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  • just give all the contestants heart-attacks why don't ya..

  • Here's how I sorta got to the right answer in about the same amount of time Sam did:

    ~6-8 billion people currently living, plus about 4 births per second = ~400,000 per day = ~1 billion per year.

    Of course the birth rate is constantly increasing, but I know that it couldn't possibly have been this high for 1000 years or more (answers C and D) so only A or B can be the right answer.

    (continued...)

  • @blueapple128

    If the answer is A, the average birth rate must have been the birth rate in 1950.

    If the answer is B, the average birth rate must have been the birth rate in 1900.

    I felt that given all of the time people (Homo sapiens) have existed on earth (~100,000 years IIRC), 1900 sounds more plausible than 1950.

  • Sorry we cant all be Secretaries, after all I have balls! Im sorry you dont try get some.

  • What that include neanderthals ect? I thought be more.

  • @tekNiqueAU You type like a neanderthal.

  • Fantastic answer from the host!

  • Charles Ingram disliked this video.

  • I think after Meredith said, "No, it's not 100 billion", everyone in the audience started covering their ears.

  • So far, a winning question never before had D as a selected winning answer.

  • It's now over 107,000,000,000

  • 3:55!

  • At the start of the book 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke, it says that the answer is 100 billion-- that's how I knew the answer.

  • I thought 50 at first but then switched to 100 billion....sweeeeett

  • id sam win the mil?

  • @Killyaselfdie yeh he did

  • damn, i went for 50!

  • Sam is my cousin :)

    

  • CHRISTOPHER MCDONALD

  • yay for Sam!  i'm in nursing school with him now. :)

  • @dorkrockcorkrod I do look like Biff. :)

  • When I first watched this I got it right.

  • Doesnt he win it all?

  • Wow. He did a really good job of reasoning out the answer. He took how long humans have existed, the birth and death rates, and the life spans into account. Very thorough.

  • I actually feel happy for him :P

  • THat was the easiest question... lmao

  • @EnchancedHuman if you want the easiest million dollar question, check dan blonsky's million dollar question. now that was the easiest question.

  • @locutus442 I think David Goodman's question was the easiest.

  • what would happen with sam had one of the other 7 got their question right? Would he his winnings from his original run back?

  • did he go on to keep the million???

  • @Tonyo1221 Click the video called "You have one million dollars." (Spoiler alert-it's either him or a woman named Jehan who wins.)

  • @sunnygrace57 thank you!! wow, glad he won, that was amazing!!

  • I am actually surprised by how easy the question was, not answer, but question. Stated differently, I knew it was either 50 or 100 Billion because basic common sense ruled out 1 and 5 trillion unless you think humans were around when dinosaurs were roaming the earth's surface. Usually they ask questions where all 4 answers could easily be the answer to a person who is unsure, not two

  • @rmccay88 yeah i had the same thought and observation two

  • Everyone saying "IT'S SO EASY" either guessed it right and think they're all smart, or used irrational thinking, such as "there's 6 billion people on earth multiplied by x years". It's NOT easy.

  • I think her reaction is very rude and unproffesional to make him think at first that he lost. Shame on her!

  • They shoulda made c) 250b and d) 500b

  • @Pkftmfw

    I agree, read my comment below this one.

  • @rmccay88 true dat

  • I woulda said C. But hell, that isn't my specialty lol that's for sure.

  • background uh

  • I guessed 'b' too, I thought I was wrong with her reaction, glad I wasn't,a nd I bet he was even more happy, lol.

  • pfff, it's so damn easy question, omg...

  • Mcfly has nothing on him :P

  • He looks like Tackleberry from the Police Academy movies.

  • There are two pages I found on wikipedia that can help:

    World population (Hoerner's equation)

    and

    Demographic transition

    Of course, here you only get population growth rate variations, you still need to include life expectancy variables in order to figure out the number of human beings having lived and died over time and agree on a date date to begin with (e.g. homo sapiens 30,000 BC). Not that simple.

  • Pause -> Play -> Hold "9" -> "Haha!"

  • oh meredith, you deviant.

  • Mecha03 Get yo ass on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

  • HUUUULK SMASH!!!!!

  • press 7: Just having a funny heart attack

  • GATOOR DOOONNEEE.

  • @dorkrockcorkrod Thank you. People tell me all the time that I look like him. But, I've never been a bully! :)

  • i was about A and B

  • No offense to Sam, but this was by far the easiest question in his tournament. The others were far harder. The only answers that made any sort of sense were B and C, and by reasoning that 6 billion is the current, and thus probably the biggest, population you could arrive at B safely.

