Stand-up comedy routine about bad science

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  • Опубликовано: 5 ноя 2018
  • DVD, download and floppy disk available here: fotsn.com/ycpandvd
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    Matt's video here: • Stand-up comedy routin...
    I make comedy shows about science with Festival Of The Spoken Nerd. Here's a clip from our latest show where I dismantle a poorly worded scientific fact.
    We also sell t-shirts and a bunch of other stuff.
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Комментарии • 1,3 тыс.

  • @zacksinger4366
    @zacksinger4366 5 лет назад +499

    5:55 I'm sad that the joke wasn't "... Then the temperature outside of the airplane is -18C / 6 = -3C."

    • @runforitman
      @runforitman 3 года назад +26

      exactly what I was expecting

    • @randomguy-
      @randomguy- 2 года назад +4

      I was waiting for this the entire video.

  • @skyclaw
    @skyclaw 4 года назад +739

    I’m still left with the question of what the authors of the book actually thought they were saying.

    • @anhuynhpc
      @anhuynhpc 4 года назад +13

      I don't think they was trying to say that as a number, since the number that we used to represent for the temperature is in such a different scale. For example, we can convert a temperature from Fahrenheit to Celsius using number, but when it come to describe the relationship between them without using the equation is not possible. If you draw the two scale on top of each other, it will not be possible or at least confusing to look at because it involved both geometric and arithmetic series at the same time. But I am not too good at this, and even struggle to explain what I am thinking so please just know that this is just what I think.

    • @FKProds
      @FKProds 3 года назад +105

      Maybe the authors incorrectly thought it was -108C (-18*6) outside of an aeroplane based on bad research?
      Or they they were given a different temperature for a freezer in Fahrenheit, say something like -10 Fahrenheit (-23C). That would make it -60F/-51C, which isn't far off.
      Terrible fact, regardless.

    • @nagualdesign
      @nagualdesign 3 года назад +118

      @@FKProds _"Terrible fact, regardless."_
      Or as I like to call it, fiction.

    • @PinataOblongata
      @PinataOblongata 3 года назад +82

      @@nagualdesign Or as conservatives like to call them, "alternative facts".

    • @SpencerTwiddy
      @SpencerTwiddy 2 года назад +18

      @@PinataOblongata liberals*

  • @wardrich
    @wardrich 5 лет назад +2574

    Canadian here... I'd agree that -10°C is about the time when it actually starts feeling cold out.

    • @NOTNOTJON
      @NOTNOTJON 5 лет назад +92

      also Canadian. Also agree that -10c is where it starts to get cold.

    • @TheDarkestSmurf
      @TheDarkestSmurf 5 лет назад +56

      Cold as in a muffler, a coat, and gloves are being worn, or cold as in putting on a cardigan over your t-shirt?

    • @wardrich
      @wardrich 5 лет назад +40

      @@TheDarkestSmurf that's definitely into winter coat and gloves territory. -20 is about your face starts to burn from the cold, and your coat material stiffens and makes a weird crinkley sound.

    • @The_R_Vid
      @The_R_Vid 5 лет назад +66

      Also Canadian. Used to work as a bike messenger on the prairies. Shorts with bare legs to -5C, Shorts with leggings until -10C, then full length pants and ear warmers below that. -30C, call in 'sick'.

    • @cubethesquid3919
      @cubethesquid3919 5 лет назад +33

      Minnesotan here. Roughly the same. You know it's cold when you walk outside and your nostrils freeze. But after a few months of -20 to -30 degrees F, -10 is jacket weather.

  • @vistheindian
    @vistheindian 5 лет назад +2842

    This video is 6 times funnier than a stand-up comedy routine about good science

    • @Fearnil
      @Fearnil 5 лет назад +49

      Are you counting in °Carlin or °Pryor?

    • @U014B
      @U014B 5 лет назад +39

      *roughly 2pi times

    • @sevret313
      @sevret313 5 лет назад +26

      Or is it six times less boring?

    • @stephenbenner4353
      @stephenbenner4353 5 лет назад +20

      Jokes at the expense of Canadians are six times funnier than jokes at the expense of Americans.

    • @neilh.4385
      @neilh.4385 5 лет назад +7

      Don't you mean that this science is 6 times worse that the science in a stand-up comedy routine about good science?

  • @BrotherAlpha
    @BrotherAlpha 5 лет назад +2584

    Steve: "Coldness starts at -10.6 degrees Celsius."
    Me: "As a Canadian, I agree."
    Steve: "The authors were Canadian."
    Me: "Knew it!"

    • @mravenger3070
      @mravenger3070 5 лет назад +133

      In india cold starts at 27 degrees celsius

    • @BrotherAlpha
      @BrotherAlpha 5 лет назад +158

      @@mravenger3070 As a Canadian, 27 degrees Celsius is where I start to have heat stroke. I'm being 100% serious.

    • @mravenger3070
      @mravenger3070 5 лет назад +41

      @@BrotherAlpha Here we call its now summer when its 38 degrees celsius
      It reaches to 45 degrees

    • @mravenger3070
      @mravenger3070 5 лет назад +16

      @@BrotherAlpha ummm highest temprature in my town = 29 max 19 min
      Temprature in toronto=6 max -1
      I googled it
      I literally was shocked
      I have never seen snow in my life

    • @Peter_1986
      @Peter_1986 5 лет назад +8

      In Sweden "cold" starts at around 0°C.

