0:12

Welcome to a Problem Square,

0:14

the problem-solving podcast, which is

0:16

a lot like surfing, in

0:18

that it's fun, relatively

0:20

balanced, but ultimately pointless. Your

0:22

hosts are comedian and YouTubeer

0:24

Matt Parker, who, like a

0:27

surfer, can be found both in

0:29

real life and online, and me,

0:31

another comedian and less of a

0:33

YouTubeer, Beck Hill, who, also

0:35

like a surfer, gets bored and enjoys

0:37

waves. You do, for the

0:39

listeners, Beck is waving. And

0:41

she's visibly enjoying the process.

0:44

So I'm enjoying it so much.

0:46

Do you like my my my play

0:48

on words with gets bored? Board I

0:50

got. What was mine? Was it

0:52

online? You can be found in real

0:55

life and online. And surfers

0:57

are online? An internet surfer.

0:59

A web surfer. Oh, an internet

1:01

surfer. Oh my goodness. I didn't

1:03

realize. I've forgotten we were

1:05

on the information super highway. Is

1:08

it a sea? It's very, is

1:10

it a web? It's very

1:12

confusing. I thought you were going to

1:14

like, like a tube on a

1:16

wave. YouTube or something. Yeah, yeah.

1:18

Intubular. That's what you are. We're

1:21

all tubular. That's what I

1:23

should have said. On this blessed

1:25

day, we are all tubular. Anyway,

1:28

on this episode. I'm going to

1:30

ride an alphabetically precise world

1:32

tour. I'm going to get

1:35

a black belt in recycling.

1:37

Oh. And we've got any

1:39

other. breakness like a

1:41

surfing break. Oh nice. Yeah,

1:43

it's not good, but it

1:45

happened. Yeah, I'm proud of

1:48

you. Thank you. Matt, how are

1:50

you? Good. Good. This

1:52

episode goes out on the last

1:54

day of March. So happy

1:57

end of March to

1:59

everyone. who sail within you.

2:01

Yeah, what a month? March

2:03

is always a good month.

2:05

Partly because halfway through is

2:07

a pie day. It's full

2:09

of penguins. March of the

2:12

penguins would be a great

2:14

horror film where it's just

2:16

a month where everything gets

2:18

like a run by penguins.

2:20

Everything's penguins. You open a

2:22

cup of penguins for a

2:24

month. Yeah. You

2:26

hug your kids, they're penguins. Oh,

2:28

I ruined the ending. Sorry, sorry,

2:31

that's... But you could go to

2:33

Antarctica and repopulate it with penguins,

2:35

you know. But if you touch

2:37

a penguin and you've got the

2:39

penguin touch. So listeners at home,

2:41

we're recording remote because you're still

2:43

in Australia and I'm in the

2:45

UK. Which means we're going to

2:47

attribute any mismatch, like any awkward

2:50

pauses to just the lag on

2:52

the internet. In reality, it's just,

2:54

I think we're both running a

2:56

little slower than normal. What are

2:58

you doing? I'm firing an all

3:00

cylinders today, and if it doesn't

3:02

come across that way, well, I

3:04

blame the editor and producer of

3:07

this episode, Laura Grimshaw. I know.

3:09

I know. Armstrong Carter's off. Armstrong

3:11

Carter's off. Yeah. John Carter's got

3:13

other things to do. We had

3:15

to get someone with the most

3:17

similar first name we could find.

3:19

Yes, we want to make it

3:21

as confusing as possible. Laura, why

3:23

can't you have a normal name

3:26

like Matt or Beck? Yeah, real

3:28

unique names. Actually that would be

3:30

even more confusing. Don't keep Laura,

3:32

I like Laura. We had Pi

3:34

Day, I'm trying to talk about

3:36

Pi Day. I don't actually care

3:38

about March. Other than the fact

3:40

that it's the third month, which

3:43

gives us the three in Pi,

3:45

I'd filmed the Pi Day video

3:47

like last July because it involved

3:49

getting myself the good Steve mold

3:51

of Steve mold fame. Grant Sanderson

3:53

of three blue one brown fame.

3:55

and myself all to Cambridge to

3:57

do an experiment to calculate pie.

3:59

And I'd like to share a

4:02

single fact with you. So, you've

4:04

got a... block that can slide

4:06

around on the ground like a

4:08

block of wood like a block

4:10

of wood block of ice or

4:12

a block of ice if you're

4:14

a penguin or a penguin let's

4:16

do it with penguins okay let's

4:18

use penguins okay you've got you've

4:21

got a penguin that's on the

4:23

ice facing a cliff but like

4:25

the bottom of the top is

4:27

at the bottom it's facing a

4:29

wall of ice you then I

4:31

don't know how it's gonna face

4:33

the cliff it's at the cliff

4:35

it's at the top and this

4:38

is lying down on its front.

4:40

Okay, it's sideways. It's orthogonal to

4:42

the direction of cliff. But a

4:44

cliff is a bad way. It's

4:46

a wall. It's the wall of

4:48

ice next to it. You have

4:50

a second penguin which you slide

4:52

towards the first penguin as if

4:54

you were like curling that kind

4:57

of an action. Yeah. Or I'm

4:59

like one of those old saloon

5:01

bartenders and I'm... You sliding a

5:03

drink down the bar. Exactly like

5:05

that. Exactly like that. So you're

5:07

sliding another penguin, please. You're sliding

5:09

the penguin down the bar, right?

5:11

And it hits the stationary penguin.

5:14

And the two penguins have the

5:16

same mass. So when the moving

5:18

penguin slammed into the stationary penguin,

5:20

it transfers all of its momentum

5:22

to the other penguin and the

5:24

other penguin slides off, but the

5:26

first one stopped. Yep. It's a

5:28

bit like a Newton's Cradle's Cradle.

5:30

Now, you've now transferred the momentum

5:33

from penguin one to penguin two,

5:35

and that was one penguin collision.

5:37

The other penguin that's now in

5:39

motion hits the wall and bounces

5:41

back. So that's now our second

5:43

collision. It's now sliding back towards

5:45

the first penguin slams into it

5:47

and sends it coming back towards

5:49

you. Okay. And that process of

5:52

an object, another object knocking it

5:54

bounces off a wall that comes

5:56

back and then knocks the first

5:58

one again. Very straightforward bit of

6:00

mechanics. Three collisions. And what blows

6:02

my mind is that the three

6:04

in those three collisions is the

6:06

same three as the beginning of

6:09

pie. Like it's not just a

6:11

coincidence that they're both three. It's

6:13

not, oh, pie is about three,

6:15

and that takes three collisions, which

6:17

is normally the case, like three

6:19

little pigs and pie, both three,

6:21

but for totally unrelated reasons. The

6:23

three collisions is the first digit

6:25

of pie. Okay. If you had

6:28

a much bigger penguin that you

6:30

slid in towards a small one.

6:32

Emperor? Like an Emperor penguin. Towards

6:34

a fairy penguin. Into a fairy

6:36

penguin? Into a fairy penguin. Yep.

