Wheel of Fortune 1/2 Car space

[tvwxman]

Just saw a commercial for tonights Wheel...and they have a space on there that looks like the million dollar space, except it says "1/2 Car", surrounded by 2 $500 spokes.

What is that? New? How does it work?

[chad1m]

It's special for the Get out of Town week. Two wedges, each with one-spoke $500 slivers on the side and a "1/2 car" in the middle are on the wheel for the first three rounds. If you collect both wedges throughout the game and solve the puzzle in the round in which you have both of them, you win a $13,000 Hyundai. If someone Bankrupts while holding one of the wedges in rounds one or two, it goes back on the wheel before the next round.

[MSTieScott]

So those really are one-spoke spaces? (I thought that maybe the $500s signified that you'd earn $500 per letter while collecting half a car, or something.) I'm a little surprised -- that's twice the work required to win the old $10,000 prize, with only a slightly larger payoff.

After seeing round one's wheel on Monday night, I wondered -- has the ratio of regular cash wedges to special wedges shifted in favor of the latter yet?

[Kevin Prather]

So those really are one-spoke spaces? (I thought that maybe the $500s signified that you'd earn $500 per letter while collecting half a car, or something.) I'm a little surprised -- that's twice the work required to win the old $10,000 prize, with only a slightly larger payoff.

If my math is right, it's more work than winning the million.

To win the car:
1/72 to capture 1st wedge.
1/72 to capture 2nd wedge.
Solve the puzzle before hitting bankrupt.
Profit.

To win the million:
1/72 to capture the wedge.
Solve the puzzle before hitting bankrupt.
Win the game before hitting bankrupt.
1/24 to capture the million envelope.
Solve the puzzle.
Profit.

So although you have one less puzzle to solve for the car, it's still knocking on the door in terms of difficulty.

[Twentington]

So those really are one-spoke spaces? (I thought that maybe the $500s signified that you'd earn $500 per letter while collecting half a car, or something.) I'm a little surprised -- that's twice the work required to win the old $10,000 prize, with only a slightly larger payoff.

Today's episode confirmed that if you hit the tag part in the middle, you get both $500 per letter and the tag.

Also confirmed today: if a ½ Car tag is lost to Bankrupt, it gets put back on the Wheel in the next round. That rule I like.

[clemon79]

If my math is right, it's more work than winning the million.

I think your math is making a whole lot of assumptions, including trying to quantify things like "going on to win the game".

[chad1m]

After seeing round one's wheel on Monday night, I wondered -- has the ratio of regular cash wedges to special wedges shifted in favor of the latter yet?

If nothing has been taken off of the wheel yet in round three, you could have the following configuration for this special week:

Wild Card / $300 / ½ Car / $900 / Gift Tag / $400 / $550 / One Million Dollars / Mystery / $300 / $500 / $600 / $3500 / Bankrupt / ½ Car / $700 / $450 / $350 / $800 / Lose a Turn / Mystery / Free Play / $600 / Bankrupt

11 out of 24. Almost.

[Kevin Prather]

If my math is right, it's more work than winning the million.

I think your math is making a whole lot of assumptions, including trying to quantify things like "going on to win the game".

Right. You can't quantify several of those things, making it impossible to calculate any exact odds. Still, hitting two 1/72 chances vs. one 1/72 chance and one 1/24 chance, it seems like when all is said and done, the two difficulties are going to be somewhat comparable.

[clemon79]

Right. You can't quantify several of those things, making it impossible to calculate any exact odds. Still, hitting two 1/72 chances vs. one 1/72 chance and one 1/24 chance, it seems like when all is said and done, the two difficulties are going to be somewhat comparable.

Well, as long as we're talking pseudomath, I don't think so, and here's why:

So we've established that the probability of a set of events happening in series is equal to the product of all of the probabilities of the individual events, right? So that means, just using your numbers above, that right now the difference between the two events is a single extra 1 in 3 event.

So let's look at the differences between the two sequences:

• Avoiding Bankrupt for the rest of the show
• Winning the game
• Solving the bonus round puzzle

By definition, winning the game is already a 1 in 3 shot (at *best*) by itself. Which means that even if you assign one of the two other events absolute certainly and the other a 50/50 shot (and I think we agree that those assignments are pretty optimistic), that already makes winning the million *twice* as hard.

[Kevin Prather]

Ok, fair enough. That does make sense.

[TLEberle]

Roughly equivalent to winning the car on Whammy, then?

[MikeK]

Roughly equivalent to winning the car on Whammy, then?

Needing to have both halves of the car?  Of course.  In terms of the hoops and hurdles involved in winning the car, no.  The half-keys were a 1 in 54 shot on Whammy! plus you got it gratis for landing on that square.  Wheel requires you to do more work (successfully calling a letter) to get a smaller payout than that from (good heavens, time flies) almost a decade ago.

OK idea, bad implementation.  If the car was easier to win, like having whole half-car wedges instead of the 1/3 of a wedge sliver, or if the reward was a slightly more expensive car ($20K to $25K, not a high-end vehicle) commensurate with the processes involved to win the car and the likelihood of winning it, the whole idea would leave a better taste in my mouth.

I think I hear Matthew Lesko in my future, saying my, how fun it is to spend other peoples' money...

[Matt Ottinger]

I think I hear Matthew Lesko in my future, saying my, how fun it is to spend other peoples' money...

Nah, I haven't seen it yet, but from the descriptions it does seem like an awful lot of rigamarole for a relatively small reward.

[TLEberle]

Roughly equivalent to winning the car on Whammy, then?

Needing to have both halves of the car?  Of course.  In terms of the hoops and hurdles involved in winning the car, no.  

That would be the "roughly," then. Sounds like this is another one destined for the dustheap out back, along with the double-wide $2,500 space and the Preview Puzzle.

[clemon79]

I think I hear Matthew Lesko in my future, saying my, how fun it is to spend other peoples' money...

Naw, you get no argument from me. Even if the car halves are entire wedges, you're still bucking a 1-in-576 shot of getting both halves, and that's *before* a) calling the correct letter that allows it to be picked up, b) avoiding Bankrupt and c) solving the puzzle.

For a show that regularly gives out $10,000 trips as bonus prizes just 'cuz, that screams "cheap". If Hyundai only had to donate the car in the event that it gets paid out, they're getting a ridiculous bargain here.