What Happens When Maths Goes Wrong? - with Matt Parker

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  • Опубликовано: 24 ноя 2024

Комментарии • 3,5 тыс.

  • @rainworldenthusiast
    @rainworldenthusiast 5 лет назад +3878

    This is my favourite Matt Parker video because not only is it the length of a feature film, but it has the plot twists of one too.

    • @Jkirek_
      @Jkirek_ 5 лет назад +156

      I got the "aw come on" reaction when he said "what are the chances" at the second probability roll, because that's some dad level pun. It wasn't.

    • @JB-ym4up
      @JB-ym4up 5 лет назад +33

      Still a better love story than twilight?

    • @robertnett9793
      @robertnett9793 5 лет назад +68

      @@JB-ym4up: Static white noise has a better lovestory than twilight.

    • @joeythehat9
      @joeythehat9 5 лет назад +30

      I was like... the probability of getting probability 3 times is 1/5^3 = 1/125 = 0.8%, or 1 out of 125. WHAT ARE THE ODDS lol.

    • @IoEstasCedonta
      @IoEstasCedonta 5 лет назад +53

      I'm genuinely not sure if he was serious about the spinner or not.

  • @jeffwells641
    @jeffwells641 5 лет назад +4202

    "You can find any pattern you want to any level of precision you want as long as you're prepared to ignore enough data."
    That's a huge thing to realize.

    • @willionaire77
      @willionaire77 5 лет назад +183

      The basis of every crazy conspiracy theory. 😂

    • @7hundao
      @7hundao 5 лет назад +35

      that's like the definition of bias ... DUH~

    • @conexant51
      @conexant51 5 лет назад +40

      You're all so right! Still, it's quite unbelievable, in this day and age, that people will listen to a person like Donald Trump. Sadly I guess it comes down to the premise of 'fake news' and the morons who buy into it!

    • @tristanridley1601
      @tristanridley1601 5 лет назад +28

      Hence if Pi turns out to be truly random, every single number is somewhere in it, and even every written work (encoded by any/every encoding system)

    • @conexant51
      @conexant51 5 лет назад +5

      @@tristanridley1601 Nice observation!☺

  • @ReneePrower
    @ReneePrower 4 года назад +448

    From the moment the first spin landed on "probability" I had a feeling it was going to be a long-haul joke; I just couldn't decide whether the wheel was weighted or it was done in multiple takes. Well done, Matt; and props to that audience for being so patient hahaha

    • @toriless
      @toriless 2 года назад +8

      Yeah, that was possibly going to happen.

  • @musichunter8176
    @musichunter8176 3 года назад +889

    "Maths is difficult, but the people who're enjoying maths are not the people who finds it easy but the people who enjoy how difficult it is."
    very inspiring.

    • @Michelle-pn9xt
      @Michelle-pn9xt 3 года назад +5

      who're is not a word.

    • @peteconrad2077
      @peteconrad2077 3 года назад +28

      @@Michelle-pn9xt it’s included in several dictionaries although it’s considered improper for formal use. But it is a word.

    • @huskiehuskerson5300
      @huskiehuskerson5300 3 года назад +4

      @@peteconrad2077 But look how hilarious it is omg. Another eg.

    • @huskiehuskerson5300
      @huskiehuskerson5300 3 года назад +2

      @@Michelle-pn9xt But you're

    • @peteconrad2077
      @peteconrad2077 3 года назад

      @@huskiehuskerson5300 it probably is to little minds....

  • @ceruchi2084
    @ceruchi2084 5 лет назад +1834

    People in the live audience have no idea how huge those name drops were. "My friend James Grime... My friend Tom Scott..."

    • @leadnitrate2194
      @leadnitrate2194 3 года назад +245

      They didn't know about Matt's huge nerd clout.

    • @raadtmaarwat5781
      @raadtmaarwat5781 3 года назад +14

      you did take good look the public animate.. Corona exlude public, am i getting mad and they (beside the few moving wich axtract brain automaticly focus only those moving.. However now i told you look at the adience aint moving.. What adience aint moving...ahh then look closely examin some movements using cheap algoritme..and only part is moving other wise prob looked adience hockey game in the audience computer game! Wannah bet?

    • @usualunusualkid7149
      @usualunusualkid7149 3 года назад +142

      @@raadtmaarwat5781 I am sorry, do you know English?

    • @Axel_Andersen
      @Axel_Andersen 3 года назад +11

      James Grime ? Tom Scott ?

    • @yeiiovv4989
      @yeiiovv4989 3 года назад +6

      My favourite Easter eggs.

  • @Theprofessorator
    @Theprofessorator 4 года назад +156

    Watching Matt keep holding back smiles as his wife demonstrates the evidence of the recovery was amazing. That's a team.

  • @timh.6872
    @timh.6872 5 лет назад +1866

    "Texas, undone by a lone star"
    That's a lot funnier than the audience reaction gives it credit. That would have been mystery-bisuit worthy on Citation Needed.

    • @cresleyb
      @cresleyb 5 лет назад +16

      Tim H. Exactly what I thought!

    • @krashd
      @krashd 5 лет назад +136

      Many in the audience likely just didn't get it as Texas being known as the "lone star state" might be common knowledge in the US but over here it's just a piece of American trivia that could win you a point during a pub quiz :D

    • @EleanorPeterson
      @EleanorPeterson 5 лет назад +69

      [I mean no disrespect by this Comment.] The audience reaction is typically British. Low key, nothing to get too excited about, no need for any whooping or cheering or flag waving etc. Just a pun. We do puns. Meh.
      We Brits may not know about all the different US State names - familiar day-to-day names such as Nutmeg, Peach, Prairie, Show Me, Pelican, Badger, Beaver (steady...) simply don't feature in schools here, but I'm pretty sure everybody with enough curiosity to turn up to a Royal Institution lecture will have read enough to know that Kentucky's the Bluegrass State; Florida's the Sunshine State; New York's the Empire State; and that Texas is the Lone Star State.
      I doubt if many Brits know that South Dakota is ALSO a Sunshine State, or that Minnesota is the NORTH Star State; and we ain't got none o' them thar pesky Minnesota Gophers over here, neither...

    • @mbenoni7397
      @mbenoni7397 5 лет назад +22

      @@EleanorPeterson This is the most British comment I've ever read.

    • @NenadKralj
      @NenadKralj 5 лет назад +1

      The lone Star State (:TEXAS :) !! Love TX

  • @EricLS
    @EricLS 5 лет назад +1010

    As soon as I saw probability as a subject to be chosen *at random* my eyes narrowed. Well done.

    • @joyfuljaj
      @joyfuljaj 3 года назад +12

      same

    • @bettyeldridge
      @bettyeldridge 3 года назад +3

      @@joyfuljaj :
      me also

    • @HappyBeezerStudios
      @HappyBeezerStudios 2 года назад +21

      not only was it chosen at random, it was chosen at random 3 times out of 3

    • @ten77emt
      @ten77emt 2 года назад +13

      I was sure the wheel was rigged... and, they probably could has saved a ton of time if they had rigged it. The participants spin the wheel clockwise, but Matt spins it counter. 🤔🤔🤔 And, once, even claims, "it does land on other colors".

    • @lindsaybrown
      @lindsaybrown 2 года назад

      @@HappyBeezerStudios What are the chances of that?

  • @wesleymays1931
    @wesleymays1931 3 года назад +151

    "But neither of them are going anywhere because parents are jamming up the whole system..."
    fell out my chair, Matt

  • @eltodd124
    @eltodd124 5 лет назад +939

    "Texas undone by a lone star.", is a great line. I think you would have gotten a bigger laugh in the states.

