A Problem Squared - 101 = Squear Data and The Big Banana (in an Aussie accent)

Episode Date: January 20, 2025

🔺 What are the most “interesting” years? 🍌 Bec goes big on Big Things 🎉 When Party Tricks Go Wrong 🔢 And there's some numerical AOB Here’s Max-matics’ video that Matt mentione...d - Turning a 2024 Ball Pyramid in to a 2025 Ball Square for NYE 2025 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXUlKCIgV8U Some further reading on the 2025 maths https://aperiodical.com/2025/01/numerical-coincidences-for-2025/ It’s a banger - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJS3xnD7Mus Some further reading on BIG THINGS -  https://www.spottobooks.com.au/shop/p/bigthings https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/figure/10.1080/14443058.2022.2144928  If you’re on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on the ‘Sup ‘Zards’ pinned post!   And if you want (we’re not forcing anyone) to leave us a review, show the podcast to a friend or give us a rating! Please do that. It really helps.  Finally, if you want even more from A Problem Squared you can connect with us and other listeners on BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello and welcome to a Problem Squared, the problem solving podcast, which is a bit like a board game and that it's kind of best to just start playing it and pick it up as you go along. This show is hosted by Matt Parker, a YouTuber, mathematician and comedian, who to my knowledge has never been to jail, but did once come second in a beauty contest. Is that right, Matt? That's correct.
Starting point is 00:00:33 I came first. No further comment. I'm Beck Hill, a comedian, writer and presenter who ran out of time while writing this intro and therefore doesn't have a funny board game analogy yet. Something to do with- You're a bit like with connect for you come in on an unexpected angle. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:00:50 I'm, I'm, I'm a bit like trouble in that. I am in a bubble. I do describe you as pop a mat. Is that, is that, if that helps, we'll take that. It's better than the options I did have, which involve lots of less than PG gags to do with chess. Let's keep it, Poppa Manic. On this episode...
Starting point is 00:01:11 I've uncovered the most spectacular year. I go big on big things. And we have some any other board game-ness. Yeah. And if I don't like how this goes, I am so flipping this table. Matt? And if I don't like how this goes, I am so flipping this table. Matt Beck. I am in Adelaide, Australia. You are. Yeah, that's changed.
Starting point is 00:01:34 That's new. Sorry, I believe. I'm still in the UK. How are you? So you're okay. What else? Oh, so much. We had Christmas.
Starting point is 00:01:43 Yeah, you were real sick. I'm still frantically catching up on everything that got postponed because I had flu right before Christmas. And I know you were sick because you weren't replying to texts. And while sometimes there can be delays, you generally will eventually get back. And there was just silence. You generally will eventually get back. And there was just silence. Yeah. And I was like, Oh, this boy is not well.
Starting point is 00:02:09 I have a slow but thorough text game, but I was, you know, fever sleep for a week, which I struggle with. Anyway, anyway, I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm over it. I'm fine. Um, I got caught in a coat hanger. You did?
Starting point is 00:02:24 New year. Just going through the list. I'm fine. I got caught in a coat hanger. You did? New Year. Just going through the list. Are you going to explain to our listeners? Because we've got footage. We've got receipts, you guys. Ah, well, that's why I thought I better rip the bandaid off. So, so you and I, we had a little outing. Before you got sick.
Starting point is 00:02:41 Before Christmas, before I got the flu, unrelated. And we went to see Mr. Thing to see a Christmas thing. So Mr. Thing, I don't know how you describe them as a comedy performance. Collective. Event. Collective.
Starting point is 00:02:55 They're very, very good. I'm a huge fan of Mr. Thing. Go and see one of their shows if you get a chance. You said, hey, they're doing a Christmas show in London. They're doing a runner shows in the West End. We should pop along and see one. And before the show, they get people to fill in a little form. And one of the questions, one of the things they ask the audience members,
Starting point is 00:03:13 if you opt into the form is, do you have any party tricks? And I wrote, I can climb through a coat hanger. And you wrote that you can do a very good impression of a siren. Car alarm. I've done the car alarm before, have I not? Now, have you done the car alarm on the... You wrote that you can do a very good impression of a siren. Car alarm. Car alarm? Have I? I've done the car alarm before, have I not? Now. Have you done the car alarm on the...