  • @gurmeet0108
    @gurmeet0108 5 лет назад +878

    7:27, he says "pi" and subtitles says "half tau"

    • @alexwang982
      @alexwang982 4 года назад +71

      >:(

    • @Paul-yu4ep
      @Paul-yu4ep 4 года назад +55

      You know Matt made them ;)

    • @BlissToby
      @BlissToby 4 года назад +5

      steve, it worked, I'm convinced now

    • @Tentin.Quarantino
      @Tentin.Quarantino 4 года назад +22

      That’s a Parker subtitle

    • @AlienValkyrie
      @AlienValkyrie 4 года назад +39

      @@Paul-yu4ep No, because Matt is a staunchly pi-ous. Steve is the tau-ist.

  • @dave_jones
    @dave_jones 5 лет назад +530

    All my dinner parties start and end with slideshows about various topics of which my guests are wrong about. I throw awesome dinner parties.

  • @mattking8016
    @mattking8016 5 лет назад +341

    I love how when at 7:27 when Steve says, "it's actually a pretty decent approximation to pi," the closed captions read "a pretty decent approximation to half Tau." Wonder who wrote up the captions...

    • @TotoDG
      @TotoDG 4 года назад +9

      Probably a Warhammer enthusiast.

    • @spma07
      @spma07 4 года назад +4

      Automatically generated

    • @HermitianAdjoint
      @HermitianAdjoint 4 года назад +10

      Vi Hart?

    • @THExRISER
      @THExRISER 4 года назад +3

      AVE IMPERATOR!!

    • @redpepper74
      @redpepper74 4 года назад +12

      10:31 I bet it was himself

  • @tilhanab6307
    @tilhanab6307 5 лет назад +61

    That was SO satisfying. I feel like I have these kind of monologues in my head whenever someone says something they think is science but actually isn't, but whenever I try to point out why it makes no sense, they roll their eyes and say I'm being too literal or missing the point.
    One additional argument that you came close to but didn't quite articulate, though, is the difference between interval and ratio scales. Both types require that the intervals between consecutive numbers are equal (so 1 unit is a fixed size, no matter where in the scale it occurs), but in ratio scales, there must be an absolute zero, which indicates an absence of the property. So height, for example, is a ratio scale, because 0 feet means no height. But temperature, at least when measured in C or F, is an interval scale, because 0C or 0F do not mean "no heat". It's just an arbitrary point on the scale, and measurements can be taken that are below zero. Kelvin, however, IS a ratio scale, because 0 degrees K DOES mean "no heat." So any time someone uses "x times colder" or "x times hotter", they MUST be assumed to be using the Kelvin scale, otherwise they are simply wrong, because you can't talk about interval scales that way. It was gracious of you to allow that they might be talking about the C or F scale, but let's face it, if they were, they'd still be wrong, even if the numbers added up. -30C is not 3 times colder than -10C because the numbers on the C scale are arbitrary and not a literal measurement of how many units of heat are in the system.
    I'm sure you know all this already, it just doesn't translate as well into comedy.

    • @SteveMould
      @SteveMould  5 лет назад +28

      Thanks for articulating this. I guess I knew, but hadn't considered it formally like that.

    • @eragon78
      @eragon78 8 месяцев назад +6

      Yea, when I heard "6x colder" my immediate thought was to convert it to Kelvin, and find 1/6th the value. (as 6x colder would be the inverse of 6x hotter. 6x hotter being a multiplication of 6, and 6x colder therefore being a division of 6, or a multiplication of 1/6).
      But yea, even that wasn't accurate so I have no idea how the authors actually came up with the 6x colder value.

    • @MurderWho
      @MurderWho 7 месяцев назад +6

      @@eragon78 My first guess was that some phenomenon, such as water freezing, happens six times faster on an airplane wing than in a freezer.
      And after looking everything up, I think that may possibly be the right answer? A 4mm wide droplet takes about 6s to freeze at 0F/-17C, and about 1s to freeze at -50C/-58F. Since this is relevant to wing icing, I suspect some article somewhere probably said something like "Water droplets freeze 6x faster on an airplane wing than in a freezer", which is what got turned into this "fact".
      The main problem, of course, is that this depends on the size of the droplet, and although 4mm is a fairly standard size of water droplet, I should also admit that I picked the size of water droplet to fit the 6x ratio.

    • @eragon78
      @eragon78 7 месяцев назад +1

      @@MurderWho That could maybe be it yea. Often times these highly inaccurate news sites just rip some statement from some paper or other article they found and parrot it around without any of the context at all, and even change wording to make it sound better while also completely changing the original meaning.
      So yea, your explanation could potentially be the source of the misunderstanding, but at the same time it could be any number of other mistakes being made. Its really not possible to track it down though without a source for where the authors got the original "fact".
      But yea, your idea seems like a good attempt at an potentially plausible explanation.

  • @MedlifeCrisis
    @MedlifeCrisis 5 лет назад +655

    Steve I might take you up on your offer, but be warned - you've let yourself in for a challenge. My mother in law believes in astrology and homeopathy. Her visits are such fun.

    • @carlosbarzottowirti1895
      @carlosbarzottowirti1895 3 года назад +20

      You been a doctor, I can only imagine the pain

    • @AlexandreJWKlaus
      @AlexandreJWKlaus 3 года назад +3

      you, a doctor!

    • @PedroNacht
      @PedroNacht 3 года назад +10

      In that case, the proper comedian to invite to your dinner is Tom Minchin; just give his song "Storm" a listen and you'll understand what I mean.