6:38

It would hit the fairy penguin,

6:40

but there's no way the fairy

6:42

penguins big enough to stop the

6:44

Emperor penguin with one collision. The

6:47

Emperor penguin is going to just

6:49

jet the fairy penguin off in

6:51

front, but then continue to slide

6:53

just a little slower. energy in

6:55

it. Yeah, still got most of

6:57

its energy. It's only passed a

6:59

little bit onto the other penguin.

7:01

So when the little penguin comes

7:04

back, yes it's coming quite fast,

7:06

but it's not going to be

7:08

able to like, and also the

7:10

other penguins still moving towards it,

7:12

so there's a bit of like,

7:14

it then does a negative thing

7:16

before it goes the other way.

7:18

Is that right? Yep. Your intuition

7:20

is spot on. So it will

7:23

take more power to get it

7:25

back to its original collision spot.

7:27

and then it will continue. But

7:29

what's going to happen now is

7:31

the small penguin is basically going

7:33

to bounce backwards and forwards between

7:35

the wall and the big penguin,

7:37

and then pushing it back in

7:40

the other direction. Sure, okay. And

7:42

if you count the number of

7:44

collisions that would take, if the

7:46

penguins mass, if the big ones

7:48

are 100 times heavier, it would

7:50

take 31 collisions and the 31

7:52

of the three and one from

7:54

beginning of pie. Yeah. And if

7:56

the big penguin was 10,000 times

7:59

heavier, it would take 314 bounces

8:01

to turn it around. What? And

8:03

then if it was... It's ridiculous.

8:05

It shouldn't. It shouldn't be. Mathematicians,

8:07

mate. Some evil Antarctic explorer. Yes.

8:09

Now I'm not going to lie.

8:11

The original... So many penguins died

8:13

to find this. Didn't involve penguins.

8:15

What? Do you know what, though?

8:18

I reckon you have held my

8:20

attention way more than you would

8:22

have if you'd used any other

8:24

thing. For some reason, the ridiculousness

8:26

of it being penguins. really helped

8:28

me to understand this concept. Thank

8:30

you, penguins. That was my pie

8:32

day. So we used an air

8:35

table, like an air hockey table.

8:37

We made the, not the mistake,

8:39

but in the video, just everyone's

8:41

on the same page. My mate

8:43

Hugh Hunt, who has this air

8:45

table in his engineering lab up

8:47

in Cambridge, uses it to do

8:49

like kind of physics demos and

8:51

stuff. So we used to explain

8:54

what it was. We're just like,

8:56

oh, it's and Friday night parties.

8:58

You put your drink down, it

9:00

just coastss away. It's amazing. It's

9:02

amazing. Yeah. Yeah. But we explain

9:04

what it is. Oh, lots of

9:06

holes, air, things float, and we

9:08

put some disks in the phone

9:10

on it and button them around.

9:13

And then half the comments are,

9:15

I don't think people in England

9:17

have air hockey tables. They seem

9:19

so startled by the concept. And

9:21

I'm like, we were just... Oh,

9:23

it's just fun. It's fun. And

9:25

yeah. I don't care how many

9:27

times you played air hockey. You

9:30

put your phone down on the

9:32

table and it just starts spinning

9:34

and moving and moving away from.

9:36

But did you make the mistake

9:38

of not once mentioning air hockey

9:40

while using a large, essentially air

9:42

hockey table? Correct. We were moving.

9:44

Right. Yeah, that is a bit

9:46

of an error. Like pucks a

9:49

row. I should have just shouted

9:51

air hockey at the table at

9:53

one point. And let me guess,

9:55

that video is going to do

9:57

really well because so many people

9:59

have got a reason to comment.

10:01

Lots of engagement. Yep. It's like

10:03

I did a video about a

10:06

card game that I've never played,

10:08

which some people call Begga My

10:10

Neighour My Neighour My Neighbour My

10:12

Neighbour My Neighbour My Neighbour My

10:14

Neighbour My Neighbour My Neighbour My

10:16

Neighbour. But it turns out everyone

10:18

has a different name they call

10:20

this card game and the comments

10:22

under that video the engagements off

10:25

the charts because it's just people,

10:27

they want to yell whatever their

10:29

family called that game into the

10:31

comment section, which is terrible content

10:33

of a good engagement. Speaking of

10:35

terrible content over a good engagement.

10:37

No, I've been well, I've finished

10:39

my Adelaide Fringe run. Oh, how

10:41

to go? First run of a

10:44

show since 2019. Wow. Yeah. I

10:46

didn't really call it a show.

10:48

Because I was like, this is

10:50

an hour of stuff. Back on

10:52

a stage. Yeah, but it has

10:54

legs and it ended up surprisingly

10:56

finding its own sort of narrative

10:58

in the process of me. Oh

11:01

nice. Playing with it. So it

11:03

still needs a bit of work,

11:05

but it's got legs. And yeah,

11:07

it was a big learning curve.

11:09

but I'm feeling positive about taking

11:11

it. I'm going to be doing

11:13

it at various festivals and things

11:15

back in the UK Macfest and

11:17

I'll probably do a couple London

11:20

dates and then I'll do Edinburgh

11:22

Fringe. If anyone wants to come

11:24

along. But I had some of

11:26

my problem square listeners come along.

11:28

Oh, that's adorable. Yeah, so yeah,

11:30

thank you to those of you

11:32

who... stuck around afterwards each night

11:34

to say hello I could always

11:37

tell the problem square listeners and

11:39

I mean this in the best

11:41

possible way like well you better

11:43

land this sentence real gently I

11:45

know no I mean it like

11:47

there is a an engagement and

11:49

there's certain jokes in the show

11:51

that only worked with specific people

11:53

and I was like you're my

11:56

people in the show I Do

11:58

my James Bond talk, the one

12:00

that I wrote originally for an

12:02

evening of unnecessary detail? It's great.

12:04

I love it. It's found its

12:06

audience, Matt. Like I was very

12:08

happy with it. It was a

12:10

very good bit looking for an

12:12

audience. And there's a bit in

12:15

it where I say that Q,

12:17

the character Q, is his name

12:19

is short for Q, like the

12:21

letter Q, the letter T, and

12:23

then the pie symbol. Oh nice.

12:25

This is a projector by the

12:27

way. This is all on a

12:29

projector by the way. If anyone's

12:32

like, what? How are you doing

12:34

this? Yeah. So whenever the QT

12:36

little pie symbol would come up,

12:38

there'd be like three people in

12:40

the audience who'd be like instantly

12:42

go, yay. And then I would

12:44

point it out and explain it.