Starting point is 00:03:29 No, producer Lauren is shaking her head, so I'm going to go with you have not. Would you like to hear my car alarm sound effect? This is me making this. Yes. You guys can witness it. Okay, I'm going to close my eyes. I want the full immersion. Okay.
Starting point is 00:03:44 Alright. Alright,. All right. Ready? Yeah. Got it. That was very convincing. I can go longer if you want. So you were not called upon to do this in the show. And it's a good party trick. It's nice. It's quick. It's enough for people to go, Whoa. Whereas I was called upon to do my trick and I have historically climbed through coat hangers.
Starting point is 00:04:11 That's the thing I've done. A friend of mine who's like into circus skills one day, cause I'm unusually flexible for someone with my level of coordination. You've got like hyper mobility, don't you? Hyper mobility. I can do all sorts of ridiculous things. Your joints go a little bit further than most should. So my elbow goes more than 180.
Starting point is 00:04:30 Like I can move my arm out to flat and then it just carries on. It's like, yeah, we got more. But someone once said, oh, I reckon you can climb through a coat hanger. And that's because the hard part of the coat hanger is getting over the shoulders. You've got quite broad shoulders. My shoulders are my limiting factor in buying clothes. Shoulder to shoulder. To get like a jacket or something to sit correctly on my shoulders means it's got a more fabric elsewhere. So the fact that I can move my shoulders around on my arms
Starting point is 00:04:57 means I can get like my head and one arm through a coat hanger and then I can reposition everything and then get my other arm through the coat hanger and then I can and then it just gently descends to the ground. Now I haven't done that for like over 10 years. I used to finish a show by climbing through a coat hanger. Now at some point one of the two things has happened in the last 10 years. Either coat hangers have gotten smaller, that's option one. Vote now. Or option two, I've gotten bigger. There are only two possible things that could have happened in the last 10 years.
Starting point is 00:05:32 Now with you as my witness, I did the difficult bit. I got the coat hanger over my shoulders. And then the coat hanger came grinding to a halt. There's a great moment because I filmed it thinking, oh, this is brilliant. Then the coat hanger came grinding to a halt. Yeah. There's a great moment because I filmed it thinking, oh, this is brilliant. And then there's this beautiful moment where the look on your face says everything, you just pause the moment you realize you're stuck and you just give in and it's glorious how, how you just throw, you throw. And may I say you handled it with both hilarity and grace.
Starting point is 00:06:14 And I think that's a really hard line to walk. Like you went into it in a way that meant that you acknowledged how funny it was and yet didn't seem to lose your dignity. And I don't know how you managed that because I think. I don't know. I felt like my dignity, my dignity managed to fit through the coat hanger, but it left me behind. I think that's what happened.
Starting point is 00:06:41 Well, I had two overriding thoughts when I was on stage stuck in a coat hanger. And one was because the producer was trying to communicate to everyone else to just get me off stage and they can fix this somewhere else. Because initial attempts failed. So they tried to unwind it at the back and then in perfect comedy timing, the head of the coat hanger snapped off. And then they scrabbled for some pliers to cut me out. And they couldn't cut through the coat hanger. Like it was a real solid coat hanger.
Starting point is 00:07:17 I now know what I want to do for my Halloween costume 2025. You're dressed up as me stuck in a coat hanger. I can lend you the same hoodie. So the other thing was I was deeply enjoying the fact that this wasn't my show. When I got stuck in the coat hanger, my first thought was, well, ironically, it's not my problem, because these are professionals. They've brought me on stage. They just accepted an audience. I'm a generic audience member. They've brought down, put me in a coat hanger and I'm now stuck.
Starting point is 00:07:47 And I'm like, well, you've now got an audience member in a coat hanger. What are you going to do? I'm not, I'm fine. I can write this out. Now I did in the interest of closure, reverse back out of the coat hanger. It was in the end. I think we can all agree if the goal was entertainment, I feel like it was a complete success.
Starting point is 00:08:10 Yeah. I give it a ding. Yes. And so what else have you been up to out in Australia? Well, not out in Australia, but I have been sitting on this piece of information for quite some time. And finally I get to share this. OK, so the last time we recorded, I was getting the train home that night. And as the train got to, I think, is it Woking?
