Matt Parker and Bec Hill present: A Problem Squared. A podcast dedicated to solving problems of all kinds, such as, "What should I listen to right now?". A Podcast Squared. First one's free. You're welcome.
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101 = Squear Data and The Big Banana (in an Aussie accent)
🔺 What are the most “interesting” years? 🍌 Bec goes big on Big Things 🎉 When Party Tricks Go Wrong 🔢 And there's some numerical AOB Here’s Max-matics’ video that Matt mentioned - Turning a 2024 Ball Pyramid in to a 2025 Ball Square for NYE 2025 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXUlKCIgV8U Some further reading on the 2025 maths https://aperiodical.com/2025/01/numerical-coincidences-for-2025/ It’s a banger - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJS3xnD7Mus Some further reading on BIG THINGS - https://www.spottobooks.com.au/shop/p/bigthings https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/figure/10.1080/14443058.2022.2144928 If you’re on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on the ‘Sup ‘Zards’ pinned post! And if you want (we’re not forcing anyone) to leave us a review, show the podcast to a friend or give us a rating! Please do that. It really helps. Finally, if you want even more from A Problem Squared you can connect with us and other listeners on BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord.
Welcome to A Problem....Suspended!
Hello you wonderful listener, Welcome to a new year. 2025 - has a nice ring to it doesn't it? This is a short announcement to say that there will be a very short feed break - just an episode or two, don't worry - to allow us all rest for the first two weeks of January. Matt will tell you everything you need to know in his very organised PSA. Have a listen. Thank you for your continuted support and understanding. We love you very much. Bec and Matt.
100 = Orchestral Seats and Calculator Beef
To celebrate A Problem Squared’s 100th episode… 🎼 What is the least popular instrument in an orchestra? 🍎 Matt is appalled. 🔮 Another unplanned, unexpected mystery segment! 💼 And the business briefcase is (briefly) open. A big thank you to Katie Steckles for her brilliant contributions to this episode. You can find more from her on her website: https://www.katiesteckles.co.uk/index.html, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/stecks?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor, or on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/katiesteckles. If you’re on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on the ‘Sup ‘Zards’ pinned post! And if you want (we’re not forcing anyone) to leave us a review, show the podcast to a friend or give us a rating! Please do that. It really helps. Finally, if you want even more from A Problem Squared you can connect with us and other listeners on BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord.
099 = Most Watched Films and Homonyms
099 = Most Watched Films and Homonyms ✍️ What single word in the English Language has the most different meanings? 📺 Is the most consumed media of all time a holiday movie or song? 🗞 There’s some Any Other Business! ⚔️ Battleships continues. If you want to find out more about the Royal Flying Doctor Service, do that here: https://www.flyingdoctor.org.au/nswact/visit/broken-hill-visitor-centre/ You can see the full contents of Bec’s new outback first aid kit here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPuwoOtTFV8 If you want to learn more about WordNet (as mentioned in Matt’s problem) follow this link here: https://wordnet.princeton.edu/ If you’d like to see the trailer for what is apparently the most watched film of all time, you can do that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXqjcDchr14 And if you’d like to hear the most streamed song of all time, you can do that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHI8X4OXluQ&ab_channel=TheWeekndVEVO Finally, IF you’re on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer for Bec and Matt, please comment on the ‘Sup ‘Zards’ pinned post! Perhaps you want to leave us a review, show the podcast to a friend or give us a rating? If you’d like to, please do that. It really helps. AND if you want even more from A Problem Squared (and who doesn’t) you can connect with us and other fantastic listeners on BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram, and Discord.
098 = Something Blue and Diamond Birthdays Too
098 = Something Blue and Diamond Birthdays Too 💙What are the most extreme examples of something old, something blue, something borrowed, something new? 💎What’s up with diamond birthdays? 🔥A new special one-time bonus section from Matt. 💼And a look into the business briefcase. For the Diana Spencer Tiara, look no further: https://www.sothebys.com/en/digital-catalogues/power-image-royal-aristocratic-tiaras/the-spencer-tiara-r-s-garrard-1930s Here’s an image of Ezra Jack Keats’ children’s story The Snowy Day: https://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/galleries/childhood/item/11304. Selected from the millions of books that have been checked out of the library since 1895, Ezra Jack Keats’ children’s story The Snowy Day, described as a “charming, beautifully illustrated tale of a child enjoying the simple magic that snow brings to his city,” tops the list. And, perhaps the best suggestion from Bec, the Blue ‘Pantheon’ aka Meteor 3200: https://www.space.com/42236-weird-blue-asteroid-phaethon.html#:~:text=Asteroid%203200%20Phaethon%20is%20a,typical%20for%20comets%20than%20asteroids. Finally, this is the Diamond Birthday Tik Tok trend mentioned in Matt’s dinglett: https://www.tiktok.com/@misshaleymichelle/video/7196331969838566702?lang=en If you’re on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on the ‘Sup ‘Zards’ pinned post! If you want to leave us a review, show the podcast to a friend or give us a rating! Please do that. It really helps. Finally, if you want even more from A Problem Squared you can connect with us and other listeners on BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord.