12:46

And then the rest of the

12:48

audience would be like, oh, yeah,

12:51

I see that. But in my

12:53

head I was like, there are

12:55

a problem squared. And I was

12:57

like, I was like, I was

12:59

like, I was like, I was

13:01

like, like, like, like, like, like,

13:03

like, like, like, like, like, like,

13:05

like, each night and we did

13:07

I did notice we had someone

13:10

right in to our proposing page

13:12

and pick solution and they just

13:14

because to give feedback they said

13:16

some very nice things so thank

13:18

you very much for coming along

13:20

they said they weren't able to

13:22

stick around and say hello but

13:24

to say I got your message

13:27

and thank you for letting me

13:29

know it was really kind because

13:31

it was a tough it was

13:33

it was a big learning curve

13:35

and it was really nice to

13:37

get nice feedback from folks. Do

13:39

you, are your tickets for the

13:41

end of a fringe, or are

13:43

you on sale? Uh, not yet,

13:46

no. Okay. They will be soon.

13:48

Are yours? They are there. Oh,

13:50

what a segue. That's not why

13:52

I brought it up, but now

13:54

we're here. Everyone, please buy tickets

13:56

to see my show. And Bex,

13:58

when, when there's a link, we'll

14:00

put my link in the show

14:03

description. I'm at 630 in Appleton

14:05

Tower. Which is still in the

14:07

TV square, that little area, right

14:09

near the pleasant stone. And you're

14:11

in the courtyard, so no one

14:13

can make both shows on the

14:15

same night. You're going to have

14:17

to do two different nights. I

14:19

would just say, come for more

14:22

than one night. Come for more

14:24

than one night. That's a good

14:26

point. Our first problem is from

14:28

Theo. We went to the problem

14:30

posing page, chose problem in the

14:32

drop-down, and said, is there an

14:34

alphabetically perfect travel route? By that

14:36

I mean a route through 26

14:38

different countries, as in like 26

14:41

letters of the alphabet, where every

14:43

letter appears at least once in

14:45

the country's names. in alphabetical order.

14:47

So basically the alphabet game for

14:49

country names. I don't think it

14:51

would be possible to limit it

14:53

to starting letters, no country starting

14:55

with the letter X, for example,

14:58

or to visit each country only

15:00

once. However, I do think that

15:02

the use of airplanes would make

15:04

it quite trivial, so the next

15:06

country always must be a direct

15:08

neighbor. Oh, I like that, that

15:10

rule. Before you go into this,

15:12

Matt. Alphabet game. The alphabet game.

15:14

Normally the alphabet game is, we're

15:17

starting with the letters of the

15:19

app, you're going in alphabetical order,

15:21

is that right? Well, I, when

15:23

I heard alphabet game, it was,

15:25

you know when you're a child

15:27

in the car, or you might

15:29

be someone who has children in

15:31

a car, and you have to

15:33

entertain people in the car, and

15:36

so my parents would say, can

15:38

you spot license plates? So each

15:40

one's got the next letter in

15:42

the alphabet. So we would all

15:44

be scouring for a license plate

15:46

with an A in it. And

15:48

then once we found one, we're

15:50

all scouring for another license plate

15:53

with a B in it. And

15:55

then we work our way up

15:57

from there. That's fun. And so

15:59

that doesn't have to be the

16:01

lead letter. It just has to

16:03

be in the plate somewhere. But

16:05

you've got a different alphabet game.

16:07

Yeah, I think in the one

16:09

that my, well, as a comic,

16:12

I've been in a lot of

16:14

cars with other comedians. which is

16:16

like being in a car where

16:18

children. Identical. Except one of them's

16:20

driving. the way that I've played

16:22

it is where you're just naming,

16:24

like thinking of things, but mine's

16:26

always like rude words, so it's

16:29

like, ass, and then bum, and

16:31

so forth. Beck. Yes. And then

16:33

you lap the alphabet and you

16:35

carry on, but you're not allowed

16:37

to repeat until someone can't think

16:39

of one. If that's the version

16:41

I'm remembering. Yeah, correct. So this

16:43

one is just, you've got to

16:45

travel through countries such that the

16:48

first country you're in has an

16:50

A somewhere in the name. So

16:52

you start in India. That's got

16:54

an A. Correct. Okay. India. Great

16:56

start. You can go to Bhutan.

16:58

That's got a B. Stars for

17:00

the B. Excellent. Then China. There's

17:02

your C. These are all geographically

17:04

next to one another. Yes. So

17:07

the rules. So yeah I think

17:09

this is what because otherwise it

17:11

feels a bit too easy I

17:13

think. You're just naming countries that

17:15

have letters and... I know. And

17:17

Theo correctly says you can't fly

17:19

because you could just fly between...

17:21

the countries that have the letters

17:24

you need. So the constraint is

17:26

you have to cross a physical

17:28

border to go from one country

17:30

to the next, and the next

17:32

one has the next letter. But

17:34

they do say you're allowed to

17:36

repeat countries. So once you're in

17:38

China and now you need a

17:40

D, you can come back to

17:43

India to get the D. So

17:45

that's. We're not playing that game

17:47

back. So now this means a

17:49

lot of countries will never be

17:51

part of this game. So you're

17:53

never going to use Australia because

17:55

you've got a fly to get

17:57

there. So it really limits it

18:00

to a bunch of countries with

18:02

land borders. And once you start

18:04

on one land mass, you can't

18:06

get to another one. So I'm

18:08

pretty sure it's got to be

18:10

the kind of Eurasia Africa landmass.

18:12

Yeah, I think you're right. So

18:14

I went to the Wikipedia page.

18:16

you did? Yeah, you went to

18:19

Wikipedia. You looked at list of

18:21

countries. You then wrote some questionable

18:23

Python codes. Beck. And then you

18:25

told it to search through all

18:27

the countries for, well, actually, you

18:29

know, you've got to think of

18:31

neighbouring ones. That's someone. Yeah. So

18:33

you're going to need a more

18:35

comprehensive list, I imagine. Countries that

18:38

are next to each other. You're

18:40

going to need wikipedia.org/wiki slash list

18:42

of countries and territories by number

18:44

of land borders. Great. Yep. And

18:46

each one in the list tells

18:48

you all the countries they share

18:50

a land border with. So you're

18:52

100% correct. Rather Gates found the

18:55

list on Wikipedia. And then, as

18:57

always, took me a little while

18:59

to... copy the data out of

19:01

the Wikipedia table and convert it

19:03

into a form that I could

19:05

put into Python. So I just

19:07

had to massage the data for

19:09

a little bit to get it

19:11

looking nice and tidy. And I

19:14

converted it all into links. So

19:16

I have an ordered pair. They

19:18

don't need to be ordered. I've

19:20

kind of double counted them all.

19:22

But I've got every country and

19:24

then paired up with every other

19:26

country you can go to. So

19:28

there's a big list of 669.

19:30

Where there's a border between them.

19:33

If it was me, I would

19:35

basically draw a map where it's

19:37

like, but not a map, like

19:39

I would, where all the borders

19:41

were the names of the countries,

19:43

and then... Yep. And then go,

19:45

do... The computer, fix this. Okay,

19:47

I was up, I was with

19:50

you until then. And I

19:52

found 163 countries by my account

19:54

that share a land border with

19:57

another country. And then put them

19:59

all. Yep, put them all into

20:01

some terrible Python code. Set it

20:03

going and it can't be done.