Starting point is 00:08:35 They mentioned that there was going to be a delay. When we got into Woking, they said that if anyone was going direct to London without any stops to change on to a different platform, which was about to leave. So of course everyone rushed up the stairs and raced over and we all rushed down the steps. Crossed down and in. And on the last couple of steps, a woman stumbled down the last few steps. Not pretty.
Starting point is 00:09:00 And I would say that she was about the same age as my mom, somewhere in her sixties. So I raced down to check. She was okay. I noticed that she hadn't hit her head, but she said she'd scraped her knee. She'd hurt her knee. Um, so I helped her up and she was like, I've really hurt my knee. And she was sort of limping, but I have to get on this train. I was like, are you sure we can get a station guard, get some first aid?
Starting point is 00:09:22 She said, no, no, no, no, no. I need to, I need to catch this train. I just need to get back. I just need to get back. I just need to get home. So I said, okay. So I got her onto the train and, uh, she was, you know, still a little bit in shock. And, and she sort of touched her knee and then she said, oh, I'm, I'm bleeding through my jeans.
Starting point is 00:09:40 There was some blood on the knee of her jeans. Oh, I wish I had a bandage or something. At which point I was able to say, wait a minute. I have a full Royal Flying Doctors Service first aid kit in my bag. Oh my goodness. From when we recorded episode 99, we recorded 99 and 100. That's incredible. And then I pulled out this full first aid kit.
Starting point is 00:10:07 The full kit. Now I was very sure not to let her see the first bit, which was the bags for amputated limbs, because I was like, I don't want her to think that this is going to go this far. That that's even an option. You've come too prepared in some regards. So yeah. Now the interesting thing about having a first aid kit, especially a big one like that, is that everyone makes space for you on the train. If you, it doesn't matter how ram that train is, if you want people to make space for you, take out a massive first aid kit.
Starting point is 00:10:38 It felt like I'd been on a flight and someone said, is there a doctor on the flight? Like that's the level of... The implication is you just carry this with you all the time and you're just going, oh, wait, I forgot I've got everyone's thinking like a bandaid, like something of the scale at which you can forget it's in your bag. And then it turns out 80% of your bag is a full emergency rescue first aid kit. I'm pulling out stuff for snake bites. It looks like you are holding out. I'm pulling out stuff for snake bites. It looks like you are holding out.
Starting point is 00:11:05 I'm pulling out like vials for urine. I'm pulling out like all sorts of topical treatments. A foldable crush. Yeah, yeah. Probably got a bit carried away talking about how amazing it was that I had a first aid kit, rather than paying attention to the fact that she was in rather a lot of pain.
Starting point is 00:11:23 Yes. But she was also very impressed. So we start pulling her jeans up and they're quite like skinny leg jeans. We get to her knee and this is where you might not want to listen if you're particularly squeamish. As I pull it up past her knee, basically the entire flap of skin covering her knee came up with the jeans and I can own and I'm a very squeamish person, but it's interesting how when you are the one who's meant to be in control, your brain just goes, nah. You're the one with the kit. All I thought was, oh, it's like when you pull the skin off a chicken thigh.
Starting point is 00:11:58 I hope that was your inside. That was my inside voice. No, the outside voice was, oh, and then hearing her go, what? And then me quickly going, oh, let's just put your jeans back down. The jeans were kind of behaving as a bandage at this stage. Let's be honest, you're first dating at like an amateur level. And this feels like a professional situation. So this is the third thing.
Starting point is 00:12:18 And it really like stuck with me for a while afterwards. I think sometimes I think as long as I have the kit, I will be fine. As long as I've got a go bag with like all these things, I will know how to do it. The moment that I was like, I don't actually know what to do in this situation. And I don't know what I would have done if it had been like something completely alien either. I was so aware of my limitations and what I didn't know about first aid. And so what I did come away with is that I need to do a first aid course. I haven't done a first aid course probably for at least 20 years. And so that's my new year's resolution 2025.
Starting point is 00:12:59 I want to do a new first aid course because I don't want to be stuck in a situation where I don't know what I'm doing again. That train actually ended up getting canceled. So it never even left. Don't rush. It's not worth it. Take your time. Stairs are dangerous. I helped her get to a cab so she could get a cab home.