097 = Number of Maps & Numbered Pads
097 = Number of Maps & Numbered Pads 🗺 Are there enough OS maps to cover Great Britain? 0️⃣ Why does zero come before nine on a mobile phone? 📰 And, of course, some AOB! If you want to see Bec’s friend Amy’s summary of accessibility in Thorpe Park and theme parks more generally, head on over to her instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/longcovidrockstar/ Here is a picture of The Big Tractor: https://amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/oct/08/giant-red-tractor-carnamah-wa-australias-big-things You can watch a brilliant Phone Phreaking Documentary here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FufYSx2_6Bg&ab_channel=RCW39RJ Here’s that Numberphile vid about Phone Buttons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCSzjExvbTQ&ab_channel=Numberphile And the 17 Designs That Bell Almost Used for the Layout of Telephone Buttons: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/08/the-17-designs-that-bell-almost-used-for-the-layout-of-telephone-buttons/279237/ Please send your problems and solutions into the website: www.aproblemsquared.com. If you’re on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on the ‘Sup ‘Zards’ pinned post! And if you want (we’re not forcing anyone) to leave us a review, show the podcast to a friend or give us a rating! Please do that. It really helps. Finally, if you want even more from A Problem Squared you can connect with us and other listeners on Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord.
096 = Movie Pairs and Moving Flares
🎞 Why would competing studios release movies in the same year that have the same concept or plot? 🔭 Why are we seeing the Aurora Borealis in the UK? 📈 Business of an any other nature. If you want to have a listen to Bec on Tom Scott’s podcast ‘Lateral’ you can do that here, at some point soon: https://open.spotify.com/show/1TthQOE4Fx6gBPW8l48cfN Their book can also be brought here! It’s really good: https://lateralcast.com/book/ To see a history of solar flare data going back to 1700, follow this link here: https://www.sidc.be/SILSO/ssngraphics Please send your problems and solutions into the website: www.aproblemsquared.com. If you’re on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on the ‘Sup ‘Zards’ pinned post! And if you want (we’re not forcing anyone) to leave us a review, show the podcast to a friend or give us a rating! Please do that. It really helps. Finally, if you want even more from A Problem Squared you can connect with us and other listeners on Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord.
095 = Friday Fears and Disco Spheres
🍀 Does the 13th really fall more frequently on Friday? 💿 How do you make a giant disco ball wearable? 🍩 And we have some any other doughness. If you want to find out more about the cardboard related event (called Number City!) Matt attended on Orkney Island, have a look at this link: https://oisf.org/fest-event/number-city/. Do send your problems and solutions to the website: www.aproblemsquared.com. If you’re on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on the ‘Sup ‘Zards’ pinned post! And if you like, leave us a review, pass the podcast onto a friend or give us a rating! Every little helps. If you want even more from A Problem Squared, you can find us onTwitter,Instagram, and on Discord.
094 = The First Podcasts and Votes Precast
💿 What did the first ever podcast sound like? 🗳 How do you REALLY lose an election in the US? 📰 Business will be closed, and opened. Thank you to Emily for the Maths mittens! To see pictures of those, head over to APS socials. You can see the incredible Agree to Disagree podcast pages from 1999 here: https://web.archive.org/web/19990914040650/http://www.thealph.com/agree/ https://web.archive.org/web/19991004035401/http://thealph.com/agree/about.shtml There is also a file, but we don’t think it contains any data. Can someone help find an original review? https://web.archive.org/web/19991103231714/http://thealph.com/agree/episodes/6x02.shtml Do send your problems and solutions to the website: www.aproblemsquared.com. If you’re on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on the ‘Sup ‘Zards’ pinned post! And if you like, leave us a review, pass the podcast onto a friend or give us a rating! Every little helps. If you want even more from A Problem Squared, you can find us on Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord
093 = Game Solutions and Neil Distributions
⭕ Circle Can Tic-Tac-Toe ever be fun? 🤏What is the smallest Neil called? 🗞There’s some Any Other Business! ⚔️Battleships continues. If you want to read the works referenced by Matt in his tic-tac-toe / naughts and crosses problem, take a look below: Solo Noughts and Crosses, James Grime: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10724117.2023.2168434 Tic-tac-tome, Willy Yoners: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tic-Tac-Autonomous-Playing-Book/dp/1594746877 A Knowledge-based Approach of Connect-Four The Game is Solved: White Wins, Victor Alis: https://disi.unitn.it/~montreso/asd/docs/connect4.pdf Is ultimate tic-tac-toe solved? https://www.joachim-breitner.de/blog/604-Ultimate_Tic_Tac_Toe_is_always_won_by_X Please send your problems and solutions to the website: www.aproblemsquared.com. If you’re on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on the ‘Sup ‘Zards’ pinned post! And if you like, leave us a review, pass the podcast onto a friend or give us a rating! Every little helps. If you want even more from A Problem Squared, you can find us on Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord
092 = Broken Hands and Alexander's Bands