    The Blorenge question was the hardest imo.

  • @doppelgangyr The Blorenge question was the only one I knew, lol.

  • @doppelgangyr Yet he knew the answers to the other questions.

  • There has been 4 winners in Russia, 3 in the sycnidated version. Russia's: Igor Saseev: 2001 Irina and Yuri Chalkovich (i cant remember their name): 2003* Svetlana Yalkovskaya: 2006 Timur Budaev: 2010 US sycnidated: Kevin Smith: 2002 Nancy Christy:2003 Sam Muurray: 2009** *Was during Couples Special **Was during the Tournsament of Ten
  • The real factor here is the number of people per household. As the total population increased, families got smaller, and they could get smaller because every family didn't grow its own food to survive. The world population was smaller in the past, but the life expectancy was MUCH shorter, and families had as many children as they could because the child mortality rate was much, much higher. All those babies who didn't live past one count towards this.

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  • @cottonwell If you believe in Adam and Eve, then you are stating that we are all retarded inbreds. No matter which way you think of it incest had to have happened at one point. We should all only have like 3 thumbs and we should be super intelligent. NOT

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  • Comment removed

  • @AndreaRiv100 No one can take you seriously when you can't spell 5 letter words

  • Homo Sapiens have been on Earth for about 13 million years, and their population averaged from 50,000 to 100,000, with the only major increase occuring during recent years (I don't believe the world's population exceeded 1 billion until around the Industrial Revolution), so the current world's population was pretty much irrelevant. Still, kudos to Sam for having the guts to go for it (if he wasn't thinking about the Tournament, he might've gone for his $100K, and onward to the million anyway)!

  • He did a great job of differentiating the order of magnitudes on this. Reasoning questions are the easiest on this show.

    If only they didn't take that clock idea up.

  • This same question came up about 25 years ago on the game show "Card Sharks" with Bob Eubanks. The clip is on youtube somewhere, I don't remember where. This question was the game's "educated guess" question. The answer the show gave at the time was about 67 billion. It is also interesting to note that about the same time frame, Hollywood Squares with John Davidson (A.L.F. was guest host!) asked the question of what they believed was the total global population at that time. 4 Billion.

  • What an easy million dollar question.

  • I took a different approach to this. I decided that the average pair of parents has ~2.2 kids (in the USA its 2.3 I think, but I feel like the US is more fertile), but not all humans wind up mating- so cut it down to 2.1ish. That means each previous generation has 2.0/2.1=~.95 times as many kids as this one. 1+.95+.95^2+.95^3... = 20, 20*6 billion = 120 billion, which is close enough to B.

  • His was far too easy from the others. Look at Jeff Birt's million dollar question. OK

  • LOL, when she said, "You have no life lines," ( 1:30 ) at first I thought she said, "you have no life"

  • I guess the host trying to scare the contestant trick is pretty much a habit amongst many hosts

  • @maanitaman but she shouldn't have done that on the MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION. That's too much money for her to do the "fake out" thing.

  • @sunnygrace57 Well, he was risking only $25,000. Question was too easy. Especially with the choices. 1 trillion and 5 trillion??? WTF. 50 billion seemed too low for today's population.

  • The question is approximate number. Meredith is just making him die xD

  • aww she was just screwing with him when she went in the process of telling him the exact number

  • He's from Philly

  • lol sam murray had such a simple query

  • I really have a hard time believing this estimate of 100 billions. If they count only the people who lived in the last 2000 years, it makes sense. But the question was "ever lived" meaning since humans exist, which is a lot longer than 2000 years. Yeah ok, 2000 years ago, they were not 6 billions like today, but still... they were not only 1 million... Estimate indeed, but bad estimate in my opinion. They should ask question about approved facts, not estimates based on nothing...

  • Those other contestants were cowards. Especially the woman who got that easy question about Andrew Jackson.

  • @ChiSportsNut18 Why do you think no one else risked it? I blame...some punk with a fake mohawk.

  • To all of you who say Sam wasn't a "legitimate" winner-I disagree. He wouldn't have walked away from his original $100,000 question in normal circumstances, but he knew he would qualify for the tournament.

  • @sunnygrace57 Thanks, sunnygrace.

  • I hope Meridith Vierra doesn't do that to me when I get my million-dollar question correct!

  • @johnfals Thats if you ever be a contestant.

  • "Ah what the hell!" I LOVE THAT ATTITUDE!