Starting point is 00:13:15 That evening she went to hospital. The next day I checked in on her to make sure she was doing all right. She was still at the hospital. She was waiting to go into theater to have the wound closed. She was very grateful that, you know, there'd been someone to help and everything. So she didn't say anything like, thanks for making it worse, which was my biggest fear. That was the biggest thing I was worried about. But yeah, I think I'm now officially a real flying doctor. I think that's how it works. I think so. I think that's how it works.
Starting point is 00:13:49 Our first problem comes from Alia, Alia, A-O-Y-A, via the problem posing page, which is aproblemsquared.com. And they've said there's a lot of numerical curiosities about 2025 floating around. It's a square number. It's a square of the sum of integers one to nine. It's the sum of the cubes of integers one to nine, et cetera. My question is not what other interesting facts about 2025 are there, but rather is this the most interesting in double quotation marks, year number in living memory? Was there a more interesting double quotation marks, year number in the past 100 years or will there be one in the next 100 years?
Starting point is 00:14:37 Matt, as always, I'm going to ask you to explain the question to me before you start answering it. Agreed. Let's start by unpacking what's in the problem and we'll go from there. So we'll get our fundamentals down. 2025 is a square year. A square, I think they're called. A square.
Starting point is 00:14:53 S-Q-U-E-A-R. Oh, it's a square. Your Portmanteau square in year. I'm coining it now. It's going in the title, you guys. So welcome to the only square of our lifetimes. We are in the year 45 squared. And we also had someone called CJL went to the problem posting page. And instead of sending in a problem, they picked sending in a solution, which is perfectly valid.
Starting point is 00:15:20 A lot of people send in solutions for things we've asked or talked about on the podcast, but they've said, uh, they start with not technically a problem. And they've given us a solution to something we've not even asked for. They've said, Oh, don't forget that 2025 is a square number. It's 45 squared and 25. If you add 20 to 25, it is 45 and it's 45 squared and I'm like oh that's kind of fun. However there's two things in there one is 20 25 is a square number and the other is if you add 20 to 25 you get 45 and 45 squared is 2025 and that's kind of both things we're talking about here. And that's kind of both things we're talking about here. There are independently interesting, unique things about a number, or in our case, a year.
Starting point is 00:16:14 And then there's just kind of numerical coincidences, things that happen. And every single year, if you're on any kind of social media where there's a decent number of mathematicians around, people will start exchanging number facts about the year. And to my knowledge, not a year I've lived through where I've been anyway involved in social media have I not received and sent messages about fun numerical facts about the year. Every number has something interesting about it. Things like in this case, 20 plus 25 is giving you 45 and then 45 squared is the year. And you'll see these get sent around every single time.
Starting point is 00:16:49 2025, I would argue, is subtly different. I think it's not just where retrospectively, you know, backfilling in some interesting facts. I think 2025 is independently an interesting numerical year to live in. And I can say that because 10 years ago in the year 2015, I made a YouTube video on the channel Numberphile saying how much I was looking forward to the year 2025 specifically. So it's not just it's become 2025 and now we're excited about it For 10 years and even before that I have been looking forward to the year 2025 and it's because it's a square number And square numbers are wonderful numbers and they're quite rare the previous square year was 1936 and we haven't got many 1936 people around. And the next square number is not until 2116. Almost a century from now. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:17:51 Now, the added bonus to it being a square year is, and it's 45 squared, the square is, I will be turning 45 during the year 2025. So I am going to turn the square root of the current year, which is a very rare fact. The only people that happens to are people who were born in the year 1980, because 1980 plus 45 equals 45 squared. And I discovered that because a mathematician named De Morgan, in their lifetime, wrote how happy they were that they were born in the year 1806 because 43 years later, they turned 43 in the year 1849, which is 43 squared. So, I saw this fact and I was like, oh my goodness, that's amazing.
Starting point is 00:18:44 I'm so envious. What an incredible mass fact to have as a mathematician. I wonder when the other years are only to discover that the year I was born was one of those incredibly rare. Like it's like a one, 2% chance, like 1. something percent chance of it happening to someone and it happened to me. And so I was so excited. That's why for a very long time now, I've been looking forward to the year 2025.