    • @johannesvahlkvist
      @johannesvahlkvist 3 года назад +7

      @@PedroNacht tim* minchin, but yeah i had the same first thought

    • @GuinessOriginal
      @GuinessOriginal 2 года назад +1

      Every video I watch! They say if you want to know what a woman will be like when she's older look at her mother

  • @m8edofallm8eds
    @m8edofallm8eds 4 года назад +110

    7:18 I cried, what a perfect delivery

    • @37thraven
      @37thraven 2 года назад +8

      He nailed so many nerdy jokes like a pro :)
      I noticed that he got flustered when the panelists commented "some airplanes have freezers", because it threw off his rhythm. So i'm guessing the bits were rehearsed. (No shame in that. Professional comedians practice bits with notes too, and many get thrown by hecklers)

  • @aspie96
    @aspie96 5 лет назад +499

    "We are all outside of an airplane..." That, actually, is an incredibly smart point, and it DOES matter a lot. Like!

    • @molly.dog8brooke792
      @molly.dog8brooke792 4 года назад +1

      aspie96
      #Showerthoughts

    • @ianwang8688
      @ianwang8688 4 года назад +20

      Are all airplanes outside of an airplane?

    • @redpepper74
      @redpepper74 4 года назад +18

      Ian Wang All airplanes are outside of all other airplanes, unless they’re inside them 😦

    • @Batman-zi5hh
      @Batman-zi5hh 2 года назад +2

      @@ianwang8688 !! NOBODY THOUGHT OF THAT!!

  • @vale.antoni
    @vale.antoni Год назад +59

    Matt's "Come on!" face at 7:25 just puts that joke on another level

    • @fredeisele1895
      @fredeisele1895 8 месяцев назад

      I thought it was more “come on, well…. yeah I guess that is within the humor error factor, so, ok”.

  • @zeikjt
    @zeikjt 5 лет назад +394

    I knew we'd get some 0 shenanigans at some point, was not disappointed!

    • @Name-ps9fx
      @Name-ps9fx 4 года назад +1

      ZeikJT
      I was hoping to get 6 times more shenanigans, but this will have to do.

  • @oafkad
    @oafkad 5 лет назад +249

    Oh no. I'm stuck in an infinite loop between these two videos.

  • @nitePhyyre
    @nitePhyyre 5 лет назад +32

    When you said the authors feel that -10 was when it starts to get cold, my first thought was, "Yeah, that sounds about right. That's the temperature when I stop wearing sweaters and start wearing my winter coat."
    I'm Canadian too.

  • @georgeruiz9211
    @georgeruiz9211 4 года назад +164

    No one
    Callum : *noclips into earth*

    • @falconerd343
      @falconerd343 4 года назад +3

      And ends up in The Backrooms (head to r/TrueBackrooms on reddit for the reference)

    • @ZenoDovahkiin
      @ZenoDovahkiin 4 года назад +9

      @@falconerd343 You go to r/ihavereddit instead.

    • @0LoneTech
      @0LoneTech 3 года назад +1

      It's not that he's in the Earth; he's just occupying negative space.

  • @loreleihillard5078
    @loreleihillard5078 5 лет назад +188

    Watching the two videos side by side was a fun but weird experience. It's a shame that Steve's clip finished a few seconds before Matt's, so by the end, they were out of sync. It got especially trippy after I'd re-synced them and the two Matts and two Steves were all talking in unison.

    • @maxximumb
      @maxximumb 5 лет назад +4

      I tried that, it is trippy.

  • @199NickYT
    @199NickYT 4 года назад +17

    8:48 "We've got all the numbers, we can WORK OUT THE TEMPERATURE--"
    instantly favorited.

  • @kuark99
    @kuark99 4 года назад +56

    3:57 "Or ARE THEY?"
    *Vsauce theme starts playing"

  • @ethangilchrist3534
    @ethangilchrist3534 5 лет назад +17

    Matt's face at 7:34 just might be the best thing I've seen all day

  • @Faxfaces
    @Faxfaces 5 лет назад +139

    Love the τ vs π at the end!

  • @Mbd3Bal7dod
    @Mbd3Bal7dod 5 лет назад +25

    Saudi here, it start to get cold after 22C

  • @xinthralgaming
    @xinthralgaming 4 года назад +22

    10:02-10:10 "Cause Helen thinks she's hilarious..." That made me laugh the hardest

  • @kiwanoish
    @kiwanoish 5 лет назад +14

    Loving this! But, just for the fun of it: At 4:37, I understand it's a joke, but isn't it still a bit inconsistent (I know this is your point later on =) ) But still, even right there, either Alice is 0.5+3=3.5 meters, since its "six times taller than" and not "six times as tall", or Alice is 3 meters, but then the only sensible interpretation of Callums length is \approx 0.1667 m (which is literally wrong but still the interpretation most would make). I think you should change Alice length to 3.5m. Right now, you interpret 'times taller (shorter) than' in two different ways your self ;)

  • @Nixitur
    @Nixitur 5 лет назад +563

    If Alice is 6 times taller than Bob, doesn't that make her 3.5 meters tall? What you said would be "6 times _as_ tall".
    In fact, you used that same logic with the Callum/Debbie case because you multiplied Debbie's height by 6, and then _subtracted_ it from the original value. By that calculation, "6 times taller than" means multiplying by 6, and then adding onto the original value.

    • @AntsanParcher
      @AntsanParcher 5 лет назад +36

      Goddammit, you said it better than me.

    • @RichardBronosky
      @RichardBronosky 5 лет назад +50

      YES! Saying “adjective” + “er” means factor +1. But in marketing you always want the greatest factor so you should say “factor times as adjective” rather than “factor times adjective-er”. Clear?

    • @alexandertheartist1
      @alexandertheartist1 5 лет назад +5

      Nixitur I thought the same thing!