20:06

So, oh, real short, a short

20:08

one this time. Here's your problem.

20:10

You can't do Q. Oh, okay,

20:13

so apparently there are six countries

20:15

that contain the letter Q. Oh,

20:17

what are they? Equatorial Guinea. Oh,

20:20

nice. Yeah. Iraq? Oh yeah, Iraq

20:22

is a good one. That came

20:24

up a lot when I was

20:27

trying to find a way around

20:29

the Q problem. Martinique, Mozambique, Qatar,

20:31

St. Pierre and Michelon. It's not

20:34

useful for many reasons, one of

20:36

which it's a territory. Secondly, it's

20:38

an archipelago. It's a bunch of

20:41

islands, which is not useful for

20:43

driving. So, it's out. So, what

20:45

I've just quickly done is I've

20:48

just knocked a little bit of

20:50

extra code together. to give us

20:52

all the countries that have a

20:55

Q in them, and then check

20:57

if they're bordered by any countries

20:59

that have a P in them.

21:02

Because you have to get into

21:04

that country from a P move,

21:06

and there are none. So according

21:09

to my code, there are no

21:11

Q countries that you can get

21:13

to from a P country. So

21:16

that kind of game over. Sorry,

21:18

P countries. I then just thought,

21:20

well, what if you just ignore

21:23

Q? Because I put all the

21:25

code together, discovered it can't be

21:27

done. You want to use it?

21:29

I was like, fine, fine, fine.

21:32

Ignor Q. We'll deal with that

21:34

later. And then you get all

21:36

the way to V. And then

21:39

you stop. So you can't get

21:41

from a V country to a

21:43

W country is the moral of

21:46

that story. Right. So what you're

21:48

telling me, Matt, Matt, Parker, is

21:50

that quite often I will look

21:53

through the problems that we get

21:55

sent. And... I will try and

21:57

answer several of them and I'll

22:00

see how far I get. And

22:02

I'll think, would this make for

22:04

an interesting answer? Is this a

22:07

problem that lots of people have

22:09

or have asked? Right, yes, yes,

22:11

okay. These are interesting criteria. There's

22:14

good content versus engagement. I don't

22:16

understand how any of this is

22:18

relevant to what I'm doing. And

22:21

then if I hit a dead

22:23

end real quickly, I move on

22:25

and I try a different problem.

22:28

curious. Are you saying there's a

22:30

there's a moral to your story

22:32

that I should be drawing? I

22:35

looked at the questions that we

22:37

had been sent in and I

22:39

remember seeing this one and look

22:42

no offense Theo I'm sure you're

22:44

a perfectly lovely person but I

22:46

remember thinking two things. One, I

22:49

do not care for this question.

22:51

It is not a question I've

22:53

ever asked. It is not a

22:55

problem that I have. It is

22:58

not a problem that I have.

23:00

It is not a problem that

23:02

I have. It is not a

23:05

problem. I would potentially have, but

23:07

that is also someone who has,

23:09

who finds, no, you know, he

23:12

doesn't know how to write Python

23:14

code, right? So it's also because

23:16

trying to answer it is a

23:19

bit annoying. I'm happy to answer

23:21

problems that I don't have if

23:23

I feel like I have the

23:26

wits and the ability to solve

23:28

them. Understood. The second thing I

23:30

thought was, a pet mat chooses

23:33

this and you. Thank you. I'm

23:35

not going to lie. The problem

23:37

you're solving next, I looked at

23:40

that on the list and I

23:42

was like, Beck's going to choose

23:44

that. I'm not even going to

23:47

bother. First of all, want to

23:49

just deal with a message that

23:51

producer Laura has put in the

23:54

chat. Oh, she's pointed out if

23:56

instead of Iran, you got Islamic

23:58

Republic of Iran, that would get

24:01

you your P, next to Iraq.

24:03

So. Here's what I'm going to

24:05

very quickly do is I'm going

24:08

to take that and I'm going

24:10

to edit my code to swap.

24:12

Iran for Islamic Republic of Iran.

24:14

Give me one second. Replace all.

24:17

I regret that already. Okay. All

24:19

right. I hate replace all. It

24:21

makes me so nervous. Okay, you're

24:24

ready. We're going in. Nah, still

24:26

stops at P. So you probably

24:28

can't get to Iran from... Is

24:31

there a country that's got an

24:33

O in it to get you

24:35

there? I mean, what's hilarious about

24:38

this is I just never actually

24:40

look at a map. I'm just

24:42

running it on the code. Whereas

24:45

if I just looked at a

24:47

map, I'll be like, oh yeah,

24:49

that's not why it doesn't work.

24:52

Yeah, I wonder if I just

24:54

looked at a map now, if

24:56

I could just find a path.

24:59

Oh, if you started looking at

25:01

a map, when I started knocking

25:03

the code together, you definitely would

25:06

have finished first. Yeah. 100% You're

25:08

right. I saw this problem coming

25:10

from Theo. And I was like,

25:13

you know what, if the data

25:15

is easily available for borders, I

25:17

reckon it wouldn't take much to

25:20

write the code for that. And

25:22

I was right. So I found

25:24

the list of all the borders,

25:27

didn't take that long to get

25:29

it in the right form, wrote

25:31

the code, found it couldn't be

25:34

done. But then I was taking

25:36

it personally. I was like, well,

25:38

how close can you get? Like

25:40

how many constraints do you have

25:43

to relax to be able to

25:45

achieve the journey? So first of

25:47

all, Q is... So I was

25:50

like, you know what, I'm going

25:52

to take Q out. Q was

25:54

gone. Forget Q for now, we're

25:57

moving on. You can then get

25:59

past the end of the alphabet

26:01

if you change the order of

26:04

the end of the alphabet. Okay.

26:06

So if instead of going T,

26:08

so you get all this, like

26:11

P, forget Q, RST, T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z, you

26:13

go T-W- a VZYX. A minor

26:15

shuffle. Yeah. You can achieve that.

26:18

So now it is possible to

26:20

do all the letters of the

26:22

alphabet, almost in order, but you've

26:25

just got to shuffle the last

26:27

couple to make it possible. And

26:29

it's the one that I started

26:32

before. You start in either China

26:34

or India to get your A.

26:36

From either one you go to

26:39

Bhutan from Bhutan you're China then

26:41

you're India Nepal back in People's

26:43

Republic of China for F Then

26:46

you can either go to Afghanistan

26:48

and then where can you go

26:50

next back to China you go

26:53

to China you go to China

26:55

a just means you get a

26:57

little letters Yeah, and you've got

27:00

a few choices along the way.

27:02

There's not one strict path you

27:04

can kind of bounce in and

27:06

out, maybe I'll draw a diagram.

27:09

You basically bounce around the India-China

27:11

region for a while, then you

27:13

come through Russia, Turkey, Romania way,

27:16

then you bounce around Ukraine, Slovakia

27:18

for a bit, and then you

27:20

end up coming through Germany, Austria,

27:23

Italy, Switzerland towards the very end.

