| Episode | Gallery | Transcript |
| “ | There are many other questions you would find, so say whatever pops into your mind! There are many other mysteries that still remain unknown, what if you thought up some questions of your own? |
” |
— What-iffer |
What If? is the 29th episode of the fifth series of Numberblocks. It is the 119th episode overall.
Synopsis
What if there were a way to explore every possible question? Imagine that! Learn the power of asking questions with the Numberblocks.
Lyrics
What-Iffer: What if you kept on counting forever?
It would earn the admiration of your friends.
You might make it to a million in a fortnight,
but how high could you get if forever never ends?
What if you kept writing zeroes after One?
It’s the same as if you multiply by Ten.
Pretty soon you’ll reach a million again.
What then? What then?
What if you start with a single grain of rice?
Then double it, double it, double it every day?
In a week, you’d have no more than a handful.
In a month, you’d be giving it away!
Four: Stop the rice!
Two: Please stop the rice?
One: What if, the rice stopped?
What-Iffer: Interesting question. Ask me another!
One: What if One could be divided into pieces?
What-Iffer: Smaller parts, like the slices of a cake. You could cut into four or eight or sixteen, but is there any end to the fractions you could make?
Three: What if we tried to build a tower to the moon? Would it take a hundred years to reach the top?
What-Iffer: Though you might not want to think about the drop, don’t stop. Don’t stop!
Two: What if the Numberblocks each had a different name? Like-
Noo (One): Noo!
Fling (Two): Fling!
Clop (Three): Clop!
Flingty-Bun (Twenty-Six): Flingty-Bun!
What-Iffer: The amount you’d have to count would be no different, but you’d have to learn new words for every one!
Noo: Noo!
Fling: Plus Fling!
Clop: Plus Clop! Equals…
Bun! (Six): Bun!
Three: What if Three was the highest you could count to?
What-Iffer: It’s a question that could tie you up in knots. Counting sheep to get to sleep could be quite tricky!
One: One!
Two: Two!
Three: Three!
One - Three: Uh… plenty, many, lots!
Sheep: Baa! [×6]
What-Iffer and Numberblobs: What if the Numberblocks all disappeared one day?
What-Iffer: Would One and Two and Three still equal Six? You could count it using pebbles, blobs, or bricks. Or sticks. Good fix!
What-Iffer and Zero: What if there could be a number less than Zero?
What-Iffer: You could draw it on a line to understand. Or imagine there’s a lift that keeps on going…
Lift: Negative One. Negative Two. Negative Three, Negative Four, Negative Five, Negative Six, Negative Seven, Negative Eight.
What-Iffer: How low could you go under Numberland?
Three: What if everything was yellow?
What-Iffer: What if everything was flat?
Seven: What if Seven found a heptagon and wore it like a hat?
Two: What if One was made of jelly?
One: What if Two was made of cheese?
Five: What if beds were made of bubbles?
Six: What if buses grew on trees?
Ten: What if One was really massive?
One: What if Ten was really small?
Eight: What if Numberland was upside-down?
Nine: Which way would we fall?
One: What if you could spend forever?
Two: In a world that never ends?
Three: On a wonderful adventure?
One - Ten: With your favourite number friends?
What-Iffer: There are many other questions you would find,
so say whatever pops into your mind!
There are many other mysteries that still remain unknown,
what if you thought up some questions of your own?
(all clamoring excitedly)
Characters
- What-Iffer
- Numberblobs
- Zero
- One (Noo)
- Two (Fling)
- Three (Clop)
- Four (Bloo)
- Five (Tam)
- Six (Bun)
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven (cheering only)
- Twelve (cheering only)
- Thirteen (cheering only)
- Fourteen (cheering only)
- Fifteen (cheering only)
- Sixteen (cheering only)
- Seventeen (cheering only)
- Eighteen (cheering only)
- Nineteen (cheering only)
- Twenty (cheering only)
- Twenty-Six (Flingty-Bun)
- Thirty-One (calender cameo)
- Thirty-Two (doesn't speak)
- Sixty-Four (doesn't speak)
- One Hundred (silent, nonphysical)
- One Thousand (silent)
- Ten Thousand (silent)
- One Hundred Thousand (silent)
- One Million (silent)
- Ten Million (silent)
- One Hundred Million (silent)
- One Billion (silent)
Mathematical concepts mentioned
- Infinity - “But how high could you get if forever never ends?"
- Orders of Magnitude - "What if you kept writing zeroes after One?"
- Powers of two - “What if you start with a single grain of rice? Then double it, double it, double it every day? "
- Fractions: - “What if One could be divided into pieces?"
- Years: - "Would it take a hundred years to reach the top?"
- Numerals: - "What if the Numberblocks each had a different name?"
- Languages that only have words for 1-3. (possibly) - "One, two, three, plenty, many, lots!"
- Numeral systems and number bases: in the same scene as above, 4, 5, and 6 are shown as "three-one", "three-two", and "three-three", which is similar to Ternary; or base-3.