Starting point is 00:19:08 So you could argue on one hand, squared numbers are quite rare. So people are looking forward to them. Um, and so they're kind of, you know, intrinsically interesting. You could then say the fact that it's because I'm turning 45 is unique to me and people born in 1980 and some stragglers who are born in 1979 who start the year 45 and then become 46. I guess we're going to allow that. But is it the most interesting yet, which is what we've been asked here?
Starting point is 00:19:38 I will acknowledge that our friend, Elia here, has put the kind of the interval at a hundred years in each direction. And the problem with that is it now encompasses three separate square number years, because you're going to get 1936 in that catchment area and you're going to get 2116. So there's an argument to say that yes, on the scale of our lifetimes, 2025 is incredible because it's a square number. But if you go a century either way, there's actually a handful of them. So the question now is, is there a better year? Now, when I did the video back in 2015, I suggested that the ultimate year to be born is 2184, which is away from now.
Starting point is 00:20:30 And 2184 is because you will have, you will turn the root of the year twice in your lifetime. If you're born in that year, three years later, it'll be the year 2187, which is three to the power of seven. And you turn three in that year. And then when you're 13 in the year 2197, that year is 13 cubed. So you will turn the root, the cube root of that year. So you'll get two roots. Now the downside is it's when you're three and 13.
Starting point is 00:21:01 So you're only forming permanent memories for half of them. I feel like 45 is a better year. I mean, I've had decade and a half of looking forward to this. So I feel like that's the preferable way to go about it. Statistically, there'll also be fewer people celebrating 45 because of how life happens sometimes. Because yes, yeah, because we start with a lot and then we just lose people as the years go on. Correct.
Starting point is 00:21:27 So it's also more than a hundred years from now. So it's not technically within the remit of the problem. And just to finish the rest of the problem as stated, 45, which is the square root of 2025, because it's a square number. 45 is itself a triangle number, which means if you had 45 objects you can arrange them in a triangle. So it's like 10 pin bowling. The reason we have 10 pin bowling is because 10 is a triangle number and that also means you can have one pin then two then three then four makes a nice neat triangle ten in total
Starting point is 00:22:06 We could have had 15 pin bowling because the next one would be a row of five at the back and then we could have 21 pin bowling because you'd have six at the back and if you keep going up by the time you've got nine rows going all the Way back you're playing 45 pin bowling. We're gonna go 45 pin bowling for your birthday is what you're saying We should go. Oh my goodness. I would love to go 45 pin bowling. Wouldn're going to go 45 pin bowling for your birthday is what you're saying. We should go. Oh my goodness. I would love to go 45 pin bowling. Wouldn't that be so special?
Starting point is 00:22:29 So I'm also, I'm turning a triangle number in the year when I'm the square root of the current year. I mean, it's such a, come on. What a year to be alive and to be me or anyone else. I can't believe you brought out that book about triangles last year. What an idiot. I know, I know. It's how many you brought out that book about triangles last year? What an idiot. I know, I know. It's outrageous.
Starting point is 00:22:46 Last year, 2024 was a tetrahedral number. So you can make a triangle based pyramid out of 2024 things. The bottom layer would be a triangle that's 22 objects along each edge and then on top of that you fit a triangle that's 21 along each edge and on top of that you fit a triangle 20 along each edge all the way up and you get this triangle-based pyramid and it's exactly 2024. Obviously my first thought is Ferrero Rocher. Like exactly like well exactly like Ferrero Rocher where I tried to then balance a bunch of them and found it very difficult. A friend of mine, Max, he was involved in organizing the pie by
Starting point is 00:23:28 hand calculation. I did and I've done a bunch of stuff with Max over the years. Max realized that 2024 was a tetrahedral number and 2025 is a square number and that hasn't happened. We haven't had consecutive tetrahedral to square numbers since the year 120 to 121. So he got 2024 balls and on New Year's Eve, tried to arrange them into a giant tetrahedron that he could then rearrange into a giant square by adding one more. Now I'll link to Max's video. Yep. I was going to say, what a terrible way to spend New Year's Eve then
Starting point is 00:24:08 remembered that I spent my New Year's Eve doing a cryptic crossword and then turned on the TV ten minutes before the countdown I actually think that sounds like it would have been more fun than my New Year's Eve to be honest spoiler it's really difficult to balance two thousand and twenty four objects into a tetration so were they live things was it like bugs or something and they kept crawling everywhere? No, it was just pit balls. Bugs might be better if they could all hold hands. They'd stay in formation. Oh, cute. Exactly. So you might say, well, that's spectacular because that hasn't happened
Starting point is 00:24:41 in almost two millennia since the year 120. but that's just one of those backfill things where we're just like, oh, we happen to notice it's this, but it's not like we've all been counting down to this for years. So that's also the other thing from the problem, the first nine cube numbers, if you add them together, equals 2025, there's actually a website, I'll link to it, there's a website called the A periodical, who do all sorts of great mass articles. And Peter Rollett put together a complete list of all the numerical coincidences for the year 2025. There's a massive, massive list. Did you know if you add any two consecutive digits in the number 2025, you get a prime answer. Did you know 2025 is divisible by all the factors of 15?