27:25

And then you close it out

27:27

through Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany,

27:30

Luxembourg. And that's ZYX at the

27:32

very end there. And so it's

27:34

one path, but just with a

27:37

few choices along the way of

27:39

exactly how you get from each

27:41

bit to the next bit. It

27:44

does go through Turkey, and Turkey

27:46

borders Iraq. So... if you don't

27:48

mind shuffling around the end of

27:51

the alphabet a tad, and you

27:53

accept it. get the cue totally

27:55

out of order when you're in

27:58

Turkey you just step into Iraq

28:00

briefly which I appreciate from a

28:02

geopolitical point of view that sentence

28:05

is probably a lot harder to

28:07

achieve than I've made it sound

28:09

then you get the whole alphabet

28:12

so I think what I tried

28:14

to answer for Theo is you

28:16

can't do the whole alphabet but

28:19

those are the minimum concessions you'll

28:21

have to make as far as

28:23

I can work out. to be

28:25

able to do the whole alphabet

28:28

traveling around the world. Well, well,

28:30

you may have noticed someone very

28:32

quiet while you were talking, and

28:35

yes, I was taking in every

28:37

detail. You know how much I

28:39

enjoy. Oh, I know, I know.

28:42

You're famously good at listening to

28:44

one thing while doing something else.

28:46

I also know that you can

28:49

tell as soon as I get

28:51

that look in my eyes that

28:53

I am. It's the same look

28:56

I get when I'm trying to

28:58

come up with alphabetical letters for

29:00

rude words. So I'm looking at

29:03

a map of the continent of

29:05

Africa and having quite a lot

29:07

of fun trying to find countries

29:10

next to each other and like

29:12

you get like to you know

29:14

I or Jay or whatever and

29:17

then like a bum I've got

29:19

to go back to it again.

29:21

It's really fun. I recommend this

29:24

especially for anyone like me who

29:26

can get very hyper fixated on

29:28

certain things. This is a great

29:31

time waster. If you are looking

29:33

for a potentially impossible challenge, yes,

29:35

provably impossible challenge, well, look, if

29:38

you're gonna get creative and move

29:40

around the alphabet and certain countries

29:42

and stuff, no comment. I'm gonna,

29:45

I'm gonna, I'm gonna say like,

29:47

oh, my, my car is like,

29:49

uh, Jake Bond's one, they can

29:51

drive slightly underwater for a little

29:54

bit, but only this far. It's

29:57

a good point. Maybe we

29:59

add in that you can

30:02

get more. multiple letters from

30:04

the same visit that would

30:06

be an option yeah so

30:08

I mean I don't I

30:11

don't think I can't think

30:13

I can give you a

30:15

ding for that Matt that's

30:17

fair enough yeah but and

30:20

you know what I'm actually

30:22

I'm actually I'm taking away

30:24

I'm taking a ding from

30:26

you because a previous ding

30:29

there's this like a small

30:31

penguin crashing into a large

30:33

penguin moving toward it. I

30:35

didn't know we could lose

30:38

dings. Please put your ding

30:40

on the desk. And the

30:42

other one. There's one of

30:44

my sockholstone. Yeah, because not

30:46

only did you pose a

30:49

problem that I didn't want,

30:51

but now you've done that

30:53

thing. I want to find

30:55

an answer and I know

30:58

I can't. I'm, I mean,

31:00

yeah, this is an even

31:02

bigger problem for one that

31:04

I didn't even know I

31:07

had. So, I'm sorry. You

31:09

both suck. Okay, I don't

31:11

speak on behalf of Theo,

31:13

but we were both hand

31:16

back one ding. Yeah, thank

31:18

you. Thank you. Yeah, now

31:20

I've got double dings, baby.

31:25

Our next problem was sent in by

31:27

First Name Eve, Second Name, a Moticon

31:30

for Smiling. Maybe it's just a smiley

31:32

face, Eve's put after their name. They

31:34

start with the normal formalities, High Beck

31:37

and Matt, Love the Podcast, blah blah

31:39

blah, listen to all driving around Scotland.

31:41

Can I just stop and say, this

31:44

is a lovely formality. They're saying they

31:46

love the podcast, we appreciate that. They've

31:48

been re-listening from the beginning, this is

31:50

a really customer. And while dragging around

31:53

Scotland for work, and we've been keeping

31:55

them company for a whole week of

31:57

what... have otherwise been lonely hours on

32:00

the road. That is not a blah

32:02

blah blah. So that is a, well

32:04

it has been a pleasure keeping you

32:07

company. Very true. I only hope he

32:09

was driving through Scottish towns in alphabetical

32:11

order. Eve problem. A few years ago

32:13

they were at an event where they

32:16

were chosen as a volunteer, oh I'm

32:18

sorry to hear that, and taught how

32:20

to break a plank of wood in

32:23

half in that cool karate chop way.

32:25

Wow. And as a prize for successfully

32:27

doing that, Eve got to keep the

32:30

piece of wood. Now, Eve loved the

32:32

process of learning how to do that.

32:34

And because they got to keep the

32:36

piece of broken wood, they think it's

32:39

very cool, nice momento, and they want

32:41

to hang on to it. However, they

32:43

really want to turn it into something

32:46

they can display in their flat. And

32:48

Eve does not know what to do

32:50

with it. And at the moment, it

32:53

just looks like a broken bit of

32:55

wood, which is not aesthetically anything special.

32:57

So their problem for you, Beck. is

33:00

what can they do to create something

33:02

beautiful to display the broken bit of

33:04

wood, which also lets them see it

33:06

every day to remind them that Eve

33:09

is a total badass who can smash

33:11

through wood with their bare hands. Beck,

33:13

what do you go? I've got several

33:16

answers for you Eve so strap in.

33:18

Great. But can I just say before

33:20

we start? You're right. It's about time.

33:23

We tackled the problems that face... sweeping

33:26

percentages of the populace. So for

33:28

everyone out there, looking at a

33:31

broken bit of wood that you

33:33

cleft in twain with your own

33:35

bare hands, at last. Beck has

33:38

the answer you need. I could

33:40

not move for websites. to cover

33:42

this topic. What to do with

33:45

broken karate boards? Upcycle my karate

33:47

boards? Oh, there's so many of

33:49

them. That's how common this problem.

33:52

Make sure you put them in

33:54

the broken karate board bin. and

33:57

not in with the general rubbish.

33:59

Yeah, that's right. Now, I'm gonna

34:01

give these in order of probably

34:04

most amount of work or investment

34:06

to like actually doable. So I'm

34:08

gonna start by saying, have you

34:11

considered Kinsugi? Yeah, what now? That

34:13

is the. Japanese art of repairing

34:15

broken ceramics with gold. Ah, yeah,

34:18

I've seen these pictures, yeah. Because

34:20

it's quite a lovely sort of

34:23

poetic thing. It's to point out

34:25

the cracks in things and highlight

34:27

them, show that how broken brokenness

34:30

is what makes us beautiful, you

34:32

know, it's the flaws that make

34:34

it. So I'm just saying, maybe

34:37

you repair that board with pure

34:39

molten gold. Which famously plays well

34:41

with wood. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And

34:44

is very affordable. Yes. But I

34:46

know, I like that. I like

34:49

the fact objects embracing their journey.