  • @DSALAMM3 She even did that to Regis on the Tenth Anniversary finale.

  • Thank goodness Sam showed up that Friday.

  • I think almost all the contestants would've won the million, but most backed out.

  • Meredith is evil...

  • Awwwwww! I love how his face just lights up at 4:10

  • that is a really hard question, holy shit.

  • ok did they just do this million question at the end of the show or what?

  • 1. Meredith, you dirty cheater!

    2. If Sam hadn't have gotten his question right, this Tournament of Ten would've been a failure.

  • @viddykiddy18 Actually, Jehan probably would have been the winner because with all the people walking away one by one, Jehan would have been the last one, and she would probably have guessed for that reason.

  • @PlutoTheSecond Actually, she wouldn't have, I'm sure. She would have lost the $225,000 if she missed it. And she didn't seem THAT sure.

  • @bradleyk123 Well, I don't know. I mean, sure she wouldn't have been so willing to risk all that money, but somebody has to win that million dollars, and she's the only one left. And at least she hadn't won $500,000, or she'd have all of that to risk.

  • @PlutoTheSecond OK. So maybe. I guess the world may never know, lol.

  • i would've so gotten that wrong...but on happier terms, tim has nice boxers! yeah, as if i couldn't see them.

  • What happen to the confetti.

  • @1mikie19 He wasn't an official millionaire yet, just the tournament leader.

  • Meredith's smile at 4:17 looks funny.

  • LOL that was a cruel trick but the look on his face was happiness... Good job sir

  • Well Done Sam Murray at 4:08

  • 4:34 Pants on the Ground

  • I hate all the ppl who say its easy to figure out after the fact. There weren't always ~6bil. The population growth was exponential in the past 100yrs. Whoever said 6bil X 21 centuries is an idiot. U forgot about B.C. U neglected the exponential growth in the past 100yrs. U heard the answer then fit in ur "reasoning" to the known correct answer. Classic idiot.

  • @Steberino so true xD

  • It's annoying that my name is Sam Murray, and I didn't get paid a damn thing.

  • He spent just 1:43 on this question, as opposed to Ken Basin who spent 3:27.

  • @milkbon3 There have been 21 centuries A.D, yes, but you forgot to mention B.C.

  • @mecha03 good point but again I said it was a bit illogical lol.

  • @mecha03

    A.D and B.C is a reference to Christ. The world has had much more than 21 centuries plus B.C

  • @mecha03 but there weren't that many people living in B.C.

  • @mecha03 History started to record around 10,000 B.C.

  • @mecha03 i think there is 100 centuries B.c?

  • @mecha03 Technically 20.1 Centuries :p

  • @mecha03 B.C- Before Christ

    A.D- Anno Domini

    right?

  • @mecha03 And 6 billion people were not on the earth that long ago

  • @mecha03 thats back when history over exaggerates numbers, 300 spartan soldiers were probably a big ass army back then.

  • @mecha03

    exactly.

    i was thinking it was either 100 billion to 1 trillion. 50 bills, like he said was too low, and again, like he said... 5 trillion is a way huge number.

    then again, he did pick the logical answer, there's BC, there's time way before Christ and Moses' time, and Earth as we all know is quite old. Also, people expire/die so with that kept in mind, he picked the appropriate answer.

  • @mecha03 So thats like 7900 more years 100 centuries

  • @mecha03 the thing is... 100 years ago the world population was a half of what it is today, and 500 years before it was a half of what was then... and so on. This was an easy question because the answers were very difference between them, but if the numbers were closer to each other, it wouldn't be an easy question

  • @milkbon3 That's also assuming the world population growth rate is linear, and we all know it's not.

  • @PlutoTheSecond Again. I said it was an illogical answer to it.

  • @milkbon3 and taking into account that population growth is exponential: neither constant nor linear

  • @milkbon3 my bro asked me the same question and what i did was 21st and 20th century has 8+5=13billion. and lets say 12th to 19th had an average of 4 then its about 45billion. 1st to 11th may have avg. of 2 to 3 therefore 30 +45=75bil. hence 75 in ad then about 25 in bc so most prolly 100bil. and ur deduction was also cool and nice.