    • @melvyniandrag
      @melvyniandrag 4 года назад +41

      haha I was surprised by the silence, forgot where the talk was

    • @melvyniandrag
      @melvyniandrag 4 года назад +65

      @escorpiuser Texas is nicknamed "the lone star state"

    • @ckmym
      @ckmym 4 года назад +11

      Matt did the same thing at google and somehow got even less laughs.

    • @katavenger
      @katavenger 4 года назад +1

      @@melvyniandrag that still isn't funny.

    • @jaybeezy4124
      @jaybeezy4124 4 года назад +8

      @@TXDude not to be rude but math is one of the largest components of physics. Math is at the core of it all.

  • @Tapecutter59
    @Tapecutter59 5 лет назад +564

    The 3 cogs logo is a surprisingly common mistake. It happened at my work - a multi-national engineering firm. Upper management proudly emailed their new logo to tens of thousands of engineers, hilarity and red faces followed.

    • @rhabenic
      @rhabenic 5 лет назад +47

      Ha! Not a 'good look' for an engineering company, I presume.

    • @AlDunbar
      @AlDunbar 4 года назад +57

      @@rhabenic in a drafting course that was required of civil engineering students, one day we were shown a video of a guy demonstrating how to go about sketching a threaded rod. He was doing a great job until he noticed that the threads on the model went the other way than in his sketch. I immediately laughed out loud as I knew what he was going to do correct the discrepancy. But when he turned the model end for end i was very disappointed to not hear anyone else laughing.
      I guess the guy thought that screws did not become left or right handed until they were given a head.

    • @RPCauldron
      @RPCauldron 4 года назад +4

      @@AlDunbar I laughed so hard

    • @sMASHsound
      @sMASHsound 2 года назад +4

      and it was the artist that decided to make it work...

    • @keithmills778
      @keithmills778 2 года назад +9

      And, in the case of the gear train on the coin, it’s more complicated than just having an even number of cogs. The gear ratios have to be correct so that it runs smoothly without locking up.

  • @janas.8735
    @janas.8735 4 года назад +582

    Probability comes for the second time:
    "What are the chances!?"
    Audience: "..."

    • @janas.8735
      @janas.8735 4 года назад +3

      @omar garaali Thanks

    • @milire2668
      @milire2668 3 года назад

      @@janas.8735 np fam

    • @joshwatt5434
      @joshwatt5434 3 года назад +10

      It's because he edited out the spins that weren't probability, meaning the audience were in on it

    • @oscarthegrouch23
      @oscarthegrouch23 8 месяцев назад

      @@joshwatt5434He did? When does he say that?

    • @joshwatt5434
      @joshwatt5434 8 месяцев назад +1

      @@oscarthegrouch23 this comment is two years old and I am not rewatching to find out what this was about lol

  • @Richard_is_cool
    @Richard_is_cool 5 лет назад +554

    "Lots of my friends procreate" as a bridge to talking about children's books was suboptimally received.

    • @Peter_1986
      @Peter_1986 4 года назад +17

      The topics sex and procreation aren't harmful to children, and the phrase "a lot of my friends procreate" is the exactly same kind of phrase as "a lot of my friends have children".

    • @MadMethod-qs1en
      @MadMethod-qs1en 4 года назад +3

      Well said

    • @astropgn
      @astropgn 4 года назад +2

      And he said so calmly lol

    • @alaindubois1505
      @alaindubois1505 4 года назад

      At a disability lunch at the Bison Park, a man attending with his wife, introduced himself as a father of four! So what was this all about? He managed a heterosexual act four times?

    • @bcubed72
      @bcubed72 4 года назад +3

      Well, you could say it was optimally received, if the desired variable were "unease."
      Just optimized for a different variable than you anticipated.

  • @mrsportysomil
    @mrsportysomil 5 лет назад +215

    Just went through the comments and I'm kinda shocked to see how little people appreciated this lecture. This guy is absolutely phenomenal. I was smiling throughout and learning some really cool stuff at the same time. He did an amazing job and I hope to see more from him on Ri. Huge fan, Matt!

    • @jasonp.brunke3601
      @jasonp.brunke3601 2 года назад +2

      There's not enough of us in this world who appreciate knowledge... who possibly want to expand themselves, learning new topics... he's quite good...

    • @AlexanderNash
      @AlexanderNash Год назад +1

      There are thousands of comments and certainly you didn't read all of them? Even if you did what about all the people who watched but didn't comment(millions) which you can't know their level of appreciation. Maybe you appreciated it but you certainly didn't learn anything about ignoring data did you?

  • @lolaritter7518
    @lolaritter7518 3 года назад +65

    As an Australian, watching him discuss the ancient Woolworth stores in England is fascinating.

  • @badlydrawnturtle8484
    @badlydrawnturtle8484 5 лет назад +1523

    "Is it a head on both sides"
    "No"
    "Is it tails on one side"
    "Yes"
    Wait a minute...

    • @IceMetalPunk
      @IceMetalPunk 5 лет назад +220

      I thought the same thing! "So it could be tails on both sides?"

    • @samuelwoods6648
      @samuelwoods6648 5 лет назад +62

      The number of sides which are tails is 1.
      Not "1 side is tails, but this tells me nothing about the other side."
      hahahahahahaha

    • @samuelwoods6648
      @samuelwoods6648 5 лет назад +25

      @icemetalpunk
      This is what didn't happen:
      "Is it tails on one side?"
      "No, it is tails on 2 sides."
      It's so difficult to convey a different perspective!

    • @benchapple1583
      @benchapple1583 5 лет назад +6

      Yes, that was my instant reaction as well.

    • @aravindvissamsetty
      @aravindvissamsetty 5 лет назад +37

      This guy would have done well as a lawyer.

  • @mseldenthuis
    @mseldenthuis 5 лет назад +670

    "Are there any... wait for the end of the sentence."
    This has 'teacher' written all over it, I love it

    • @scibanana3542
      @scibanana3542 3 года назад +2

      @MichaelKingsfordGray it has work boss stapled all over it.

    • @classicalphysic
      @classicalphysic 3 года назад

      Ignore teachers. Their teachers lied o them too. And the teacher then lied to his students.None of these quantum theorists have thought an original thought or questioned their fanaticism. And dogmatic religious fanaticism always holds back the pursuit of knowledge. As did the quantum forefathers... the religious fanatics running europe in the Renaissance. They stopped copernicus and Galileo from publishing. As with modern quantum clerics...The truth was too much to take.

    • @MeesterG
      @MeesterG 3 года назад +19

      Teacher here. When that happens to me, I sometimes like to go:
      Is there anyone who....[all hands in the air].... Peed their pants?
      :D humor is easy with kids, I love it.

    • @BroudbrunMusicMerge
      @BroudbrunMusicMerge 3 года назад +4

      @@classicalphysic What.

    • @toriless
      @toriless 2 года назад

      Wait for the end, not if Sheldon Cooper said it. It would still be going on.

  • @AlDunbar
    @AlDunbar 4 года назад +93

    Here's one for the book. I learned in a highway design course that early on, they studied accident statistics and determined that, since accidents were more likely when driving on a curve or over a hill, that they could reduce the number of dangerous stretches of road by combining curves and hills whenever possible. This worked perfectly in achieving that result; of course that made the road even more dangerous.

    • @sMASHsound
      @sMASHsound 2 года назад +4

      lolllllllllllll. if that was early on, im interested to know what they did later on.

    • @AlDunbar
      @AlDunbar 2 года назад +6

      @@sMASHsound when they realized their error they stopped designing roads that way.

    • @sMASHsound
      @sMASHsound 2 года назад +1

      @@AlDunbar what led them to realize it what bad?