34:51

Like something was broken, that's now

34:53

part of that object. Yeah, yeah,

34:56

exactly. It's a bit like my,

34:58

this is not a show that

35:00

I did in Adelaide French. I

35:03

was embracing the chaos. That's it.

35:05

Okay. My next suggestion is actually,

35:08

it's a little bit more doable.

35:10

So I was thinking, what about

35:12

a karate chopping board in your

35:15

kitchen? That's excellent. So I've actually

35:17

got links. Well, I tried to

35:19

find some most helpful tutorial links

35:22

for you. So we'll pop these

35:24

in the show notes. But I

35:26

did find a tutorial on how

35:29

to make an epoxy cutting board,

35:31

which is using like bits of,

35:34

they're not broken wood, but bits

35:36

of wood and resin to create

35:38

like a really beautiful shark euchary

35:41

board. So I reckon if you

35:43

could get the two bits of

35:45

wood and then that way if

35:48

you want to make it bigger

35:50

you can just fill in the

35:52

gaps with more resin I guess.

35:55

But I thought maybe that wouldn't

35:57

make a really nice talking piece.

36:00

I like that. I like the

36:02

chopping board idea. That's very funny.

36:04

I've got another tutorial as well

36:07

and not to go harsh on

36:09

this person. They've done a great

36:11

tutorial. I think this is a

36:14

basic guide. I think you could

36:16

probably do it a bit differently

36:18

if you wanted, but they've got

36:21

two kids who do karate. They've

36:23

got several broken karate boards. So

36:26

they have arranged them and some

36:28

of them have painted I think

36:30

a little bit are unpainted But

36:33

they've arranged them with hooks on

36:35

them and put them into the

36:37

walls as a coat rack Ah

36:40

nice got it. I think you

36:42

could call it your right coat

36:44

hook. Oh wow nice like a

36:47

right hook that the word coat

36:49

in the middle. Yeah Okay my

36:52

next suggestion Turn it into one

36:54

of those inspirational signs that you

36:56

get as like home decor, right?

36:59

And I've I've already I've already

37:01

thought of The sayings you could

37:03

have on them. Okay. Yep. Okay.

37:06

What do we talk to me

37:08

until I've had my morning karate

37:11

Love it. I'm inspired. It's five

37:13

a chop somewhere. Okay. Yeah. I

37:15

was going to do live love,

37:18

kick to the face, but I

37:20

prefer yours. Home is where the

37:22

Haito is. Haito is Japanese for

37:25

the, it's the inner part of

37:27

your, palm of your hand, it

37:29

goes like sort of along the

37:32

side of your thumb. Yep. There

37:34

is a word for the side

37:37

that goes along your pinky finger,

37:39

which is actually like that's the

37:41

part like towards the base of

37:44

the palm where you that's the

37:46

part you would use to hit,

37:48

but it doesn't sound like the

37:51

word heart. So I've got the

37:53

opposite side. Come first. Yeah. Home

37:55

is where the high thought is.

37:58

And finally, the real treasure is

38:00

the boards we karate chop barehanded

38:03

as a volunteer at an event

38:05

along the way. Love it. So

38:07

normally when we record in the

38:10

same room, that's more fun. That

38:12

gets always fun to hang it.

38:14

But this is the first time

38:17

I'm glad we're recording remotely because

38:19

Beck has been acting all these

38:21

out. And I feel like it

38:24

would be very dangerous to be

38:26

in the same room. I

38:29

mean waving my arms around a

38:31

lot, this is true. You're losing

38:34

yourself in the character and I

38:36

would worry for my own safety.

38:38

Okay, I've got one final answer

38:40

for Eve. So if you don't

38:42

want an inspirational sign or anything

38:44

like that, I reckon just get

38:46

a sort of a box frame,

38:48

get a box frame and frame

38:50

it. Just frame your two bits

38:52

of wood. Don't, you just sort

38:55

of mount them onto, onto some

38:57

board, put them in a sort

38:59

of deep, deep, deep set frame.

39:01

And it will be a really

39:03

nice talking piece. And I say

39:05

this, because I'm going to send

39:07

you, Matt, an image, we'll pop

39:09

this on socials as well, of

39:11

a piece of art at my

39:13

friend's place in Berlin, okay? Oh,

39:16

so it's a box frame, which

39:18

for anyone who's not sure, a

39:20

box frame is just, it's like

39:22

a picture frame, but you've just

39:24

got a bit more space to

39:26

put something slightly more three-dimensional in

39:28

it. Yeah. And it looks like

39:30

it's got like a normal mat

39:32

you would have kind of around.

39:34

a regular picture frame and inside

39:36

it kind of nailed to the

39:39

backboard is a large black mass.

39:41

It looks like if you burnt

39:43

a cookie and then mistakenly took

39:45

a bite thinking how bad could

39:47

it be you're like awful and

39:49

what's left is it was what

39:51

it looks like at the back

39:53

of the of the board. You're

39:55

very close that. This is much

39:57

bigger than a cookie. Oh,

40:00

okay. I know that there's no,

40:02

there's no banana for scale. You

40:04

can't tell? Yeah. That was a

40:07

pizza. So it is a burnt

40:09

object from an oven. Great. Yeah.

40:11

And this artwork is in my

40:13

friend's flat. It actually belongs to

40:15

her landlord. So when she moved

40:18

in, she was like, oh, that's

40:20

really interesting. What is it? Because

40:22

on first glance, you're kind of

40:24

like... Is it like, because when

40:27

you think it's two-dimensional, you're like,

40:29

oh, is it like the, is

40:31

it a, is it a, the

40:33

moon or something, like is it

40:35

a negative image or something? What

40:38

is it? And Herlanaud explained that

40:40

when he first lived there, he

40:42

got home very late one night

40:44

and was very, very drunk and

40:47

he put on a pizza in

40:49

the, like an oven pizza in

40:51

the oven. and then went to

40:53

bed and woke up with the

40:56

flat filled with smoke, the fire

40:58

alarms going off, the fire service,

41:00

fire department were cold because neighbours

41:02

had noticed smoke and the smell

41:04

and the sirens, the things had

41:07

gone off. Obviously he was fine,

41:09

the flat did not burn down,

41:11

no one was injured, but to

41:13

remind himself to never try cooking

41:16

anything when he's had a few

41:18

drinks. He put this up on

41:20

the wall, so whenever he gets

41:22

home, and he thinks, oh, maybe

41:24

I'll do something. He remembers, no,

41:27

that is a bad idea. Go

41:29

to bed. That's brilliant. Or order

41:31

in at least. So I think

41:33

you could do a similar thing

41:36

like this, except it would be

41:38

far more motivational and inspirational. Yeah,

41:40

people come in, they'd be like,

41:42

oh, what's that? Like, oh, what

41:45

have you done there? And then

41:47

you can explain that as a

41:49

piece of wood that I karate

41:51

chop with my bare hand, because

41:53

I'm a bad mother flipping. total

41:56

bad-ass who can smash through wood

41:58

with their bare hands. Yeah, exactly.

