A puzzle

[thatbloke]

So last inght I was extremely bored and was flicking through the TV channels (I have freeview) and ended up on one of those programs where you phone in for a particular fee and if you get selected you can go on air to win a shedload of money if you get the answer to their little puzzle right...

Well for this particular one I realised that you could enter on teh web for free so I kept trying on the web and (once) actually managed to get through to the studio! Got it wrong though... If I had got ti right I would have gotten £40,000!

Here's the puzzle exactly as it appeared on TV:

Eight times ten minus thirty plus sixteen

With the instructions simply being "Add all the numbers."

No-one actually got it and I stayed up to find out the answer... the answer given is in the spoiler box below... see if you can get figure out how to get it! (as I can't and they didn't show HOW on this program, just the answer...)

Spoiler

The answer is 2549

 

[Twisto]

I've stared at this for ten bloody mins now, and I cant get more than 2429. Arrgg.

 

[DocBot]

Those instructions are stupid. And the "correct answer" is a prime number.

 

[Devil_Incarnate]

All the quiz shows have those sums with "Add all the numbers" afterwards. It's a scam where they come up with some really calculation then present it in a way where everyone goes "i can do that!". The add the numbers bit in itself makes a lot of people think that they can just add up all the numbers mentioned and get the right answer. I've never seen someone get one of them right despite staying up all night with one of my old housemates (well, I was half asleep due to alcohol consumption but he was determined to see if he was right or not!).