    • @AlDunbar
      @AlDunbar 2 года назад +5

      @@sMASHsound our prof didn't say, but I think accident statistics might have had a hand in it. Either that and/or someone realized the logical error and explained it.
      Note that the people who made the invalid deduction might or might not have changed their minds. It is not as if there is a single cabal of engineers who make decisions about design methodology, and are the ones responsible for correcting their mistakes.

    • @richardthomas6301
      @richardthomas6301 2 года назад

      There is another road in Spain I think that is completely straight and has one of the highest accident rates in the world. It is a very long road.

  • @HariEaswaran98
    @HariEaswaran98 5 лет назад +428

    I'm a simple man. I see Matt Parker on RI, I hit like and binge an hour watching him rant about numbers

    • @aurias42
      @aurias42 5 лет назад +2

      This is true

    • @feelinghealingfrequences7179
      @feelinghealingfrequences7179 5 лет назад +5

      you have failed to use the word "binge" correctly
      please try again

    • @lunadusk8590
      @lunadusk8590 5 лет назад +1

      your not the only one.

    • @Sylfa
      @Sylfa 5 лет назад

      I hit like and made the number of likes the first 3 digits of pi.
      Nice.
      (Assuming an accuracy over 3 digits, no rounding)

    • @Koni.1122
      @Koni.1122 2 года назад

      @@lunadusk8590 you have failed to use the word "your" correctly
      please try again

  • @yetinother
    @yetinother 5 лет назад +147

    The glitch in the matrix started when the 'guest' spinner was supposed to call out the category, but then Matt did for the teen and adult. A good use of a Good Hour! Keep up the great content!

  • @The_Tsar_Chasm
    @The_Tsar_Chasm 4 года назад +61

    This guy is precisely my kind of pedantic nerd, and I freaking love it

    • @karlbethke9645
      @karlbethke9645 Год назад +3

      In the crescent moon misrepresentation, Matt correctly points out that stars shouldn’t be drawn inside the moon’s circumference. What is more troubling (to me) is that the tips of the horns have to be antipodal, I.e. 180 degrees apart.

  • @EternalDensity
    @EternalDensity 5 лет назад +400

    "In every second story, everybody died."
    Perfectly balanced...

    • @commonpepe2270
      @commonpepe2270 5 лет назад +15

      *Harvey Dent wants to know your location*

    • @ТомасАндерсон-в1е
      @ТомасАндерсон-в1е 5 лет назад +32

      ...as all things should be

    • @HailG3
      @HailG3 5 лет назад +14

      Thanos would be proud

    • @DevranUenal
      @DevranUenal 5 лет назад +7

      That put a smile on my face.

    • @The1wsx10
      @The1wsx10 5 лет назад +2

      not quite because if there is an odd number of stories its not balanced ruclips.net/video/prh72BLNjIk/видео.html

  • @MidwestArtMan
    @MidwestArtMan 5 лет назад +647

    "A lot of my friends procreate" is one of the strangest sentences I've ever heard. (9:56)

    • @julieenslow5915
      @julieenslow5915 5 лет назад +25

      Clearly, you don't run in truly geek circles! LOL (I don't either - now - but I was in an accelerated class with three super geniuses starting in fourth grade through 12th grade. Such a sentence would not have been at all unusual in that class!)

    • @SathvickSatish
      @SathvickSatish 5 лет назад +2

      What does that mean?

    • @julieenslow5915
      @julieenslow5915 5 лет назад +12

      @Sathvick Satish
      The most common word that is very close in meaning "reproduce"

    • @dhaenir
      @dhaenir 5 лет назад +2

      @@julieenslow5915 That seems a little bit young to be using that sentence, even in an accelerated class.

    • @julieenslow5915
      @julieenslow5915 5 лет назад +3

      Yes it does. Not my choice when to start it - I think the fact they had 3 super geniuses meant they needed to up their game fast. Please note I was NOT one of the three!

  • @yuvalne
    @yuvalne 4 года назад +75

    It's amusing when he asks Lucy what is her research, as if he doesn't know.
    It's even more amusing when you realise they are married.

  • @nowonmetube
    @nowonmetube 5 лет назад +132

    When he showed the falling Jenga tower that required less energy because of the resonance, that was absolutely amazing.

    • @TobiasHJohansen
      @TobiasHJohansen 5 лет назад +21

      You can simulate the same phenomenon in a bathtub full of water. If you shove your hands back and forth randomly, no meaningful waves will form. Only if you hit the resonance frequency of the tub (that is dependant on the size and shape of the tub) will a big wave form.
      For normal sized tubs that means pushing way slower than your intuition tells you.

    • @DacuberTM
      @DacuberTM 5 лет назад +11

      Its so easy to show.
      Take a swing set.
      Watch someone swing.
      There you go?

    • @rewrose2838
      @rewrose2838 5 лет назад +3

      @@DacuberTM I thought the same about swinging and how it's like two things (the person and the swing) moving synchronously

    • @kingjames4886
      @kingjames4886 5 лет назад

      now go find a gyroscope.

  • @davidgould9431
    @davidgould9431 5 лет назад +171

    Great show from Matt as usual! And Happy Birthday RI!
    The cogs thing reminds me of when my wife showed me her team's illustration of a marketing process with interlocking cogs: "that won't work!" I said. She was unconvinced it would matter, but did go back with my fixes. The next customer she spoke to confirmed that they were all engineers and, yes, it would have been a major barrier to credibility if they'd carried on with it as it was. I don't think I got any brownie points: she just realised that 'nerd' is a wider-spread condition than she'd thought.

    • @IceMetalPunk
      @IceMetalPunk 5 лет назад +6

      @@stupidtreehugger Do you realize that none of those links work?

    • @bakedutah8411
      @bakedutah8411 5 лет назад

      IceMetalPunk, LMAO. 😂😅🤣

    • @schuwi4
      @schuwi4 5 лет назад +4

      @@stupidtreehugger Ummm, excuse me, what the frick? That is the most forced transition I have heard in a long time and I don't see how your single-origin stuff is related to the original comment or video in *any* way whatsoever.
      I'd write you off as a bot if it wasn't for this horrible introduction that shared a word with the original comment. That would still be impressive to pull of for a bot.

    • @TheEternalPheonix
      @TheEternalPheonix 5 лет назад

      Bwahahahahaha!

    • @dssingh8218
      @dssingh8218 2 года назад

      Thats a good one!! 👌

  • @godminnette2
    @godminnette2 4 года назад +66

    You know, when it landed on probability the first time, I figured that Matt had rigged it to land on probability all three times. I did not expect him to have people spin it until it got green all three times, I figured these talks had a time time schedule and at 1:07 it had probably already spilled over by a bit. Bravo.

  • @TPrisoners
    @TPrisoners 5 лет назад +704

    "Making cogs grate again"?

    • @phoenixstone4208
      @phoenixstone4208 5 лет назад +54

      Tim Fairless puns will never grind my gears

    • @MrDannyDetail
      @MrDannyDetail 5 лет назад +73

      OMG that joke totally flew over my head when he said that in the video. I totally forgot that great had a homonym.

    • @984francis
      @984francis 5 лет назад +24

      I wonder how many people didn't get that, also the the three cogs cannot rotate? Maybe they are not cognisant😬

    • @MCLooyverse
      @MCLooyverse 5 лет назад +7

      OH. That's good. I did not get that at first.

    • @anantkerur557
      @anantkerur557 5 лет назад +6

      @@MrDannyDetail *homophone

  • @TheRoyalInstitution
    @TheRoyalInstitution  5 лет назад +710

    It's our birthday today! And we couldn't think of a better present than this extremely enjoyable talk all about maths and what happens when it goes wrong. We've even been told there's Pi. Mm, pi...

    • @opossumj
      @opossumj 5 лет назад +14

      Happy birthday! And thank you: you make my day any time you publish a new video!
      Greetings from Italy!