  • @milkbon3 FAIL

  • @milkbon3 you would of got it right because you are stupid and lucky calculate 6 billion times 21 centries.. but you would of won the million too... so whatever humans existed like from more than 50000BC there was a population of ~1 person though they just started to evolve from monkeys, in 8000BC was 6 million and it started going up from that, there has been about 1 billion people born from 50000BC to 8000BC and around 50 billion were born before 1AD so you missed about 50billion in ur calc

  • @milkbon3 but you also think that there are 6 billion people born every century and that people live only for 21 centeries so u just did retarded math and got the answer

  • @milkbon3 That is some seriously flawed reasoning =\

    What about B.C.? What about incremental population expansion? Fluctuations from plague, disease outbreaks, war, etc. 100 Billion through that reasoning is a lucky guess.

  • @milkbon3 if you're a christian the human race has existed for 6000 years, if you believe in evolution you believe that humanoids have been around for a long time and homo sapiens for over 100000 years, all I can say is that there has deffinatly been more than 21 centuries.

  • @milkbon3 and also the human population has sky-rocketed ''recently'' so counting 6 billion per century would be moronic.

  • @Agrikultur same thought in here.

  • @milkbon3 Your argument makes no sense, the population growth has not been constant through the history of the Earth.

  • @milkbon3

    yeah what does 21 centuries in this world mean ROFL

  • @milkbon3

    You do realize that human population grows exponentially, not linearly -.- ?

  • @milkbon3 Your process is incorrect. This question says "ever lived" which means all humans in recorded history, which is significantly longer than 21 centuries. The A.D. century divide is arbitrary and has no bearing on when human civilization began. The only reason your misguided calculation works out is because you're mistakingly assigning the current world's population to every past century's population, which is a huge overshot of an estimate, using two wrongs to make a right.

  • I remember reading this number in Arthur C. Clarke's book, "2001: A Space Odyssey". He uses it to note the fact that there exists a star in our galaxy - just our galaxy alone! - for every one of the 100 billion human beings that has ever lived on planet Earth. Just curious as to whether this same snippet of information popped into anyone else's head when the question was read? I read that book over 40 years ago -- interesting how some things really stick with you.

  • Where's the confetti?

  • Like I said, very weird question, but Sam was able to figure it out and it made him a millionaire!

  • You could have just taken our current 6 billion, and figure in that every 100 years the population halves, so then 3 billion plus the first six, take half of 3 billion and add it to the 9, and so on.

  • @Apologeomasis That only adds up to 12 billion after an infinite number of years.

  • Wow, talk about an obscure question. Very weird!

  • this guy was risking half his winnings; if he got it wrong then he would have lost half of what he won ($50,000 --> $25,000).

  • this format is better for the lower seeds, since they have less to lose if they miss the question. expectation of increased money by guessing is much greater than the higher seeds.

  • @jonleu If there was atleast one $25,000 winner and is qualified for a Tournament of Ten, they would have gone for the million for the hell of it, but sadly that didnt happen

  • I know. If Sam Murray had to risk $225,000, $475,000 or maybe even $75,000, he probably would have walked away.

  • @coldassassin99 Well, maybe, maybe not. He was figuring that it had to be somewhere between 50 billion and 1 trillion, and 100 billion was the only answer that fit the bill. Maybe that would have been sure enough to risk even $475,000.

  • @PlutoTheSecond I would have risked $25,000 on a question like that but definitely not $475,000. You're right maybe or maybe not, but let's just be glad that he won the million and ended the stupid drought.

  • @coldassassin99 Don't be so sure. Yes, risk was 25K, but if you don't take a chance....you never know.

  • yay i knew it i am pro

  • Just run off with the cheque!!!

  • I knew the answer from the way Meredith Vieira read the answer choices.

  • I would've said 50, damn,

    glad I wasn't in his spot :S

  • I thought A but it was obviously not c or d it just depends on how long this survey claims humans has been around

  • "Hold your horses!"

  • That was actually pretty mind boggling pretty hard

    but i knew it

  • Wow. I watch this often just for the inspiration.

  • The curse is broken. 6 years of waiting was over.

  • Actually Bob-O didn't reach the top prize question.

  • True, but technically, he did win a million.

  • No he walked away with a million not 2.5 million

  • this $1 million question was pretty easy.

  • WHAT?! No it wasn't, the challenge of the question was about right for a $1,000,000 question.

    BTW, it is great to finally have another winner!

  • @iyungmasta1

    I thought it was 1 Trillion to be honest.

  • @natedoggcata Me to.

  • This question was much easier than the other ones in the tournament. Just like the $1M questions in the early 2000s.

  • Yeah you're right. One of them was something I knew since 3rd grade. How many miles away from the sun is the Earth? 95 million. Duh. And that was the first Millionaire (not show but winner) that I ever saw lol.