Starting point is 00:25:28 What I care about is have we been looking forward to this year? That's my litmus test for is it actually interesting? And there are really three candidates left once you rule that in. And if you wait it for the number of people looking forward to it, the year 2000, it's going to be real hard to beat. Yeah. The millennium tick over and people have been looking forward to the year 2000 for a very long time. I remember my late grandmother discussing when she was a child in,
Starting point is 00:26:04 goodness, the fort 40s maybe earlier they were discussing that they may live to the year 2000 like people have been looking forward to this for so long it's ridiculous. Dabba's Cocker, huge fan. I didn't know that you'd get married ba da da da da da da da da da da da da I read. Pulp. I feel like you know all the lyrics, but you're choosing to just only give us a couple.
Starting point is 00:26:31 If you heard it, Matt, you would be like, oh yeah. Oh, I know the song. I know. Yeah. No, I a hundred percent know it. The moment you started singing it, I know the song. Yeah. Good.
Starting point is 00:26:37 So people have been writing songs about the year 2000 and partying in 1999 in anticipation, I assume for a very long time. And then we had the year 2000, everyone went nuts. It started the craze of wearing glasses that look like the year number you're in, all this stuff. So I actually, I mean, I hate to, you know, to give away the ending, but I suspect it's the year 2000 because that's a really neat whole number and I think you'd struggle to say we've been looking forward to another year more than that. I would love it to be the year 2048 because that is a power of 2. That's 2 to the power of 11.
Starting point is 00:27:19 And I'm very excited about that. The fact that we get a power of 2 in our lifetimes. We haven't had one since 1024 and the next one's 4096. Can you explain what you're saying to me? So powers of two are if you do the doubling game. So two times two is four times two is eight is 16 is so on and so on. So you go up for a while. Which is why the next one might be to 4096. Yeah, it gets twice as long between each one. And we've just had to wait 1024. Well, we are almost at the end of waiting 1024 years for the year 2048.
Starting point is 00:27:59 And in that time, we started significantly using binary numbers, invented computers, and binary and computers are all about powers of two. So the fact that we invented computers just in time to fully appreciate the year 2048 is very pleasing. And we will probably be doing something different by the year 4096. So wonderful. Congratulations, humankind. You've nailed it on this one.
Starting point is 00:28:26 That's fun. I don't feel like the general public will get as excited about 2048. I'm prepared to concede while I would argue 2048 is a more significant round number, depending on your definition of round, 2000 is way out there. And then all the other candidates, I mean, nothing, nothing stacks up to the year 2000. So very sadly, my answer is the year 2000. Sorry for everyone who was born after then and missed it. It was great. It was really quite special.
Starting point is 00:29:00 I'd always blow my mind when I am talking to someone as a full adult and it turns out that they weren't alive. I was a kid and I remember being exciting but I can't imagine people just not being there. Yeah, yeah. I mean for me it was the middle year of my undergrad at uni and I was travelling in England at the time so I went down. I was at Big Ben for the 99 2000 tick over. Are you sure? It was all very special. No you weren't you were watching Toy Story 2 we all know it. That was the same, I think that was the same trip you're right.