    • @standupmaths
      @standupmaths 5 лет назад +234

      Nixitur You’re on the wrong channel for rigorous maths.

    • @RFC3514
      @RFC3514 5 лет назад +53

      That is a much more valid issue than Steve's obsession with the expression "N times shorter / smaller / etc.". If "taller" means "multiply", "shorter" means divide. The issue is with "taller" vs. "as tall". The former implies you're measuring the _additional_ tallness, not just looking at the ratio between them.

  • @ryanpaull8517
    @ryanpaull8517 5 лет назад +271

    I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks statements in the form of y is x times less than z are nonsense. I'm also glad that someone far more articulate than myself can explain why using humor .

    • @RFC3514
      @RFC3514 5 лет назад +26

      They are not nonsense (let alone "nonsence" [sic]) if you have an appropriate scale. If "6 times taller" means "multiply by 6" (*), then "6 times shorter" simply means "divide by 6". But you do need to know the exact scale you're using.
      (*) You can still argue about whether "6 times taller" means the same as "6 times as tall" (i.e., if one thing is "6 times taller" than the other, does that mean it's actually 7 times as tall?).

    • @raykent3211
      @raykent3211 5 лет назад +19

      @@RFC3514 your suggestion works for positive numbers but not for negative ones. Half of four is smaller than four, but half of minus four is bigger than minus four. So the choice of zero point on some scale is essential. Steve shows that for the kelvin scale, which remains positive, the assertion is obviously wrong, and seeks a scale such that it could be justified. Which appears to be entirely arbitrary. So I conclude that he's right and that the assertion is devoid of meaning. What is 6 times colder than 0 Celsius? Well, zero, obviously.

    • @ryanpaull8517
      @ryanpaull8517 5 лет назад +1

      ​@@RFC3514 I disagree, but I don't care enough to debate. It just sounds silly in my humble opinion

    • @ryanpaull8517
      @ryanpaull8517 5 лет назад +3

      @@raykent3211 i found this as well: timesless.com/

    • @RFC3514
      @RFC3514 5 лет назад +6

      > It just sounds silly
      Welcome to the English language. ;)
      > your suggestion works for positive numbers but not for negative ones.
      Works fine for negative numbers. If -10 is "cold", then "half as cold" is -5, which is less cold. And "six times as cold" would be -60, which is colder. As long as you know which scale you're working on, it works fine (the issue that remains is whether "5x _colder"_ means the same as "5x as cold", or if it means "the original coldness plus 5x the original coldness").
      And Steve shows that particular statement (the one mentioned in the book / video) is wrong for *all* (common) scales.

  • @s-t-f
    @s-t-f 5 лет назад +21

    8:31 - Sounds like the definition of the Fahrenheit scale.

    • @Scum42
      @Scum42 3 года назад +4

      This is a great joke, except that implies that Fahrenheit believed that coldness starts at -17.8 C, which is even less than the Canadian authors!

  • @Mephistahpheles
    @Mephistahpheles 5 лет назад +14

    Love this! I regularly see, and regularly squirm, when I see advertisements making the same mistake.
    "This shampoo makes your hair 5x cleaner!" Say what?!

    • @BrightBlueJim
      @BrightBlueJim 5 лет назад +2

      "This light bulb uses 300% less energy."

    • @Mephistahpheles
      @Mephistahpheles 5 лет назад

      @@BrightBlueJim lol Yup.

    • @jubuttib
      @jubuttib 4 года назад +4

      5x cleaner is probably one of the more defensible ones I tend to see, you could argue it means the shampoo removes 6 times as much dirt as the comparison shampoo. Still absolute garbage. =P
      (And yes, I said 6 times as much, because 5 times more = 6 times as much. ;))

    • @Fungo4
      @Fungo4 4 года назад +2

      @@jubuttib That comparison shampoo must be worthless if it removes less than a sixth of the dirt already present! Unless the good shampoo LEAVES 1/6 the dirt the old one does...?

    • @jubuttib
      @jubuttib 4 года назад +1

      @@Fungo4 it's all a crapshoot when they try to put it like that. =)

  • @heart-bitstudio6163
    @heart-bitstudio6163 3 года назад +6

    the best part is how he slowly falls into insanity while arguing in the course of the video

  • @MrGallagher
    @MrGallagher 5 лет назад +2

    "The download costs just [half tau | pi] pounds..."
    In a segment where I laughed really hard (partly because I've had a similar argument about multiplying "coldness"), that may have been the loudest burst of laughter. Thank you, all three of you, for all of this!

  • @anotherviewofthings
    @anotherviewofthings 5 лет назад +3

    Amazingly enough, the last equation that determines when the coldness starts gives same temperature for coldness start, whether you apply it in Fahrenheit or Kelvin. Bravo.

  • @macnolds4145
    @macnolds4145 5 лет назад +3

    All these problems result from the fact that temperature does not belong to the *ratio* scale on the Scales of Measurement (a helpful acronym is "NOIR"- nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio). Only in the ratio scale, where there is a "real zero", would multiplication/division makes sense. Temperature is interval- that is, only addition/subtraction makes sense. Any student in an introductory stats course would learn this on the first day of the course. However, this video does a great job of explaining why we have scales of measurement and how to identify situations where one may be unsure if the appropriate scale is interval or ratio.

    • @BrightBlueJim
      @BrightBlueJim 5 лет назад

      But as he says in the video, even if you try it in Kelvins (which IS a ratio scale), the "six times colder" statement is still way off.

