Work out how many balls are in the basket

Task stats

Points

5

Disquals

4

• Without removing any of the balls, Simon attempts to perform cubic multiplication to come up with an answer, and somehow arrives at an estimate of 710. He then tips up the basket, spilling its contents all over the floor, and leaves the mess for Mark to tidy up. After the disqualification of three of his competitors, and Julie's apparent win, it appears that he has miraculously achieved second place. However, after it is revealed that Julie is also disqualified, he becomes the winner of the task, having been the only person to complete it while remaining within the rules.
• Martin instantly tips the contents of the basket out on the floor. He then attempts to count them as he is throwing them back into the basket, but also has Mark helping out, and it seems like there is not much effective communication happening, regarding the running total. He accidentally empties the contents of the smaller basket into the floor while trying to pick it up. With just 1 minute and 20 seconds left, many of the balls remain on the floor, so a frantic rush begins to try to return as many as possible to the basket, with Mark helping out. They fail in this effort, with many dozens of balls left on the floor. Before leaving the room, he estimates that there were 1,502 balls in the basket. Of course, he did not keep to the rules of the task, so is disqualified.
• Eva starts counting the balls into a separate bin, but also has Mark adding balls to the bin, and it's not entirely clear how effective the communication is on the running total. She then appears to get tired of the process, and for some reason suggests blending the balls in the food processor she is using a part of. She attempts to estimate the contents of the smaller basket using cubic multiplication, but neither she nor Mark can manage it. With under 30 seconds left on the clock, she desperately tries to return the remaining balls to the bin, but ends up tipping many of them back out onto the floor. Having failed to get them back before time runs out, Eva leaves the room, but then returns to estimate that there were 1,553 balls in the basket. Of course, she did not keep to the rules of the task, so is disqualified.
• Sebastian begins the task by proclaiming that it will be "easy". He reaches in and extracts the small basket of smaller balls from inside the main basket, and attempts to estimate the number of balls in there by using cubic multiplication. He somehow comes to an estimate of 1,250 balls in total for the main basket, but makes this estimate while many of the balls are still on the floor. Realising his mistake, he starts picking the balls up and returning them to the basket individually, before herding them into one corner of the room using a length of wood. Though this is effective, he still does not manage to return quite all of the balls before the time runs out. Having not kept to the rules of the task, he is disqualified.
• Julie reaches down into the basket and stumbles across the small box, hidden inside the smaller basket within. She empties the contents of the box (a handful of tiny balls) and finds the number 1,598 written inside. With plenty of time remaining, she collects all of the balls that have fallen out of the basket and returns them, and then returns what she thinks is all of the tiny balls to their box, and replaces that. Having made her formal 'guess' of 1,598 balls, it appears that she has clearly won the task, and is led to believe that this is the case, in studio, until Mark 'discovers' a second clip of her attempt on his tablet. This clip reveals that just one of the tiny balls had been left on the floor, and had actually been underneath her foot, before she walked away. Julie is thus also disqualified from the task.