    • @aryamankejriwal5959
      @aryamankejriwal5959 5 лет назад +6

      The Royal Institution HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

    • @Tjousk
      @Tjousk 5 лет назад +2

      My birthday too, how improbable.
      (:

    • @IWouldLikeToRemainAnonymous
      @IWouldLikeToRemainAnonymous 5 лет назад +2

      Happy Birthday The Royal Institution.

    • @aidanlevy2841
      @aidanlevy2841 5 лет назад +1

      Keeping up the good work for another year :)

  • @edwardabel3716
    @edwardabel3716 4 года назад +35

    Matt, Thank you very much for being honest that took so many times to get three instances of Probability.

  • @Ryanisthere
    @Ryanisthere 5 лет назад +108

    3:08 "were not gonna edit it out" but you will edit out the 50+ spins of that wheel

    • @masonbronson3194
      @masonbronson3194 4 года назад +2

      tis the point of the talk

    • @katherinekellmeyer5428
      @katherinekellmeyer5428 3 года назад +31

      See, but by specifically mentioning that they didn't edit one bit out, they imply that they aren't editing anything else out! So it sort of sets us up.

    • @loturzelrestaurant
      @loturzelrestaurant 3 года назад

      @@katherinekellmeyer5428 Hi and Hello.
      I gather people for a good cause:
      I wanna provide people with Links leading to bad or toxic people.
      Mobber, Racists, Sexists, Bullies, more. I got the Links and i
      need help with reporting them.
      RUclips is in a bad state and i think you heard of that.
      Many complain about it, its strike-system and its CEO: Susan.
      But... I mean... complaining about the State of the world is nice
      and dandy, but... how about acting? Doing something?
      So i made a Wiki where i store Links for all to use.
      You can at least pre-emptive 'block user' regarding the
      Racists and all those, but you can also
      do one thing more and report them, so
      YT becomes a better place.
      Interested?

    • @ijemand5672
      @ijemand5672 3 года назад

      we're*

  • @alexg9996
    @alexg9996 5 лет назад +322

    "Average means I'm above 50% of books"
    Should we from now on call median a Parker average? I'm fine with that.

    • @AshiStarshade
      @AshiStarshade 4 года назад +23

      You raise an interesting point, except that he probably could have better explained. This is a skewed distribution, so in this case the average is in fact better than 50% of the books.

    • @shambosaha9727
      @shambosaha9727 4 года назад +36

      Actually, median, mean and mode can all be called average, which is where a lot of misleading statistics comes from. I read this in Darell Huff's excellent book "How to Lie with Statistics".

    • @surfingbilly9654
      @surfingbilly9654 4 года назад +6

      @@shambosaha9727 median, mean and mode can all be called average ONLY if the data you are looking at follows a normal distribution.

    • @shambosaha9727
      @shambosaha9727 4 года назад +8

      @@surfingbilly9654 Technically speaking, they can all be called average ALWAYS. They have the SAME VALUE if the distribution is Gaußian.

    • @downtroddenmusic
      @downtroddenmusic 4 года назад +7

      I used the median recently in a report and to avoid the confusion of talking about the 'average' value, and knowing that the audience would not have heard of the median, I referred to the result as the 'typical' value i.e. the typical number of days worked, rather than the average number of days worked.

  • @_rlb
    @_rlb 2 года назад +10

    I've been very pedantic regarding the "stars where the moon should be" for years now, the difference between me and Matt is that he makes people laugh about it and I make people want to throw things at my face.

  • @brandonmarsden8256
    @brandonmarsden8256 5 лет назад +261

    I liked this video purely for the joke
    “Troops should not break... dance”

  • @skyeturner5003
    @skyeturner5003 5 лет назад +143

    maths and doing things incorrectly, finally a video showcasing both of my skills.

  • @Peter_1986
    @Peter_1986 2 года назад +4

    I just recently started realising what Matt meant when he said that math is about "getting it wrong and working towards the right answer". That is exactly what my current course in Applied Mathematics is like - that course is about a bunch of super-complicated equations that simply cannot be solved exactly, and instead require a lot of trial and error with various approximation techniques.

  • @bobsquirrelking
    @bobsquirrelking 5 лет назад +300

    "Texas, undone by a Lone Star." Very nicely done.

    • @skylerbirch8248
      @skylerbirch8248 5 лет назад +2

      Bob, Squirrel King honestly, how did that not get more applause

    • @eidodk
      @eidodk 5 лет назад +18

      @@skylerbirch8248 Because it's in England... literally NO ONE in England knows Texas IS "the lone star state"

    • @skylerbirch8248
      @skylerbirch8248 5 лет назад +1

      eidodk ah, I thought it was a more common name across the way

    • @skylerbirch8248
      @skylerbirch8248 5 лет назад

      Connor Mcnally huh. Well thanks for educating me on this lol

    • @Scum42
      @Scum42 5 лет назад +4

      I'm really sad more people didn't get the joke, but I can't honestly expect people in the UK to know the nicknames of the states when I don't even fully understand exactly what countries and regions "the UK" even is.

  • @kw3494
    @kw3494 5 лет назад +211

    Parker is my favorite mathematician which is something I never thought I'd say about a mathematician xD.

    • @zoltankurti
      @zoltankurti 5 лет назад +9

      Except he doesn't do what a mathematician should. He is rather a standup comedist.

    • @crytocc
      @crytocc 5 лет назад +13

      And what "should" a mathematician do, exactly? You do realize that people can be more than one thing, right?

    • @MrDannyDetail
      @MrDannyDetail 5 лет назад +2

      @ K W I know what you mean, but the logic of what you actually said doesn't work. If you never thought that "X is my favourite mathematician" was something you'd say about a mathematician, then that suggests you thought you'd say it about a non-mathmatician, which obviously is then a paradox.

    • @liebert234
      @liebert234 5 лет назад +9

      ​@@MrDannyDetail I don't think never thinking to say "X is my favourite mathematician" about mathematicians implies that they would have thought it of non-mathematicians either. It definitely makes it ·strange· to specify mathematicians, but that doesn't necessitate that they would have thought about it at all.
      "I would have never thought I would have a favourite member of set A that was in set A" is logically equivalent to "I would have never thought I would have a favourite member of set A", since any favourite one could have from set A must also ·be· in set A.
      I think this is more of a linguistic question of what including that redundant detail implies of the speaker, rather than a question of logic. When it comes to language, including unnecessary details like that imply that there exists a possibility that something could've been otherwise, or at least that the speaker thinks so.
      "I picked up a stone, and it was a stone" is completely true and logically valid, but the fact that the second clause is in there makes it sound like it the speaker is surprised that the stone was a stone, which is an illogical thing to be surprised by.

    • @MrDannyDetail
      @MrDannyDetail 5 лет назад +1

      @@liebert234 Great response! As you say it's a linguistic amibiguity that depends on whether you consider the 'about a mathematician' part to be unnecessary repetition of the same fact, or a new piece of information that's critical to the intended meaning, which in turn depends on how the person says it.
      Perhaps I misspoke when using the word 'logic', but I'm not sure what other word could be used in it's place. I mean the deduction that the repetition would not be there unless it conveyed the possibility that something could have been otherwise, is itself a form of logic. I guess it only fails to be true logic because it would be an assumption rather than a hard fact.

  • @happybuddha1148
    @happybuddha1148 4 года назад +17

    Hats off to you, Matt! Loved it, esp. the ending -- @ 1:07:14 "...and I'm like, yeah, people have to earn the book"......yes, Matt, I'll do that.....thank you for this superb video!

  • @lightyearahead
    @lightyearahead 5 лет назад +46

    I remember his last lecture. Good to see you again matt.