- Abstract thinking - “What if the Numberblocks all disappeared one day? Would One and Two and Three still equal Six?"
- Negative Numbers - “What if there could be a number less than Zero?"
Math Magic
- 1 × 10 = 10
- 10 × 10 = 100
- 100 × 10 = 1,000
- 1,000 × 10 = 10,000
- 10,000 × 10 = 100,000
- 100,000 × 10 = 1,000,000
- 1,000,000 × 10 = 10,000,000
- 10,000,000 × 10 = 100,000,000
- 100,000,000 × 10 = 1,000,000,000
- 2 × 1 = 2
- 2 × 2 = 4
- 2 × 4 = 8
- and so on until...
- 1+2+4+8+16+32+64+ = 4294967295
- 1 ÷ 2 = 1/2
- 1/2 ÷ 2 = 1/4
- 1/4 ÷ 2 = 1/8
- and so on until...
- 1/32 ÷ 2 = 1/64
- ◉ + ◫ + △ = ⚅; ◉ = 1, ◫ = 2, △ = 3, ⚅ = 6 (segment only)
- ◉ + ◫ = △; ◉ = 1, ◫ = 2, △ = 3
- 1 + 2 + 3 = 6 (segment, without Numberblocks)
Trivia
- This is the second appearance of the What-Iffer and their latest appearance so far. The first was in Twoland.
- This is also the second appearance of One Thousand, Ten Thousand, One Hundred Thousand, and One Million. The first was One Thousand and One.
- The episode also introduces Ten Million, One Hundred Million, and One Billion.
- This is also the second appearance of One Thousand, Ten Thousand, One Hundred Thousand, and One Million. The first was One Thousand and One.
- Three asks "What if we could build a tower to the moon?", but Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, and Ten had previously built a tower to a different planet in Building Blocks.
- This is the second appearance of the full-month calendar. The first is Figure It Out.
- Oddly, Thirty-One doesn't appear in this episode, though he does make a cameo ON the calendar.
- There are references to Twoland, One Thousand and One, Figure It Out (the calendar), and some other episodes.
- This is the last episode of Series 5 that introduces a math concept since 100 Ways to Leave the Planet is mainly a recap of the show.
- This episode aired 8 years after the Alphablocks episode: Sleep.
- Sixty-Four is a bit bigger in this episode.
- This is the first time a Numberblock reaches the height of 1,000 blocks despite being non-physical.
- This episode ends the longest streak of Numberblocks (starting from Four On The Floor) to introduce a new character every episode, 6 episodes.
- This is the first episode where a Numberblock isn't their usual size. The second being The Case of the Missing Blocks.
- Numberblocks 11-20 can be heard cheering at the end but do not speak, 32, 64, 100, 1,000, and all other orders of magnitude up to 1,000,000,000 also don’t speak in the episode.
- This episode is called Asking Questions on Numberblock’s official YouTube account.
- When the What-Iffer says “What if you started with a single grain of rice, and doubled it, doubled it, doubled it everyday”, it’s a reference to an Indian legend about a little girl who is asked to afford enough rice to feed her town. So she took a single grain of rice, and doubled it every day until she could feed her whole town.
- The placement of twice as much rice on each successive square of the chessboard on Sixty-Four’s back is a reference to a story about a king who asked the inventor of chess to choose a reward as thanks for his invention; the inventor asked the king for one grain of rice for the first square of the chessboard, two for the second square, four for the third square, and so on.
- After One Thousand and One and More to Explore, this is the third episode featuring numbers over 100.
- INNUENDO: One asks what if she was divided into pieces and thinks she'll be sliced in half. It ended up being a cake of herself, making her normal.
Errors
Major errors
- In the scene where Ten Million appears, her pupils are still visible when she closes her eyes.
- When the camera zooms into One Billion’s eye, her Numberling is poorly cropped.
- When grains of rice are placed on Sixty-Four’s back, her blocks are more than twice as large as the others’.
Minor errors
- This episode was mistaken as a multiplication episode on YouTube.
- On YouTube and Prime Video, this is listed as the last episode of Series 5 when looking at the title, but 100 Ways to Leave the Planet is the actual last episode of Series 5.
Subtitle errors
- The subtitles mistaken the Numberblobs as "frogs" at one moment in the episode including Numberfrogs.
- In the Netflix subtitles, when Twenty-Six says "Flingty-Bun", the “Bun” part is misspelled as “Bon” including “Flingty-Bon”.
- Later in the episode, when Six says “Bun!”, the Netflix subtitles misspell it as “Fun!”.
- In the Netflix subtitles, when Seven says "What if Seven found a heptagon and wore it like a hat?", the word "heptagon" is changed to "hexagon".
- This line also happens on BBC iPlayer.
Translation/dubbing errors
- In the Spanish dub, when Four says "Stop the rice!", he does not speak.
Videos
@Numberblocks - Full Episodes - S5 EP30- What If?