  • @lukesmith5018
    @lukesmith5018 3 года назад +3

    "I often get emails from friends and family asking me to fix something"
    I get that as a doctor, and my reaction is the same

  • @BenCazzola
    @BenCazzola 3 года назад +1

    Im lucky enough to have seen the live show. Absolutely brilliant. Hungry for more

  • @Lawrence330
    @Lawrence330 4 года назад +1

    Absolutely brilliant, I hope to see more of his work!

  • @johnyepthomi892
    @johnyepthomi892 3 года назад +6

    Need more of science stand-up. It's captivating and educational.

  • @letartean
    @letartean 5 лет назад +30

    What is the source of that "fact"? I wish I could share it with my students to talk about absolute and relative measures...

    • @tilhanab6307
      @tilhanab6307 5 лет назад +1

      www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-interval-and-vs-ratio/

  • @lansfriszt7767
    @lansfriszt7767 Год назад +6

    Cold *does* start at -10°C, according to most landlords.

  • @JeremiahFrye
    @JeremiahFrye 5 лет назад +31

    Okay, but did you manage to fix the printer?

  • @user-cs5rg1ny8l
    @user-cs5rg1ny8l 3 года назад +7

    I would like to get more stand ups like these in future.

  • @davisdiercks
    @davisdiercks 5 лет назад +3

    This is the kind of content I live for 😂😂😂 I'm in tears lol

  • @cQunc
    @cQunc 5 лет назад +9

    7:25
    Steve: "pretty decent approximation to pi"
    Closed Captions: "pretty decent approximation to half Tau"

    • @MotoCat91
      @MotoCat91 5 лет назад +1

      Just saw this myself and is genuinely the best part of the whole video for those who follow the antics of these two

    • @josephhayden8844
      @josephhayden8844 3 года назад

      Sad they fixed it before I saw it:(

    • @Apollo_2763
      @Apollo_2763 8 месяцев назад

      God dang it

  • @FyaaahS
    @FyaaahS 4 года назад +1

    OMG what a paradoxial statement! Thank you for highlighting this "problem".
    Love to you!

  • @shadowfire04
    @shadowfire04 4 года назад +4

    4:47 made me laugh really hard
    just the mental image
    of a guy
    who walks around underground
    is HILARIOUS

  • @JimFortune
    @JimFortune 4 года назад +6

    But what about using the original Celsius scale where zero is the boiling point of water at one atmosphere and 100 is the freezing point?
    Freezer = 118 x 6 = 708
    Zero Kelvin = 373.15
    Airplane = 155
    Hmmm. Nope.

  • @smertonosnyibratni
    @smertonosnyibratni 4 года назад +1

    This is a wonderful work of art. My favorite stand up comedy routine to date.

  • @grandmasternyx1514
    @grandmasternyx1514 5 лет назад +1

    AMAZING INTRO AND OUTRO, between both vids I had a laughing fit. Glad I subscribed, thank you wonderful person.

  • @AstroFerko
    @AstroFerko 5 лет назад +78

    and they're Canadian lol

    • @meithecatte8492
      @meithecatte8492 5 лет назад +12

      I don't get that joke. Could you please explain it?

    • @twistedsim
      @twistedsim 5 лет назад +18

      @@meithecatte8492 it's cold in Canada. Canadians think cold starts at -10C. That mean it's hot for them above -10C.

    • @coryman125
      @coryman125 5 лет назад +18

      @@twistedsim Am Canadian, can confirm anything above -10C is hot

    • @StarshipVGer
      @StarshipVGer 5 лет назад +12

      @@twistedsim Am also Canadian, can also confirm anything above -10C is hot.

    • @yukimoe
      @yukimoe 5 лет назад +8

      @@twistedsimAlso Canadian, also confirming anything above -10°C is hot.

  • @coryman125
    @coryman125 5 лет назад +74

    Honestly, this phrasing has been bugging me for some time now, and I'm glad I have a good source to back up my disagreeing with it :P
    Also you're a scientist, can you fix my printer quickly?

    • @dmarsub
      @dmarsub 5 лет назад +2

      Actually temperature is a logarithmic scale.
      A 10 degree difference describes a duplication in reactivity/atom movement. Therefore a 25 degree difference is 6 times as hot or 6 times as cold.
      He is wrong. :)

    • @DANGJOS
      @DANGJOS 5 лет назад

      @@dmarsub What??

    • @2drewbaker
      @2drewbaker 5 лет назад +1

      I bet he could fix your printer 6 times faster than you could.

    • @coolguy284_2
      @coolguy284_2 5 лет назад

      @@dmarsub This is wrong on so many levels. We would not have absolute zero then, and the ideal gas equation would be wrong. And, your explanation is wrong also, because 2^2.5=5.65, not 6. OTOH, this would make an interesting astronomical unit, with the baseline being 273.15K = 0 units.

    • @dmarsub
      @dmarsub 5 лет назад

      @@coolguy284_2 i am talking about reactivity/relative atom movement, you are talking about absolute atom movement.
      We are talking about two different things, mine is just more practical in the range we live in and for most reaction that concern us, but yours is simpler and hence more precise.

  • @bobsquaredme
    @bobsquaredme 5 лет назад +1

    Great stuff. I just bought a copy. Thanks, Steve!

  • @FullOfFallaciesVideo
    @FullOfFallaciesVideo 4 года назад +2

    VERY skeptical to the possibility of "Science Comedy" -- even after seeing this admittedly funny, creative, and very well-executed routine, ESPECIALLY because I've had VERY, VERY, VERY similar experiences (yes, that's plural, as in I've had multiple, uncannily similar experiences)...
    NO, this is NOT a plug, and I think this may even be the first time I've even so much as commented any any/every social media, or otherwise, related to Steve Mould), so I BOUGHT THE DVD... WOW! You pulled it off as near to comic perfection as could be, considering the topic{s} -- and, of course, I also have to mention those up there on stage with you as well... VERY FUNNY! GREAT WORK! THX!