  • @mistermarkeys
    @mistermarkeys 5 лет назад +89

    To speak to the probability stories in this video: My wife is originally from Utah, and her dad grew up in American Fork. After we moved to the Portland, Oregon area, we were in a mall where we overheard a woman talking to a store clerk about her upcoming voyage to Utah. We had just moved to Oregon (literally a few months before), and we interjected ourselves into the conversation saying that we had just moved from Utah and was curious as to where she was going. She mentioned where she was going, but she also happened to mention that she lived in American Fork for a while. My wife said, "That's where my dad's from!" She asked his name, and when my wife told her his name, she exclaimed, "I dated your dad in junior high school!"
    We were BLOWN AWAY. Right then, my wife called her dad, and they talked for about twenty minutes on the phone in the most impromptu lovers' reunion I had ever experienced. It still brings a smile to my face.

    • @renedekker9806
      @renedekker9806 5 лет назад +3

      Mmm... it's no longer something that happens to somebody in the world, but now we need to take into account it happening to a viewer of Mats video. That is a much lower chance.

    • @MrSJPowell
      @MrSJPowell 5 лет назад +6

      @@renedekker9806 You have to increase the probability by a factor of how many strange coincidences you allow, as well as distance from the teller of the story. Matt's specific examples revolved around pictures shown to those about to get married. Now we're up to meeting someone who had a passing relationship with n degrees of separation. Each of these makes things exponentially more probable.

    • @shawnheneghan4110
      @shawnheneghan4110 5 лет назад +3

      Last summer a young lady I had never met had her small puppy named "Stevie Nix" chase my young kitten named "Little Richard" up a tree. Strange coincidence? Sure, but that's not the real strange coincidence. After finally retrieving poor Little Richard, we got to talking and discovered that we had both gone to the same high school - 4500 km away. Albeit 40 years apart
      That was a day to play the lottery.

    • @57thorns
      @57thorns 5 лет назад +8

      @@MrSJPowell Not to mention that we have to factor in what constitutes a "weird occurence".
      If there are no rules set up before hand, literally anything goes.
      While it is unlikely that one specifik freak occurrence happens to one person, and it is likely that it will happen to someone at least once, it is also,. by the same logic and reasoning, impossible to go through life without experiencing at least one weird event as an individual.
      You just need to look for the patterns.

    • @jayeisenhardt1337
      @jayeisenhardt1337 5 лет назад

      Small number of people in the same location. And its easy. Only 300+million outta a few billion so what are the odds? Remember most Americans never leave the States. East coast to West coast its not even the entire continent.

  • @BldgOnMyMind
    @BldgOnMyMind 4 года назад +5

    The jenga buildings part really resonated with me... 😋

  • @yafu2599
    @yafu2599 5 лет назад +325

    I honestly thought the wheel was rigged, as the audience were turning it clockwise and matt was spinning it anti-clockwise and there was some mechanism that only worked in one direction.

    • @pahlkott
      @pahlkott 5 лет назад +16

      What is the odds of it landing on probability?

    • @yafu2599
      @yafu2599 5 лет назад +28

      more pertinently what are the odds of a complex clockwise/anti-clockwise fixing mechanism versus matt just re spinning till he get's green and editing the video
      But to answer your question, it's 1 in 5, or for 3 probability in a row I believe it's 1 in 125 (1 in 5^3)

    • @OB1KXB
      @OB1KXB 5 лет назад +77

      i thought the same thing.
      and after he said the "dont believe everything you see on the internet" thing, i thought "but what if the video ISNT edited?"

    • @NoNameAtAll2
      @NoNameAtAll2 5 лет назад +38

      3 _green_ is 1 in 125
      but 3 _same_ in a row is 1 in 25

    • @PDeRop
      @PDeRop 5 лет назад

      I’m a magician. Probability is my game. I was blown away, that they did several takes to make this happen :)

  • @ZipplyZane
    @ZipplyZane 5 лет назад +171

    I just assumed the spinner was rigged. Of course he'd go about it the Parker way--don't cheat, just repeat.

    • @MrSJPowell
      @MrSJPowell 5 лет назад +2

      Well, James Grime did it with the 10 coin flips in a row video.

    • @bluellamaslearnbeyondthele2456
      @bluellamaslearnbeyondthele2456 5 лет назад +1

      Love your avatar

    • @bryceschug486
      @bryceschug486 5 лет назад +8

      it was a little suspect that it stopped on the purple before the green on the last one. that (at least in my mind) confirmed the rigging

  • @dilankakasun6033
    @dilankakasun6033 3 года назад +5

    45:15 Another fact that has to be considered is that the projections that the maps used to pinpoint the locations could also affect the shape. The previous researcher could have even selected the same locations on a different kind of a projection and identified another pattern. They're just random conincidents.

  • @aryamankejriwal5959
    @aryamankejriwal5959 5 лет назад +145

    Omg, by the third one, I knew something was up but I thought it was a weighted wheel or something 😂

    • @merdehappens
      @merdehappens 5 лет назад +7

      Also the props he had on him.

    • @solomonarbc
      @solomonarbc 5 лет назад +12

      Nothing was up. That's why he said he'd never use the wheel again, because he wanted to bring up something else than probability 3 times.

    • @aryamankejriwal5959
      @aryamankejriwal5959 5 лет назад +11

      solomonarbc I’m not sure if this comment was meant to be a joke but he said that they just cut out all the footage in the middle

    • @OrangeC7
      @OrangeC7 5 лет назад +43

      @@aryamankejriwal5959 I think he was joking about that. Like he said, don't believe everything you learn on the internet. >:)

    • @aryamankejriwal5959
      @aryamankejriwal5959 5 лет назад

      OrangeC7 😂😅

  • @2HeadedNinja
    @2HeadedNinja 5 лет назад +240

    When Matt asked "Does the coin have two heads?" and "Is there tails on one side?" it still could have been a coin with two tails :)

    • @sleekotter1109
      @sleekotter1109 4 года назад +7

      If there's tails on one side there's tails on one side.

    • @KaiHenningsen
      @KaiHenningsen 4 года назад +1

      @Sthaman Sinha How do you know? That doesn't follow from the data available at that point.

    • @Peter_1986
      @Peter_1986 4 года назад +9

      @@KaiHenningsen
      I think (s)he means that "tails on one side" is supposed to explicitly say that there is a tails on ONLY one side.

    • @sMASHsound
      @sMASHsound 2 года назад +3

      he stressed 'one' so i assume he meant 'only one side'

    • @RockStudioLive
      @RockStudioLive 2 года назад

      @@sleekotter1109 But still, that's not tails on only one side.

  • @mercyrx3455
    @mercyrx3455 2 года назад +4

    I was in an 80 story building during construction that during a strong wind storm that started twisting ( not just swaying) like crazy. It was quite scary. This was before the mass damper tank was constructed on top which I’m sure was where all the maths came in 😊

    • @tncorgi92
      @tncorgi92 Год назад +1

      I worked in a brand new office building in Florida, someone didn't do their maths right because the first time we had a big wind storm the building bent and twisted enough to make some of the windows pop out of their frames. Anyone who parked in the lot adjacent to the building (think: upper management) had huge sheets of glass falling on their cars.

  • @JamieJamez
    @JamieJamez 5 лет назад +168

    47:11 Wheel was on green, camera cuts to man about to spin, wheel is on red.

    • @gliese3095
      @gliese3095 5 лет назад +5

      Good eye, good eye !

    • @KumaKaori
      @KumaKaori 5 лет назад +7

      Ah, can also freeze frame at 26:18 to notice the peg grabbed in the wide shot, is not the peg released in the "good spin" close up.

    • @nicholasn.2883
      @nicholasn.2883 5 лет назад +2

      JamieJamez
      Did you watch the whole presentation?

