Richardson’s questionable maths

Richardson spots the balloon pump immediately after reading the task brief, and starts to inflate a balloon, albeit quite slowly (which may explain why Richardson is the only contestant for whom the balloon pump does not break).

He counts aloud while inflating and tying two rather large balloons, which he estimates had taken him just under a minute. Richardson extrapolates from this that if he blows up five pairs of balloons, he will have taken up all 10 allotted minutes.

However, Richardson ultimately decides to make his eighth balloon his final one, as he believes that he has reached the nine minute mark (though he’s actually used less than six minutes).

Richardson bemoans the fact that he’s not wearing his normal shoes, which he says generally have Velcro or some other rough material on them, as he believes that they would easily pop the balloons. He initially tries to paper-cut the balloons with the task brief instead but, when this doesn’t work, he resorts to stomping on them.

Richardson’s exact time is not given (other than the fact that was under 10 minutes), but he pops eight balloons, and earns fourth place.

(Written by Jenny R and proofread by Karl Craven)

(Illustrations collected by Jenny R and adjusted by David Fuller)