  • @thomasnickel8808
    @thomasnickel8808 5 лет назад +19

    Having lived in Finland for many years I think this is true. At - 10 C it starts to feel important to roll my sleeves down.

    • @serenityrahn5656
      @serenityrahn5656 5 лет назад +3

      as a person privileged to have lived in Barrow, Alaska for 7 glorious years, i can state categorically that 0 (F) with no wind is a day of beautiful weather ...

  • @MatterStorm1
    @MatterStorm1 5 лет назад +14

    I'm more curious if it's valid in terms of coldness meaning: the rate at which a human body loses heat based off of temperature, pressure, and wind speed. which is the effective feeling of coldness. probably still not 6 but if "coldness" should mean anything in pop science, I think it should mean that.

    • @whollypotatoes
      @whollypotatoes 5 лет назад +3

      I think this is on the right track. "Cold" is a relative term. For all we know the authors could have meant that water would freeze 6 times more quickly outside an airplane than in a freezer. This characterization of "colder" is more akin to what we feel as "cold"

    • @dmarsub
      @dmarsub 5 лет назад

      @@whollypotatoes temperature is a logarithmic scale a 10 degree difference means something is twice as hot.
      A 25 degree difference means something is 6 times as hot (or cold)
      Thats why his use of the scale makes no sense, because he doesn't understand it.
      And the difference between -18 C and -55 C is 35 so its about 12 times as cold objectively.

    • @whollypotatoes
      @whollypotatoes 5 лет назад

      @@dmarsub 10 degrees in what units?

    • @dmarsub
      @dmarsub 5 лет назад

      @@whollypotatoes kelvin and celsius.

    • @whollypotatoes
      @whollypotatoes 5 лет назад

      @@dmarsub can you point me in the direction of some resources so I can understand this better?

  • @awkweird_panda
    @awkweird_panda 5 лет назад

    The video I have been waiting for. Great Job, Steve. Had a great time.

  • @sk8rdman
    @sk8rdman 3 года назад

    Steve's T-shirt and a video about lasers and bubbles brought me back here.
    Was worth another watch.

  • @Simon-nx1sc
    @Simon-nx1sc 5 лет назад +6

    I'm stuck in an infinite loop of watchin Matt, then Steve, then Matt, then Steve, ......

    • @HassanSelim0
      @HassanSelim0 5 лет назад +3

      break; // There you go :D

    • @enzoqueijao
      @enzoqueijao 3 года назад

      That's a non-convergent alternating series

  • @chuck1prillaman
    @chuck1prillaman 5 лет назад +4

    "5 x less" was a common example of Ebonics back when that was a thing.

  • @chemistryrockstar_official
    @chemistryrockstar_official 4 года назад +1

    I'm starting to use your videos as prompts for my university chemistry homework assignments! Thanks.

  • @fabi-fe2uw
    @fabi-fe2uw 5 лет назад

    Havent watched the whole video yet but i love that small pause in the beginning after "actual science"

  • @ProPcGaming1
    @ProPcGaming1 5 лет назад +6

    Mediterranean here, cold starts at +15 degrees C

    • @BrightBlueJim
      @BrightBlueJim 5 лет назад

      Which means the outside of your airplanes isn't as cold.

    • @Alexander-vg5qf
      @Alexander-vg5qf 4 года назад

      Same here, actually I'd say its around 18°C here in madrid when it starts to get noticably chilly (sorry if i misspelled that, english isn't my main language) but (answering to the comment above), though the factor relating Toa and Tif is smaller, both values are further beyond the cold line, therefore they are colder, not less cold

  • @PrivateSi
    @PrivateSi 5 лет назад +8

    -10 * 6 = -60' C very approximately.

  • @cobra6481
    @cobra6481 5 лет назад

    I appreciate being able to use my floppy disk drive again. Thanks Helen!

  • @asailijhijr
    @asailijhijr 5 лет назад +1

    Coldness could be on a logarithmic scale relative to existing temperature scales. You'll need another point of reference to determine the curvature. But you could do another two minutes on the class of all curves that intersect those two points and the interesting relations that could be extrapolated from there.

  • @ElHeisa
    @ElHeisa 5 лет назад +30

    Maybe you can help we with another Math problem.
    You said that a person "6 times taller" is 6 times the size so Person B=6A.
    But if I say a person is "0,5 times taller" isnt that Person B=100% height of Person A + 50% the height, so B=1,5A?
    And if I say a person is "1 times taller" than Person B=2A?
    Because in my mind, If I say a person is "0 times taller", then they both are the same height.
    Maybe you can answer this terrible Math/wording Problem :)
    Cheers!

    • @RFC3514
      @RFC3514 5 лет назад +4

      IMO that is a much bigger source of confusion (and Steve added to it) than the issue with "taller" vs. "shorter" (which sounds awkward, but most people intuitively understand that you multiply for "taller" and divide for "shorter").

    • @paulsengupta971
      @paulsengupta971 5 лет назад +4

      In English, it was be suffixed by the word "again". So 0.5 times taller would be a strange statement. "Half as tall" would be valid (0.5 times) as would "half as tall again" (1.5 times).

    • @RFC3514
      @RFC3514 5 лет назад +5

      > 0.5 times taller would be a strange statement.
      It's equivalent to saying "50% taller". Would that also be a strange statement?