    • @JamieJamez
      @JamieJamez 5 лет назад +9

      @@nicholasn.2883 Frame-by-Frame

    • @neutralmst6855
      @neutralmst6855 5 лет назад +4

      @@JamieJamez I assume he ment, if you watched the whole video. Because in the video itself this exact gets explained and specificly adressed.

  • @douglasmagowan4918
    @douglasmagowan4918 5 лет назад +56

    I had a "that's me" moment, surfing random videos on you-tube, finding myself in the background.

    • @amber1862
      @amber1862 5 лет назад +14

      I wonder how many RUclips videos I'm in? It's actually scary to think there has almost certainly been a time, where someone online looked at me in the background of someone else's video (from a local vlogger or filmmaker for example).
      It's not scary that someone has seen me, what's scary is that I'm still there right now, and there are many short moments of my life literally sitting in servers all over the world, accessible to almost anyone.

    • @mmitja
      @mmitja 5 лет назад +14

      It only counts if you married the uploader before seeing the video. 😅

  • @LeeRoughead
    @LeeRoughead 3 месяца назад +1

    I used to be a C++ software engineer. Before that I was an Ada software engineer. The Ada language has built in checks, one of which is a constraint error. If you get a constraint error, which is propagated out of the program - which goes up wires, which means different things to different bits, which... bang. I had the ESA crash report for Arian 501 pinned to my cubicle wall for decades :)

  • @Kelnor277
    @Kelnor277 5 лет назад +57

    Matt, I'm from Texas and it's obvious that star is where it is from gravitational lensing. On an unrelated note, I'm not sure how to convey in text when my voice clearly indicates I'm grasping at straws.

    • @CraftQueenJr
      @CraftQueenJr 5 лет назад +6

      james jones it’s obvious. * tips hat *

    • @Schizopantheist
      @Schizopantheist 5 лет назад +15

      This is because in Texas the moon is way bigger

    • @petertaylor4980
      @petertaylor4980 5 лет назад +1

      I don't think gravitational lensing can explain the gradient background showing through...

    • @puedojoe
      @puedojoe 5 лет назад +2

      Perhaps the Earth's shadow on the moon merely coincidentally resembles the plate's background very, very closely.

    • @renedekker9806
      @renedekker9806 5 лет назад +3

      I thought it was just Texas redefining the size of the moon, like Indiana did with pi.

  • @Tocsin-Bang
    @Tocsin-Bang 4 года назад +15

    I love the idea of maths being a progression in which you get less and less wrong. At school I got a lot wrong. Five years later I met my old maths teacher and he asked me what I was doing now. I was able to tell him that I was teaching maths!

  • @oscills
    @oscills 4 года назад +8

    I read the book and you definitely mentioned people dying in it.

  • @DanksterPaws
    @DanksterPaws 5 лет назад +194

    Guy called “Tom scott” Lmao

    • @DanksterPaws
      @DanksterPaws 5 лет назад +55

      Nah fam i just had a laugh how casual that mention was

    • @twinsunianlp7359
      @twinsunianlp7359 5 лет назад +40

      Clearly his full name is Thomas Scottland.

    • @NiteshMaharjan11
      @NiteshMaharjan11 4 года назад +1

      @@twinsunianlp7359 Thomas "red shirt" Scottland

  • @CZTachyonsVN
    @CZTachyonsVN 5 лет назад +34

    When wheel landed on purple the 2nd time i suspected it was rigged but I underestimated Matt. He actually went out of his way to involve the audience and editors to fool us viewers! Love it!

    • @toriless
      @toriless 2 года назад

      Fun with magnets!

    • @toriless
      @toriless 2 года назад

      Man, about five spins each time

  • @davidp.7620
    @davidp.7620 2 года назад +2

    55:00 After getting the two probability stories, I thought the third one would be explaining how the wheel is rigged.

  • @atanuroy8405
    @atanuroy8405 5 лет назад +6

    Sir you won hearts when at the very beginning you said, " that person is on phone, while I am talking. once a teacher, always a teacher'.

  • @randharma
    @randharma 5 лет назад +57

    Parker is funny, articulate, and entertaining. The way in which he has explained these concepts and ideas is remarkable, good show.

  • @Brians-Easy-Low-Tech-Solutions
    @Brians-Easy-Low-Tech-Solutions 2 года назад +5

    South Korea, buildings, exercising Paul Shepherd and Jenga! (relates to the bridge feedback chapter). There is a Korean show on netflix called "my Mister" where the lead plays a civil engineer who designs buildings, and it mentions a building he designed where a gym caused problems and the damping mechanism he put in to counter it.

  • @Blxz
    @Blxz 5 лет назад +13

    Mildly interesting probability story. I once visited Tokyo and during a wild night out lost my mobile phone. The next day my friend received a phonecall to come and pick up my phone. Turns out, it had been picked up by someone I had gone to primary school with 15 years prior who had recognised me in the photos on my phone, had contacted back to our mutual home country to get all the relevant phone numbers and then called through to arrange a meeting spot.
    The chances are pretty small and I am eternally thankful they went to the effort.

    • @Blxz
      @Blxz 5 лет назад +3

      I don't know about luck. what I do know is that it has nothing to do with my comment that you are replying to. Maybe you meant to put in the main thread?

  • @caphunterx2322
    @caphunterx2322 5 лет назад +18

    I'll have to say that the way you brought this with comedy, metaphors and plot twist this is one of the best shows I have seen so far. Amazing work I'm a great fan or yours

  • @EvanBurnetteMusic
    @EvanBurnetteMusic 2 года назад +2

    There is a dog park at the end of the Tacoma Narrows bridges where I was taking my dog for a few weeks before I noticed a plaque dedicating the park to Tubby, a dog who was the sole victim of the first Tacoma Narrows bridge. She was too afraid and wouldn't get out of the car.

  • @TheRoyalInstitution
    @TheRoyalInstitution  5 лет назад +104

    grammarist.com/spelling/math-maths/
    Discuss.
    Update: we've now added English language subtitles to this video!

    • @dickybannister5192
      @dickybannister5192 5 лет назад +2

      cuh. and I thought j was the square root of -1 when all along it was i. i of all things.

    •  5 лет назад +4

      Just recently I learned that English doesn't actually have real rules, which is crazy to me as a German, where there are rules for everything in language. And they were even recently changed to be more logical: GAR NICHT SCHEIẞE!

    • @teun4767
      @teun4767 5 лет назад +3

      @ What you mean by 'real rules' because I've studied both English and German and they both have rules.

    •  5 лет назад +4

      @@teun4767 In English, there is no central institution that defines the rules, it's all just convention.

    • @Catchcheese
      @Catchcheese 5 лет назад +1

      Dicky Bannister that’s awesome, that’s why I hate script writing
      P.s it stands for imaginary just Incase you didn’t realize

  • @devincory9695
    @devincory9695 5 лет назад +165

    So 2011 is "disturbingly recent" but 2010 is "the distant past"?

    • @TauGeneration
      @TauGeneration 5 лет назад +14

      2011 is as far into the past from 2019 as 1997 is to 2005

    • @CP110
      @CP110 5 лет назад +50

      gotta draw the line somewhere

    • @hdckighfkvhvgmk
      @hdckighfkvhvgmk 5 лет назад +1

      Well it depends on what it is that is recent, i guess

    • @devincory9695
      @devincory9695 5 лет назад

      @@hdckighfkvhvgmk "anything" I think was what he said.

    • @Fete_Fatale
      @Fete_Fatale 5 лет назад +4

      It's the "rule of 7"
      most of 2011 is within 'seven point something' years ago, while 2010 isn't.

  • @thepeaksandthetroughs
    @thepeaksandthetroughs 4 месяца назад

    Matt Parker is a great math and science communicator. Thanks to Matt and The Royal Institution.

