This September, Channel 4 and E4 finally stopped repeats of Friends after showing the comedy since its first broadcast in 1994. This is how the BBC reported it on 2 September: Friends’ end ushers in new comedy on E4 Repeats of US sitcom Friends will end this weekend on E4, making way for new comedy on the digital channel. The last scheduled episode of the hit show, which will be the 2004 series finale, will go out on Sunday at 20:00 BST. Channel 4 will continue to hold the licence to broadcast the show until the end of the month, when it will pass to Comedy Central. The broadcaster said the move was to free up funds for new comedy shows. “We are incredibly proud to have been the home of Friends for so long, but at a point when the channel is undergoing a period of creative renewal it felt like the right time to part company,” Channel 4’s Gill Hay said last February when it first announced it would be dropping the show.

So I know that Friends was broadcast from September 1994 to September 2011 and there were 236 episodes made. I wonder roughly how many times each episode was shown on either Channel 4 or E4?

Did you know that some people think that there’s an episode of Friends showing somewhere in the world right now. It’s been said that an episode is being broadcast somewhere 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Do you think that’s possible?

Friends Description Prompts and probing questions Extension This resource is aimed at developing an understanding of estimation, stating assumptions and problem solving. Prompts and probing questions The PowerPoint offers two problems. The first is less complex than the second. In the first problem, students are given information about the number of episodes of Friends that have been made and the length of time over which it has been shown and then are asked to estimate how many times each episode might have been shown on Channel 4 and E4. The second problem introduces more variables and asks the students to make more assumptions. There are facts that they are likely to need to know when approaching the problem that are not given to them on the PowerPoint, so asking what information they need to start to answer the question might be your starting point. If you’d like to scaffold their approach a little more, you could let them know that: Friends is broadcast in more than 100 countries the average episode is 22 minutes long, with commercials allowing it to fill a 30-minute time slot there are 40 land-based time zones around the world. Other questions to ask about this situation might include: What information do you need to solve the problem? How would you find it out? What information can’t you know? How will you make sure your estimate is accurate? What assumptions are you making? Extension After the students have offered a solution to the problem, ask them to explain how likely they think it is that an episode is being shown right now somewhere in the world? What variables would they need to change to be certain? Assessment If you use the APP model of assessment then the areas to assess could include: Solve word problems and investigations from a range of contexts (using and applying mathematics level 5) Solve problems and carry through substantial tasks by breaking them into smaller, more manageable tasks… give solutions to an appropriate degree of accuracy (using and applying mathematics level 6).