    • @rozaepareza
      @rozaepareza 5 лет назад +1

      I think "0.5 times as tall" or "50% as tall" mean multiply by 0.5. "0.5 times as tall again" or "50% taller" mean multiply by 1.5. "0.5 times taller" is just confusing.

    • @iang0th
      @iang0th 5 лет назад +1

      RFC35141 Those aren't equivalent statements. The confusion is due to the fact that they're using additive reasoning there, but using a proportion for the thing being added. "50% taller" is intended to have a similar meaning to "X meters taller," not "X times taller," which would sound nonsensical for a height less than 1.

  • @NeverSuspects
    @NeverSuspects 5 лет назад +4

    Cold doesn't actually exist as a thing, it is a feeling that one would experience that is just a lower temperature or energy in the form of heat relative to what one would consider to be warm or hot.
    Also we have yet to actually be able to achieve creating true absolute zero. We have what is mostly likely to be created the lowest temperature space in the universe however that is the closest to being absolute zero that exists or ever has existed possibly unless prior to the big bang singularity absolute zero conditions existed ... if space time existed.. or anything..
    I'm starting to think now that maybe this might be the eventual joke in the video maybe? I should watch the last 4 minutes now.

  • @missybarbour6885
    @missybarbour6885 5 лет назад +2

    The real issue here is that "cold" is not a unit of measurement. Heat is measured and if there is very little heat we say that's "cold" but you cannot quantify the absence of something.

  • @wymanspace4173
    @wymanspace4173 5 лет назад

    This is really so cool. And fantastically smart. And funny. I truly enjoyed it. Thanks.

  • @admkbldwn
    @admkbldwn 5 лет назад +8

    Let's take this up another notch:
    What if "coldness" is the heat flux between human skin at body temperature and the air at each respective temperature?! 🤔🤔🤔

    • @giraculum9981
      @giraculum9981 5 лет назад +3

      The heat flux equations simplify to what he showed at the end. The only difference is thermal conductivity of skin, which cancels out when you take a ratio. So if your body temperature is -10.6C then it works! But for those of us not living in northern Yukon, body temp is closer to 37.0C, which makes the outside of the airplane only ~1.7 times colder.

    • @jerrybobteasdale
      @jerrybobteasdale 5 лет назад

      ​ Giraculum At altitude, one must assume that the plane, and your skin, are in motion relative to the air.

    • @Anvilshock
      @Anvilshock 5 лет назад +1

      That's not how this works. You can't just "excuse" the bullshit you've worded one way by saying you've meant to word it in another way. Because then you could have been using the other way.

    • @ca-ke9493
      @ca-ke9493 4 года назад

      Not if you take into account wind at an airplane's cruising speed! Which after taking that into account the 6× colder kinda works

  • @MarthVader1
    @MarthVader1 5 лет назад +5

    Around 6:25... What exactly did you say? "Clever use of humor there" or "Clever use of humid air" ? (or both? :-)

    • @cameronsmith3047
      @cameronsmith3047 5 лет назад

      I hate to say it it was humor

    • @David.Sky.Walker
      @David.Sky.Walker 4 года назад

      "clever use of *humid air* ." would make more sense if the sentence began with "If you are suffering from dehydration, when in drought, using a dehumidifier to extract water from the air would be a".

    • @LeeSpork
      @LeeSpork 2 года назад

      I don't think humid air is a rhetorical device.

  • @LupusTheGamer
    @LupusTheGamer 5 лет назад +2

    Before I clicked on this video I thought to myself "Seriously, how funny can a stand-up comedy about science be?".
    OHHH I WAS SO WRONG
    This was hilarious

  • @robertgoss4842
    @robertgoss4842 4 года назад +1

    I've watched this video 6 times and it's still funny. Maybe I should spring for the CD.

  • @bitoffabyte
    @bitoffabyte 5 лет назад +6

    Temperature in freezer 0°C
    Temperature outside airplane =6x0°C=0°C

    • @clintoncoker6
      @clintoncoker6 5 лет назад

      If your freezer is 0°C, your food would theoretically never freeze...

    • @decyrano
      @decyrano 4 года назад

      @@clintoncoker6 theoretically particle less food, with no solid on which to begin the freezing...

  • @alexwang982
    @alexwang982 4 года назад +7

    7:27
    What is this supposed to mean?
    [cc]

  • @diegofernandez4789
    @diegofernandez4789 2 года назад

    Man, Steve is too good!" Love this guy.

  • @mef9327
    @mef9327 4 года назад +1

    This is funny af. More please!👍

  • @mooncowtube
    @mooncowtube 4 года назад +3

    This episode is six times shorter than the entire show.

    • @Qermaq
      @Qermaq 7 месяцев назад +1

      No, no, it's a sixth as tall.

  • @99baking
    @99baking 3 года назад +3

    2:58 the way he delivers this line gets me every time

  • @gameglitcher
    @gameglitcher 5 лет назад +1

    I love how when i clicked the link for the dvd, they capitalize the first letter of every word for the quote.. Now i cant tell if i am trying to polish a nerd or Polish a nerd.

  • @bethanysouza5445
    @bethanysouza5445 5 лет назад

    Great video. I will use it in my Statistics class. The original statement is also bad statistics. In Statistics, temperature cannot be described on what’s called the ratio level of measurement, which means it can’t be described by “6 times” or “half”. It can only be described using differences, which is called the interval level of measurement.

  • @phillenan2494
    @phillenan2494 5 лет назад +4

    My freezer is at about -10C so they might be right :P

  • @ISpillMyDrink
    @ISpillMyDrink 5 лет назад +8

    I'm a cold and I can confirm that -10c is about when it starts feeling Canadian

  • @MakerOnTheMove
    @MakerOnTheMove 5 лет назад

    This is awesome! See you at Thinkercon!