42:00

That's what that's what the piece

42:02

is unofficially called, I think. Yeah,

42:05

I think that's the artist's name.

42:07

Beck, those are some great suggestions.

42:09

I think you've nailed them all.

42:11

Mine was turning into a very

42:13

small shelf. Get some brackets. Shelf

42:16

is found. It's already broken though.

42:18

I don't know how strong it's

42:20

going to be. Yeah, I guess

42:22

if you've got two bits, I

42:25

was imaginingining you'd have them like

42:27

separated slightly separated slightly. with like

42:29

where it's broken is like a

42:31

void in the middle of the

42:33

shelf. Yeah, yeah. And then you

42:36

could make pasta of Paris of

42:38

your own hand. Get those kits.

42:40

And then you have it coming

42:42

out the wall in the center.

42:45

Yeah. Perfect. There it is. And

42:47

have the shelves and slight angle

42:49

so everything that slides off. Yeah.

42:51

Anytime you put something on a

42:54

slide to all the hand. Yeah.

42:56

Or it's just a piece of

42:58

art again. Yeah. No I really

43:00

like it. I mean I've been

43:02

meaning, like I also hang on

43:05

to momentos from things and I've

43:07

been meaning to get better at

43:09

actually displaying or having these things

43:11

out because there's no point keeping

43:14

them if they're going to be

43:16

in a box somewhere. So I've

43:18

been likewise, you know the box

43:20

frames of your friend, you can

43:22

put anything in a box frame,

43:25

looks great. So I really like

43:27

that was a great suggestion. So

43:29

I'm going to take a leaf

43:31

out of your book back and

43:34

I'm going to box frame some

43:36

stuff and put it up. Oh

43:38

nice, either that or put some

43:40

magnets in them. Get rid of

43:43

all your clothes. It's just you

43:45

and the boards now. Whoa gnaw.

43:47

It's time for any other brawness.

43:49

Wow. I'm doing that. I'm doing

43:51

that. That surf. On a telephone.

43:54

Yeah it's like an old telephone

43:56

but then you wave it a

43:58

little bit. It's called

44:00

a shakka sign by the way.

44:02

Yeah, also known as hang loose.

44:05

Hangar is what I'm thinking of.

44:07

Associated with Hawaiian and surf culture.

44:09

According to the Onalulu style bulletin

44:11

prevailing a low prevailing local law

44:13

credits the gesture to Hamanakalee of

44:15

la lay, I think I'm pronouncing

44:17

that right, L-A-I-E, who lost the

44:20

three middle fingers on his right

44:22

hand while working at the cahuku

44:24

sugar sugar mill. Kalee was then

44:26

shifted to guarding the sugar train

44:28

and his all-clear wave of thumb

44:30

and pinky is said to have

44:32

evolved into the Shaka as children

44:35

imitated the gesture. Oh there you

44:37

go. There's several other suggestions. I

44:39

won't go into it because this

44:41

was a problem that no one

44:43

asked. I'm going to do some

44:45

A.O. Venus. Who noticed? that our

44:47

previous episode, the one directly before

44:50

this, episode 105, featured a problem

44:52

from someone named Patrick and we

44:54

released that episode on St. Patrick's

44:56

Day. And they want to know,

44:58

did we plan that or was

45:00

it a happy accident? And there's

45:02

a note here from producer lord

45:05

to say it was deliberate. I

45:07

think that's our official answer. Eh,

45:09

it was back. Well, I don't

45:11

think we, We don't put that

45:13

much, we don't put that much

45:15

planning into it, but we do

45:17

take the credit of everything that

45:20

lines up by accident. And now,

45:22

listener Patrick, is St. Patrick, that's

45:24

how it works. So, yeah, that

45:26

is how it works. Yeah. I

45:28

like to think that this means

45:30

that every time we're released on

45:32

a Saint's Day, we have to

45:35

solve a problem from someone of

45:37

the same name. Can Valentine? Next

45:39

time some Patrick says on a

45:41

Monday send in some questions. We'll

45:43

try and try and solve them.

45:45

Oh if your name's Val and

45:48

the next Valentine's Day is on

45:50

a... on a Monday. And we

45:52

only do every second Monday as

45:54

well, so there's a 50-50 chance

45:56

we hit it. But... One person

45:58

we did hear from was Brendan

46:00

who wrote into the problem posing

46:03

page and selected the solution drop

46:05

down. They said in episode 102

46:07

Matt shared their research showcasing which

46:09

days of the year Saturday Night

46:11

Live has aired on throughout its

46:13

history. They wonder the same days

46:15

of the year. Problem Square has

46:18

aired throughout its history. I figured

46:20

it would be easier just to

46:22

do this generically for any RSS

46:24

feed. It turns out a problem

46:26

square has released episodes on a

46:28

total of 88 out of 366

46:30

days of the year. or around

46:33

24%. That's pretty good. Seems like

46:35

you have a pretty even distribution

46:37

between the months with the most

46:39

populous February and August, having eight

46:41

days, while the least populous, March

46:43

has only six days. You can

46:45

see the working out here with

46:48

a little web application I made

46:50

to visualize this concept. Holy bumhole.

46:52

That's amazing, Brendan. So you put

46:54

an RSS feed in and it

46:56

will then generate it for you.

46:58

That's really nice. Oh, they've used

47:00

us and lateral as the two

47:03

examples on the page. Oh, that's

47:05

a really nice visualization, Brandon. That's

47:07

excellent. Wow. Do you want a

47:09

job, Brandon? Because neither Matt or

47:11

I are good at this. We've

47:13

done one more day since they

47:15

sent this in. Yes, and Patrick's

47:18

day. We got a new one.

47:20

Yeah. This one coming out as

47:22

a repeat. Yeah. Any other Brendan

47:24

I should have called this section.

47:26

That's what you should have called

47:28

it. In an ongoing. category of

47:30

any other business. There's any other

47:33

big thingness. People are still sending

47:35

us in big things that they

47:37

have gone to see. Rocco wanted

47:39

to jump in on the big

47:41

thing discussion because Rocco and their

47:43

partner Andy went to the big

47:46

chair. It's the world's biggest chair

47:48

in southern Spain. Wow. They say

47:50

it was incredible and they would

47:52

love to see more big things

47:54

in the future. That's a great

47:56

thing about big things. things. You

47:58

can see them coming. My favorite

48:01

thing that Rocko says is that

48:03

when they did the detour to

48:05

see the biggest chair, it was

48:07

way bigger than I expected. That's

48:09

my favorite thing. That's what you

48:11

want when you're going to see

48:13

a big thing. You don't want

48:16

to see a big thing and

48:18

go, ugh, is that it? You

48:20

weren't like, oh, this is much

48:22

bigger than I anticipated, yeah. And

48:24

Colin correctly points out. We both

48:26

have discussed big things on this

48:28

podcast and we discussed the pencil

48:31

museum without pointing out the pencil

48:33

museum has a big pencil. Which

48:35

it does. It's a big pencil.