  • @maxjefferison1654
    @maxjefferison1654 5 лет назад +34

    46:20 remembered a quote that is incredibly relevant to what he says here
    "No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong"
    - Albert Einstein
    I remembered that from a Space Engineers loading screen, I don't look up Albert Einstein quotes in my free time fyi

    • @availablehage
      @availablehage 4 года назад +3

      Hahaha what's wrong in looking up quotes in free time😂

    • @mattgilbert7347
      @mattgilbert7347 3 года назад +1

      Dats called falsification. Mr. Popper

  • @martipk
    @martipk 4 года назад +18

    i love how there are so many kids willing to learn, listening in the talk

  • @chrisklinetob7389
    @chrisklinetob7389 4 года назад +1

    Of the 300+ video's I've watched on math and science, Matt Parker is my absolute favorite presenter. I am surprised, however, that a man of his obvious brilliant intellect would to ask, "Can everyone hear me OK?" as if anyone who couldn't hear him could possibly answer a question they haven't been able to hear!?!?! That sounds a bit like asking the audience, "Please raise your hand if you were unable to be here tonight"? LOL!

  • @liam27
    @liam27 5 лет назад +177

    "When maths goes wrong" I'm sorry, did you mean... Parker maths?

    • @lyrimetacurl0
      @lyrimetacurl0 5 лет назад +4

      I came to say something like that too but you said it

    • @DecayedPony
      @DecayedPony 5 лет назад +4

      Parker Maths, when something is so close to being right but is still wrong.

    • @SathvickSatish
      @SathvickSatish 5 лет назад +2

      Liam West haha

    • @starkis14159
      @starkis14159 5 лет назад

      Yessss

    • @robert4445
      @robert4445 5 лет назад

      What is parker maths

  • @WhatnotSoforth
    @WhatnotSoforth 5 лет назад +45

    Buffer Overflows, Hydrazine, and Giant Jenga; An Introduction to Statistics by Matt Parker

  • @SquirrelASMR
    @SquirrelASMR 2 года назад +4

    This makes me realize how easy it is to mess something up. Like imagine writing an entire movie franchise without having these kind of mistakes would be so hard.

  • @ElTurbinado
    @ElTurbinado 5 лет назад +209

    I was expecting a documentary about Parker Squares.

    • @dcs_0
      @dcs_0 5 лет назад +12

      I was looking for this comment

    • @Roescoe
      @Roescoe 5 лет назад +7

      @@dcs_0 it's even titled "Maths Goes Wrong"

    • @petervilla5221
      @petervilla5221 5 лет назад +3

      @@Roescoe That makes this quite the Parker video then, hey?

    • @klobiforpresident2254
      @klobiforpresident2254 5 лет назад +7

      "Is it heads on both sides?"
      "No"
      "Is it tails on one side"
      "Yes"
      A Parker coin.

    • @sandhu22GI
      @sandhu22GI 5 лет назад

      I thought it was Trey Parker

  • @jackbrennan7891
    @jackbrennan7891 5 лет назад +20

    - What happens when MATT goes wrong?
    - They call it a square.

  • @Luke-iq9yk
    @Luke-iq9yk 4 года назад

    Such a naturally talented maths communicator. Wish my math teacher was this engaging.

    • @omp199
      @omp199 3 года назад

      You must have composed that comment on an aeroplane. I can spot the point at which you crossed the Atlantic.

  • @beepboopboop
    @beepboopboop 5 лет назад +63

    This really reinforces my theory that Matt wrote this entire book just to try to justify the Parker Square

    • @KennethSorling
      @KennethSorling 3 года назад +2

      The Parker square needs no justification. Except that it does. That is an inherent property of a Parker square. That is THE inherent property of a Parker square.

  • @mikem.5604
    @mikem.5604 4 года назад +6

    I am 5:00 into the video and i gotta say.. this is why Matt Parker is my fav. maths educator on this planet.

  • @XxShantilisxX
    @XxShantilisxX 4 года назад +2

    When it fell on "probability" the second time I joked to myself, "what's the probability of that!?". When it happened the third time I thought, surely it's rigged, but then I remembered you spinning it at the beginning and then you spun it again. Once you revealed the truth, it put my mind at ease, "oh thank God, it's just someone on the internet lying to me.".

  • @Vandermear
    @Vandermear 5 лет назад +41

    The moment the second probability came up in the vid my suspicion was that it was rigged....and it was...just not when I thought it was and how I thought it would have been.

    • @specialk6984
      @specialk6984 4 года назад +3

      Yeah id have weighted the spinner.

    • @loturzelrestaurant
      @loturzelrestaurant 3 года назад

      I gather people for a good cause:
      I wanna provide people with Links leading to bad or toxic people.
      Mobber, Racists, Sexists, Bullies, more. I got the Links and i
      need help with reporting them.
      People know RUclips has Problems, but... but... I mean... complaining about the State of the world is nice
      and dandy, but... how about acting? Doing something?
      So i made a Wiki where i store Links for all to use.
      You can at least pre-emptive 'block user' regarding the
      Racists and all those, but you can also
      do one thing more and report them, so
      YT becomes a better place.
      I know this was random and also overly summarized, but
      think about it and consider. You can make a difference.
      Means: I gathered and confirmed many Links. And made a Wiki to
      provide the Public with them. Wanna help, too?

  • @sk8rdman
    @sk8rdman 5 лет назад +10

    This is perhaps one of the hardest things to teach: that it's okay to make mistakes.
    The first solution you come to doesn't matter. What does matter is how you came to that solution, and what you do to make subsequent solutions better.

  • @markalexwhite
    @markalexwhite 3 года назад +1

    20:38 Round of applause for total destruction of Jenga buildings! :-)

  • @donfox1036
    @donfox1036 5 лет назад +25

    There is no such thing as a single dice. It is called a die. Don't be fooled by those who insist that you should never say die.

    • @stevepalmer4521
      @stevepalmer4521 5 лет назад +4

      Times are changing - en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/dice - "Historically, dice is the plural of die, but in modern standard English dice is both the singular and the plural: throw the dice could mean a reference to either one or more than one dice."

    • @thesuomi8550
      @thesuomi8550 5 лет назад +1

      Both are correct nowadays

    • @Peter_1986
      @Peter_1986 5 лет назад +1

      People really should say "dice" for the singular form and "dices" for the plural form.
      The only reason why people are uncomfortable with those forms is because those aren't the official spellings.

    • @qwertyuiopzxcfgh
      @qwertyuiopzxcfgh 5 лет назад

      Wait, if dice is plural and die is singular, does that mean rice is plural and rie is singular?

    • @Peter_1986
      @Peter_1986 5 лет назад +1

      @@qwertyuiopzxcfgh
      Not really, most languages are just arbitrary like that.
      Ideally, all words should use regular forms, since this would be much more convenient, but reality is always more complex than that.

  • @jacob8565
    @jacob8565 4 года назад +80

    As pratchett once said "A one in a million chance happens 9 times out of 10"

    • @amauryleblanc7979
      @amauryleblanc7979 4 года назад +1

      there was one chance in a million that I would find this particular comment

    • @solarean
      @solarean 4 года назад

      @@amauryleblanc7979 no there actually was 2863/1

    • @monsieuralfonse8070
      @monsieuralfonse8070 3 года назад +2

      @@solarean You mean the reciprocal, 1/2863. Altho its more now

    • @solarean
      @solarean 3 года назад

      @@monsieuralfonse8070 ah lol i got confused

    • @Gunno77
      @Gunno77 3 года назад +3

      @@amauryleblanc7979 there was one chance in a million that I would find this particular comment amusing

  • @donsmith717
    @donsmith717 2 года назад

    I found this video while aimlessly browsing (It's COVID time and I'm bored). Well, it could be a turning point in my life, or not... But either way, thank you so much for sharing your time, energy, friends, and family with the rest of us. For now, my lips are frozen in the shape of a big warm smile.