  • @otheslo
    @otheslo 5 лет назад

    had some nice nerdie laughterswhile watching. thank you

  • @RichardBronosky
    @RichardBronosky 5 лет назад +10

    It kills me when I see ambiguous math in commercials. Charmin toilet paper claims you’ll use 3 times less paper versus the leading brand. An air conditioning company claims you’ll use 4 times less electricity. Really? Enew = Eold - 4Eold? So your air conditioner is going to put 3Eold back into the grid? That’s better than going solar!

    • @RFC3514
      @RFC3514 5 лет назад +3

      > It kills me when I see ambiguous math in commercials.
      Because commercials are so accurate and honest about everything else?

  • @fyggy5480
    @fyggy5480 5 лет назад +4

    and they were Canadian...
    Oh my god they were Canadian

  • @EebstertheGreat
    @EebstertheGreat 5 лет назад +1

    I wish I could find the authors of the book just to figure out what the heck they meant. Maybe the idea was something like "people exposed to that temperature find it six times as painful" or "people lose heat six times as quickly at that temperature than in a freezer (taking wind into account)" or something. "Six times as cold" really is a ludicrous concept.

  • @veegaanmyooon44
    @veegaanmyooon44 5 лет назад +3

    God damn this is good. I need to get the floppy for this!

  • @stjames3852
    @stjames3852 5 лет назад +3

    can't bring myself to purchase, the price is irrational! :)

  • @lastsanitystreak8443
    @lastsanitystreak8443 5 лет назад +3

    steve: ... is a pretty decent approximation to pi...
    captions: ... is a pretty decent approximation to half tau...
    me thinks the anti-pi movement is in march...

    • @donepearce
      @donepearce 5 лет назад +1

      I'm not sure why we still have pi. I work in radio electronics, and I don't think I have ever used pi on its own - it is always 2pi. If only mathematicians in antiquity had realised that the radius is more meaningful than the diameter, we would not have been stuck with this. Unfortunately neither my calculator nor Mathcad recognise Tau as a mathematical constant.

    • @AnonymousAnonymous-ht4cm
      @AnonymousAnonymous-ht4cm 5 лет назад

      @@donepearce I have heard that Euler ended up popularising pi, but that he used the pi symbol as whichever ratio was most convenient. So a proof might start with: let pi be a quarter of a unit circle's circumference.

  • @ShiftingDrifter
    @ShiftingDrifter 5 лет назад

    I know of this. The approximation of x6 was based on the following quote: "At 35,000 ft. (11,000 m), the typical altitude of a commercial jet, the air pressure drops to less than a quarter of its value at sea level, and the outside temperature drops below negative 60 degrees Fahrenheit." - The Engineering Toolbox

  • @fran6b
    @fran6b 5 лет назад

    «and they're Canadian» ahah! well, I'm better going back to school! ;) Excellent talk, I love it !

  • @ofek24G
    @ofek24G 5 лет назад +5

    Come on dude, they're clearly using a nonlinear heat-measuring method. Just the fact that we choose to measure heat with thermometers and the expansion of fluids doesn't make these canadians wrong, smh

  • @TomiTapio
    @TomiTapio 5 лет назад +7

    Not about "bad science" but about imprecise wording of claims.

    • @ericmueller6836
      @ericmueller6836 5 лет назад +1

      So... bad science.

    • @BrightBlueJim
      @BrightBlueJim 5 лет назад

      Not really. There really wasn't any reasonable set of assumptions by which the statement was even remotely correct (note that I'm not considering "the origin of cold is at -10.6 degC" to be unreasonable). Bad science.

  • @robbaskerville253
    @robbaskerville253 8 месяцев назад

    One of the best punch lines ever. Those crazy Canucks!

  • @psychachu
    @psychachu 4 года назад

    I love epic 'I just had to win the argument' breakdown videos.

  • @Double-Negative
    @Double-Negative 5 лет назад +10

    6 times more than x = 7x
    6 times as much as x = 6x
    6 times less than x = -5x
    if you're on a scale where negatives don't make sense:
    6 times less than x = 5x/6

    • @pXnTilde
      @pXnTilde 5 лет назад +4

      I would never interpret '6 times less' to be x - 6x. It makes no sense to me, and I would probably just ask "six times what"
      In casual conversation I would infer the intent to be 1/6th, however.

  • @brekkoh
    @brekkoh 5 лет назад +9

    Mould for pres (nationality not important)

    • @maxximumb
      @maxximumb 5 лет назад +4

      You want a Mouldy President? I suppose it's a lot better than an orange one.

    • @Peter_1986
      @Peter_1986 5 лет назад

      Depends on if Steve Mould is tough enough for that, though.
      If you are a president then you will have to be tough and unyielding in lots of situations, otherwise people will take advantage of you in some way all the time, and that would be a great weakness.
      This is probably why most presidents are tough and strict - because the greater position you have, the more you will have to be able to disagree with other people when necessary, and maybe even fire them.
      This is a trait that is commonly called being "disagreeable".
      On the flip side though, "agreeable" people are generally more likeable, and care more about other people.
      I would guess that Matt, Steve and Helen are all fairly agreeable.

  • @jimbobbyrnes
    @jimbobbyrnes 4 года назад +1

    im a Canadian and it took me 6 times longer than average to understand the last joke

  • @geoffgunn9673
    @geoffgunn9673 7 месяцев назад

    just a man reminiscing about his life experiences , just so happens to have a lot of funny bits. Could listen to it for hours