has lead me to read a little bit about it, and I'm interested in reading and learning about it. I've already taken a first year calculus class in university and this year I'm taking discrete math, intermediate calculus (secondo year level) and linear algebra. Any suggestions for reading at my level? I have yet to take a class in number theory.

[TheSuperMagicTaco]

I look up to you i am in honers math in the 7th grade and doing high school mathmaitcs :)

[JvDam]

isn't the best way to start in the corner?

[VidCat23]

Now all I have to do is find the winning strategy of tic-tac-toe o.o

[webmastertool]

if you have been, thanks for liking.

[lebagelboy]

Always love your videos, this one was especially good :)

[TheSaaage]

But that means there isnt winning strategy for this game. Tic-tac-toe is a gams where no one can win if the opponent plays perfectly.

[geeta172]

never called the game knots and crosses....i knew it as 'x and zero'!!

[singingbanana]

@geeta172 I believe it's noughts and crosses in the UK (that's noughts). And tic-tac-toe in the USA.

[gtq838]

@singingbanana I'm assuming your correct about the center number being the best for this game... however picking the center number in a game of Xs and Os would result in stalemate at best and a lose if you are the second to move.

[eneses93]

@geeta172 I've also heard it as sea chess...don't know why anyone would name it that way though :D

[ChikoWhat]

@geeta172 Naughts and crosses. Naught as in nothing, number 0.

[geeta172]

@ChikoWhat yeah....i get that now!!

[VinylCyril]

Please make more of these, they are unbelievably great, involving, and make our brains train and become better :)

[CardMagicianJoeKing]

my tic tac toe strategy is different

i go top centre square, then bottom left or right square, then see what happens

not lost a game in ages

[grande1899]

The game in the link doesn't work correctly. The game ends if there are 2 numbers adding up to 9 as well.

[GammahooX]

@grande1899 What? What exactly doesn't work? (I'm the guy who made it so if there is anything wrong I can fix it :P)

[grande1899]

@GammahooX Never mind I think I was wrong. Good job btw. :)

[Forcewaterx]

I can't believe I actually got this one right!

[Alfaris]

but...tic-tac-toe is impossible to win if your opponent knows what he's doing.

[kid29a]

@Alfaris There is one winning (always) strategy in tic-tac-toe. But if both players use it, the one that starts will win.

Yay I got this one :)

[gmsherry1953]

Was the original War Games movie wrong? I thought there WAS no winning strategy for tic-tac-toe; I thought that if it's properly played, it's always a draw. Wikipedia agrees, and also agrees that the corner is the best starting position (which is NOT what I've always heard).

[singingbanana]

@gmsherry1953 Well I said 'ideally' you want to be able create two winning lines. But yeah, noughts and crosses is a bit of a stalemate game. The computer I'm typing on now is actually called Joshua. I named it after the computer in Wargames. Learn Joshua! Learn!

[roddy0]

@gmsherry1953 Regarding the corner strategy, it is only better by virtue of being more obscure, the better to catch an opponent off guard. In any case, the game is too simple for any strategy to win consistently against an even moderately competent opponent. But it was a nice puzzle nonetheless.

[livedandletdie]

@roddy0 actually against the corner strategy it's impossible to win. Only draws and losses. Unless the person using the corner strategy and not knowing what he does.

[Darkvirtue9]

Ok like I said your a great guy amazing videos I just was starting to think that you might be hard of hearing because you yell. Glad its not true. Sorry it it came off as mean. I appreciate the excitement as well Im thinking maybe the loudness is hard of hearing or alot of coffee or chia hehe. Thanks for the awesome explanations of mismags tricks too i love the math tricks.

[Blackcat008]

silly james, you want a corner, not the center

[singingbanana]

@Blackcat008 D'oh, I think you're right... but you get the point :)

[godlfire]

the best start location in tic tac toe is the corner actually

[hirichardhai]

wow, I just created a matlab function that determines if a square matrix is a magic matrix. WHAT ARE THE ODDS. (due today as well)

[superfluousness321]

Is there an equivalent grid of numbers/ number game for connect 4?

[singingbanana]

@superfluousness321 I don't think it extends to 4. The 4 by 4 magic square has rows, columns and diagonals that add up to 34 - but also a whole bunch of other stuff, which wouldn't make it isomorphic to a connect 4 type game.

[superfluousness321]

That's a really nice way to look at it :)

[johnfloyd3]

you're forgetting diagonals as potential winning lines when you choose 5

[singingbanana]

@johnfloyd3 I mentioned diagonals.

[sun6021023]

This is awesome. What about the math behind Candy Land? Maybe a video on that...?

[Everyvideo123]

brilliant.

[spidy455]

why dont u make this game as an interactive video...

[singingbanana]

@spidy455 Check out the link in the description.

[beno3131]

That's awesome! You never cease to entertain me, sir :)

[Darkvirtue9]

your super nice guy but is there a reason you have to yell in your videos?

[singingbanana]

@Darkvirtue9 Yup. I live next to a building site. This is not a joke, this is the actual reason.

[dirtygurty4]

if thats the case the start in a corner, then choose the opposite corner, then choose one more and you just won the game every time

[LordSaradoc]

@dirtygurty4 No. It's always a draw.

[Xerxes4242]

@LordSaradoc The thing is, people probably don't realise it's equivalent, and might not pick the right numbers to make a block!

[dirtygurty4]

@LordSaradoc haha, guess i did not think that through then

[guppiemagic101]

14th!!!!!

[tjv323]

dammit. I should have known that

[oliethefolie]

That is so clever.

[NotJames1]

Clever

[Mousepad051]

Lmao Mismag822 you're the man! :D Great game to play, btw My. Bananananas (Can never remember how many n's lol)

[Gnomeslayer778]

@Mousepad051 This is one of those names where you can add on a few more N's and it don't matter xD

[123456lvr]

5th



[jayjayspider]

5th :P mismag took my second :|

[mismag822]

Break's over...back to watching contest entries

[mismag822]

3rd

[mismag822]

2nd

[singingbanana]

First!

[Gnomeslayer778]

@singingbanana xD I laughed when I saw this xD a great sense of humor is what keeps us(well, me) coming back! :D Great vids xD