🌈 How many colours are really in a rainbow? 🕰 How often is a broken clock is right? 💼 The Any Other Business briefcase is open. Briefly. 🏴 And we have a NEW POST CREDITS easter egg. To hear more about the brilliant and terrible Emily In Paris premier, listen to this episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/point-break-pt-1-season-04-episode-01/id1720149980?i=1000666164553 If you want to see where the Mattparker asteroid / minor planet is in the universe, you can locate it on this NASA database: https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=314159&view=VOP A full circle rainbow was captured by aerial photographer Colin Leonhardt while flying through a rain shower just above Cottesloe Beach in Western Australia: https://s.abcnews.com/images/International/cn_round_rainbow_australia_jc_141010_16x9_992.jpg?w=1600 And if you want to be even more wowed, you can see a reflective rainbow (or six!) in Norway: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0709/sixrainbows_nordvik_big.jpg Finally, send your problems and solutions to our website: www.aproblemsquared.com. If you’re on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on the ‘Sup ‘Zards’ pinned post! And if you like, leave us a review, pass the podcast onto a friend or give us a rating! Every little helps. If you want even more from A Problem Squared, you can find us onTwitter,Instagram, and on Discord
091 = Optimal Darts and Smelling Sharks
🎯 What is the optimal layout for a dart board? 🦈 How soon after a cut does a shark smell your blood? 📜 And there’s some AYE-YOOO-BEEEE. To see the Percy Arrangement mentioned by Matt follow this link: https://www.globaldarts.de/globalDartsEN/sport/Percysboard.html And for the “Optimal Dartboard Design” reveal, see here! https://journals.indexcopernicus.com/api/file/viewByFileId/1980058If you want to learn more about shark senses, check out Sensory Biologist Dr. Lauren Eve Simonitis‘s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oceanexplauren/?hl=en And if you like, leave us a review, pass the podcast onto a friend or give us a rating! Every little helps. Finally, if you want even more from A Problem Squared, you can find us on Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord
090 = Washing Machine Lies and Lincoln Penny Highs
🧺 Why is the cycle time on my washing machines always wrong? 🪙 How long will it take to sell 400 Lincoln memorial pennies for $20,000? 🔔 We have DINGS! 🧳 And the business briefcase is open! Disclaimer: You may hear a slight change in tone on Matt's audio at points throughout, that's back up audio which sounds different. If you want to find out more about the IMO, or International Mathematics Olympics, you can do that here: https://www.imo-official.org/ And if you’re in London and you want to experience the janky eclipse, why not visit Novelty Automation! You can find details about this gem of a place here: https://www.novelty-automation.com/10_current-machines.htm" Finally, send your problems and solutions to our website: www.aproblemsquared.com. If you’re on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on the ‘Sup ‘Zards’ pinned post! And if you like, leave us a review, pass the podcast onto a friend or give us a rating! Every little helps. Finally, if you want even more from A Problem Squared, you can find us on Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord
089 = Venomous Snakes and Doggy Legs
On this episode... 🐍If you pooled up all the snake venom in the world would it be enough to kill all the non-immune mammals? 👢Do dogs have 2 arms? Or do we have 4 legs? 📜And we open the business briefcase. If you want to know more about lizard sampling, do that here: ‘Hierarchical distance sampling to estimate population sizes of common lizards across a desert ecoregion’: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.4780 There’s a great video by Technology Connections to turn signals and specifically syncing them up, you can find that here: https://youtu.be/2z5A-COlDPk?si=SWSE_FX3fuyLH1X0 You can find the rude praying hands here: https://www.reddit.com/r/teams/comments/xvpefh/can_we_please_talk_about_the_praying_emoji_on/ https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/hand-gestures-in-microsoft-teams-free-ff2354cd-17fa-44fc-80c9-3d88c577a1ad As always, send your problems and solutions to our website: www.aproblemsquared.com. And, if you want more from A Problem Squared, you can also find us on Twitter, Instagram, Discord and on Patreon.
088 = Tired Tires and Curvy Cubes
🚘 What happens when tires get tired? 🧊 What is the equation for the curve on a spinning Ruibik’s cube? 📜 And there’s some pin related AOB! Find out more about the counting crows here: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adl0984 You can hear Bec on Ali Plumb’s podcast ‘Screen Time’ here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02r4zfx/episodes/downloads If you want to learn more about the EMF Festival, follow this link: https://www.emfcamp.org/ To read ‘Where the tire meets the road: Emerging environmental impacts of tire wear particles and their chemical cocktails’, go here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.171153 For more information on the cones, ruled surfaces, hyperbolic paraboloids and more, have a look at the links below! https://mathworld.wolfram.com/Hyperboloid.html https://mathworld.wolfram.com/RuledSurface.html https://mathworld.wolfram.com/HyperbolicParaboloid.html You can see some nice hyperboloid structures here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperboloid#Hyperboloid_structures As always, send your problems and solutions to our website: www.aproblemsquared.com. And, if you want more from A Problem Squared, you can also find us on Twitter, Instagram, Discord and on Patreon.