  • @Attabasca
    @Attabasca 5 лет назад +12

    He does such a good job with his lectures. So much fun to watch!

  • @Zalheide
    @Zalheide 5 лет назад +121

    Can’t believe i just watched an hour long math vid

    • @TheRoyalInstitution
      @TheRoyalInstitution  5 лет назад +109

      Matt's a real gateway drug. First this talk, then this one - ruclips.net/video/1wAaI_6b9JE/видео.html, then before you know it, you'll be all the way to this one - ruclips.net/video/iHKa8F-RsEM/видео.html

    • @L1ttleWarrior13
      @L1ttleWarrior13 5 лет назад +37

      @@TheRoyalInstitution nice play

    • @kishorekumarsathishkumar1562
      @kishorekumarsathishkumar1562 4 года назад +3

      @@L1ttleWarrior13 lol

    • @benjio6046
      @benjio6046 3 года назад

      I left immediately after posting this after hearing him call "math" "maths" its just annoying.

  • @henk-3098
    @henk-3098 3 года назад +4

    Although I will probably (pun intended) never be a huge maths enthusiast myself. I can appreciate the fun you can do with it and the important part it plays in the world we live in. Thanks for this interesting video! My younger self would've never believed I'd spend an entire hour watching a video about math in my spare time and enjoy it ;-).

  • @andreakritidis6231
    @andreakritidis6231 5 лет назад +22

    Is the second book going to be called “Humble Tau”?

  • @YostPeter
    @YostPeter 5 лет назад +7

    9:55 I love how you just gloss right over that "a lot of my friends procreate" joke. Hidden gem.

  • @BroudbrunMusicMerge
    @BroudbrunMusicMerge 3 года назад

    "Texas - undone by a Lone Star."
    Thank you for that joke. Got a jolly chuckle and made my day brighter

  • @bencheevers6693
    @bencheevers6693 5 лет назад +104

    When Maths Goes Wrong
    *Parker square intensifies*

  • @diamondflaw
    @diamondflaw 5 лет назад +7

    "I don't want to live on the moon" seems oddly appropriate since I was just watching Umbrella Academy.

  • @The1JTA
    @The1JTA Год назад

    Great Presentation - I like math because no matter how long it takes me to get to a solution, the math never gets mad or frustrated - it patiently waits for me to succeed!

  • @WeWereYoungandCrazy
    @WeWereYoungandCrazy 5 лет назад +16

    11:30 "That's not a bad angle for the shuttle taking off". Except the shuttle takes off vertically.

    • @joeydunn7727
      @joeydunn7727 5 лет назад +8

      It has to leave the atmosphere at an angle or else the friction from the atmosphere burns up the shuttle. Like how it is softer to dive into a pool than it is to do a cannon ball.

    • @johnmurrell3175
      @johnmurrell3175 4 года назад +1

      @@joeydunn7727 Agreed - what you need to achieve is velocity parallel to the Earths surface if you want to go into orbit.

  • @BertGrink
    @BertGrink 5 лет назад +47

    When Matt first explained that each of the dies could beat the next one in a circle, I immediately thought of Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock

  • @sabinrawr
    @sabinrawr Месяц назад +1

    55:20 I feel betrayed. Well played...

  • @cambrown5633
    @cambrown5633 5 лет назад +48

    Behind the Scenes: When Matts go Wrong

  • @codypendant6745
    @codypendant6745 5 лет назад +6

    I have 4 probability events similar to the young couple who were strangers in the same photograph as children:
    1. My sister was visiting Hawaii with a girlfriend and while there, unexpectedly met the husband of another friend. She recognized him. Turns out that she had met him 40 years earlier at his house when we were all children. We were at their house to encounter buggy driving with Shettland ponies. I was 8. Why she remembered the boy and this event was because of her keen interest in the beautiful drawing of a male African lion's head on the wall of this boy's bedroom (which he had drawn). She was a budding artist at the time. Fast forward up to her trip to Hawaii and recognizing him although he was thoroughly stumped who this woman was who was describing his childhood home to great detail back in California 1966.
    2. My niece was getting married in Washington state into a family of preachers. The the family tree branch this young man was on was lateral to the one that I and my siblings were familiar with, but with the same sir name and same grandmother. At the family dinner prior to the wedding day, I was seated at the patriarchal table next to the matriarch of the family, herself. We strike up conversation and she asks me where I live. (central California) She says, "Is that a fact", well do you know my dear friend Victor D.?" I reply, astonished, "why, yes I know him, in fact we play music at church together almost every week!!... How do you...?" . She replies, "we adopted him and his family when he was a child in Burma. How is he doing?"
    3. My daughter, who grew up in Central California, decided to attend college out of state. Her best friend, Meg, would take my daughter home with her during breaks because of the long distance back home to California. On one occasion, Meg's uncle states, "So, I understand we are related." Intrigued, my daughter asks how they could be related.
    "If your last name is _________, and your dad's name is _________, then your grandfather is Donald, his father was Walt, mother Ev.....and proceeded to name off our immediate up-line (to borrow a marketing term) all the way to the branching where their family name changed when their great grandmother married. The girls became cousins after being friends for years.
    4. My most improbable event because of the ending....read on.
    Just before entering high school our family moved from southern California to central Pennsylvania. I attended a boarding academy there. In early Fall of my sophomore year, a busload of us students were on a club or band trip. As luck would have it, I got to sit with several very cute girls, chatting about this and that, and well, just about everything. Suddenly all the mannerisms of one of them reminded me of a former classmate I'd had a crush on in grade school back in California, a mere 4 years earlier. I turned to her and exclaimed, "sweetie, do you know who you remind me of??!! When I opened my mouth to utter the answer, what was heard was in the voice of one of the other new girls to the school: "Theresa ________!!!" she shot out in unison to my own "Theresa________!!!" "Wait!! Where do you know Theresa from??!!" California. "Wait!!, where do YOU know her from??!!" "Montana". It really IS a smaller world then we expect.

  • @skykincaid5644
    @skykincaid5644 4 года назад +9

    Matt: I flipped this specific coin 10,000 times.
    Me: Of course you did.

    • @omikronweapon
      @omikronweapon 4 года назад +1

      I can only hope he rigged some automatic system. But I know he didn't xD

  • @EtzEchad
    @EtzEchad 5 лет назад +7

    Wonderful video! I really enjoyed it.
    One quibble though. The Ariane 5 failure was not a math error. It was a software engineering failure. The program was designed correctly for the requirements they had for Ariane 4. The problem is that they didn't recheck it for the range of inputs that the Ariane 5 would produce. The failure would've been detected if they had simply simulated the launch. (IIRC, they did see it in some simulations but they just rebooted and ran it again. I could be wrong about this.)
    They had redundant data processing units in the rocket and they assumed that if there was a crash, the other units would take over. Unfortunately, all the computers were using the same inputs and the same software, so they all simultaneously crashed.
    This is a classic software engineering cautionary tale about the dangers of reusing software.

    • @petertattam7043
      @petertattam7043 2 года назад +1

      and an even greater one of taking shortcuts, and not looking into all the what ifs. cascading failures indicate an inherent overall software design fault

    • @andrewwigglesworth3030
      @andrewwigglesworth3030 2 года назад

      Computer software is mathematics.

    • @EtzEchad
      @EtzEchad 2 года назад

      @@andrewwigglesworth3030
      No. Programming is technical writing.
      It is a form of literature.

    • @andrewwigglesworth3030
      @andrewwigglesworth3030 2 года назад

      @@EtzEchad Ask a computer :-P
      btw. I wrote "software."