48:37

How big? Like I from memory,

48:39

let's say five meters. That's a

48:41

big pencil. And they made it

48:43

like the way you make a

48:46

normal pencil. And remembering this correctly,

48:48

they used a chain saw to

48:50

sharpen it to give it the

48:52

point on the end. Oh, that's

48:54

so cool. Yeah. So anyway, Colin

48:56

would like on-location back to make

48:58

a visit to Cumbria soon. So

49:01

one of our on-location reporters has

49:03

to get to Cumbria at some

49:05

point. I'll have a word with

49:07

her. I'll see if she's anywhere

49:09

near it this year. We also

49:11

had from Zander, who was the

49:13

problem poser on episode 104. This

49:16

is when we were talking about

49:18

Hannah Fry and wrapping the earth.

49:20

And Zander said... Ding! Thanks for

49:22

looking into the paper wrapping the

49:24

earth problem. You are now officially

49:26

my zero's favorite online mathematician. Oh,

49:29

take it. Yeah, you just did

49:31

a real triumphant. Hands in the

49:33

air. Yeah. Well, I was down

49:35

a ding on this episode, so

49:37

now I'm breaking even. Okay, yeah,

49:39

sure. So listeners and Matt, you're

49:41

both even, even see Stevens again.

49:44

Whoo! Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. On

49:46

the theme of... what size a

49:48

series paper would wrap the earth.

49:50

I said I hadn't gone in

49:52

a minute detail to work out

49:54

if you could get a smaller

49:56

piece to wrap the earth and

49:59

I went up. has done that

50:01

working out. They've worked out you

50:03

could wrap the earth in an

50:05

A negative 50 sheet. And the

50:07

reason I wasn't prepared to commit

50:09

to that, and I went one

50:11

bigger, was because the long edge

50:14

of a A negative 50 is

50:16

just shorter than the circumference of

50:18

the earth. So you can't quite

50:20

get it all the way around.

50:22

They've worked out if you, instead

50:24

of using that long edge. So

50:26

you've got an A4 piece of

50:29

paper. Yep. And there's the long

50:31

edge from there to there. You

50:33

can get a slightly longer line,

50:35

if instead of going all the

50:37

way along the edge, you come

50:39

in slightly and start in the

50:41

corner and then do a diagonal,

50:44

at just like a tiny angle,

50:46

almost following the edge, but in

50:48

slightly, that line is ever so

50:50

slightly longer than the edge. Okay.

50:52

But now you've got less of

50:54

the short edge to use. And

50:56

Hugh worked out, if you come

50:59

in on enough of an angle,

51:01

like point one radiance. you get

51:03

a long enough line to go

51:05

around the earth and you've still

51:07

got enough of the other edge

51:09

to cover the rest of the

51:12

earth. So, Hugh did the clever

51:14

lining up and working it out

51:16

and has confirmed in a negative

51:18

50 sheet would be sufficient to

51:20

wrap the earth. Another practical problem

51:22

solved. Yeah, and in fact I'm

51:24

going to read out the rest

51:27

of what Hugh said because this

51:29

was the part I understood. Oh.

51:31

Which was to make a cylinder

51:33

the regular way by putting the

51:35

two short sides together. So you're

51:37

making a cylinder of the paper.

51:39

Then you slide the short sides

51:42

against each other so that ends

51:44

as a line. Like if you

51:46

were to fold, roll up a

51:48

poster, but then slightly shift out

51:50

the middle part so that it's

51:52

not a perfect roll. It's now

51:54

sort of a, you're getting a

51:57

sort of, it's a cylinder that's

51:59

at a jaunty angle. That's the

52:01

one. And then now that means

52:03

that you can fold the other

52:05

ends to get around the earth.

52:07

Good work, Hugh. Yeah, you. That

52:09

problem, I mean that's a wrap.

52:12

Nice. Speaking of thank yous, slick,

52:14

I want to thank all of

52:16

you for listening. First of all,

52:18

if you if you don't, then

52:20

this is an awkward hassle. I

52:22

mean, then we're basically just paid

52:24

a producer to sit there and

52:27

listen to us talk. That's it.

52:29

But then have the audacity to

52:31

make them edit it for no

52:33

one. We should do that one

52:35

time. And then I was like,

52:37

where are the microphones? And we're

52:39

like, just remember it. Yeah, you

52:42

could just. Dictate this. Just write

52:44

it up later. Dictated but not

52:46

read. So that's a podcast. Thank

52:48

you. Thank you for listening. We

52:50

really appreciate it. And if you

52:52

enjoyed it, please tell anyone else

52:54

you think might enjoy it. We

52:57

want to take over the world,

52:59

but in a nice way, not

53:01

like mask. So we would also

53:03

like to thank people. who give

53:05

us money that allow us to

53:07

pay a producer to listen to

53:10

this and then edit it later,

53:12

so that it's a more enjoyable

53:14

experience for you listening now. And

53:16

we like to thank our patron

53:18

supporters by reading out three of

53:20

them at random and mispronouncing their

53:22

names. On this episode, those three

53:25

patron supporters are... Fred

53:27

Eric Ver ET. Ed

53:29

Bang. Thank you. We

53:32

really mean it. We

53:34

love you. Matt, I

53:37

thank you as well

53:39

for being my surf

53:42

buddy. That's a word,

53:44

isn't it? Your rip

53:47

current. to your sandbar.

53:49

You're the Patrick Swayze

53:52

to my Keanu Reeves.

53:54

Okay, yeah. You're like

53:57

the original one action.

53:59

knows about the stuff

54:02

and I'm undercover.

54:05

That explains a

54:07

lot. Yeah it does,

54:10

it really does. I

54:12

also want to thank

54:14

producer Laura

54:17

Grimshaw who is

54:19

the wax that stops

54:22

the boards from from

54:25

rotting and makes

54:27

them smooth. on the

54:29

water. It keeps us

54:31

afloat. There you go. There I

54:34

came up with it. There it

54:36

is. Yeah. And I think that's

54:38

it. Is that everyone I

54:41

normally think? I think

54:43

it's everyone. And that's

54:45

the same. My mom, my dad,

54:48

my brother, in alphabetical

54:51

order. D-9.

55:09

D-9, miss.

55:11

G-5. Hit. Oh.

55:14

Do I hear

55:17

the sound

55:19

of sinking?

55:23

Nope. Oh. Really?

55:26

Have some

55:30

regrets

55:32

here. If

55:35

I'm hitting like one

55:37

end of like multiple

55:39

parallel park ships, that's

55:42

what you've done haven't

55:44

you? Great great great

55:46

great great.