Starting point is 00:29:35 It was a big year for Matt Potter. Fresh off watching Toy Story 2 five times in the same day. I was still partying like it was 99. Yeah. Getting ready. I'm very partying like it was 99. Yeah. Getting ready. I'm very impressed, Matt. That's very cool. I enjoyed hearing the problem.
Starting point is 00:29:51 I enjoyed, yeah, having explained, I enjoyed. You sound like a parent who's just received a drawing from their child and you're saying some nice things about it. No, no. The problem is, is that the thing is I am, I'm an optimist, right? And I don't like to, I don't like to yuck anyone's yum. As the kids sometimes say, you're very good, but, but I also keep finding myself going, yeah, but like 2000 based on our civil, like our society, like I find it's like, yeah, it's not really, it's pretty old.
Starting point is 00:30:29 No, you're right. You can say whatever year we want. I could say right now that judging by my own calendar, we actually already are in the year 2048. So you can't a special year because they both occur on the same time. And actually for someone else's the year 2000 right now. So actually we're all at the same time enjoying this coincidence. That's true.
Starting point is 00:30:51 We all enjoyed your well actually voice. Secondly, thanks. That's why I decided, because we kind of start with the assumption that years are arbitrary and different calendars have different countries of different year counting systems. That's why I was trying to wait it for the number of people who have been looking forward to that number for the longest time. And so that's why I think it's 2000.
Starting point is 00:31:17 I think that's a very solid. Understanding even non-mass people just looked at all those zeros and they're like so many zeros. That's going to be pretty special. Yeah I'm giving it a ding. Thank you. I should got a pair of glasses that say ding that I can wear Many good merch ideas and we don't do anything with them. I imagine if we had time to do stuff Would be unstoppable. Well, if you lived in my year, I've decided the year is 1999 and we've got loads to go, baby. All my deadlines have suddenly gone way in the future.
Starting point is 00:31:49 Backdated. Ah, well done. Well done. Thanks. I don't want to award Joke of the Year this early, but it might be backdated. Next problem was sent in by Adam who says hello from Canada. Great opening Adam. Now, they've enjoyed On Location Matt's recent reports.
Starting point is 00:32:11 I think we all did, let's be honest, from the field. And Adam thought that On Location Matt might be interested to know that should he ever find himself in the great white north, I assume that's Canada, there is no shortage of big things. So to name just a couple that come to mind, there is a giant nickel, that's a Canadian five-cent piece in Sudbury, there's a giant pison, pisonka, which is a Ukrainian Easter egg in Vegreville, there's a giant, oh my goodness, kielbasa, some kind of Polish sausage in Mandere. And there's a giant Canada goose that I can pronounce in Wawa. I don't recognize any of those places.
Starting point is 00:32:56 I think they are all made up locations. Oh, like Wikintour. Particularly Wawa. Oh, that's so true. Wawa is just the beginning of Wagga Wagga. Yeah. Good point, good point. It's basically W-A-W-A, which is the opening of the theme song of W-A. Adam's actual question is, which country has the most unusually big things?
Starting point is 00:33:20 So they're thinking ahead to be, you know, gentler to on location Matt's future travel itinerary. They're kind of asking where's the highest density of unusually big things. And Beck, I believe you looked into this. Yes, I did. So first of all, I'm going to show you something that I recently purchased. Could you read to our listeners what I'm holding up? You have held up a book called Big Things. Oh my goodness. It appears to be from a range called Spotto Books, which I assume are books full of things you can spotto. And on the front,
Starting point is 00:33:59 it's got a picture of the big banana. It's got a big, maybe a dinosaur is hard to say from this resolution. It looks like some collection of big things. A Pelican. So they have listed. Oh, look at them all. You can tick off. They've put them in a sort of a vague order. We've got fruit. As you see each one.
Starting point is 00:34:19 Animals. Right. Some natural things as well. They've included Uluru. Wow. Which I think is an interesting. That's potentially insensitive. Yeah. They've included Uluru. Oh, which I think is an interesting. That's potentially insensitive. Yeah, it's a big rock, but it's not.
Starting point is 00:34:30 It's a one to one scale of it. Like it's got to be both big in absolute terms and big in scale factor. And I feel like Uluru fails on the scale factor. Yeah, because it's it's not a big version of a big rock. It is the big rock. It is the big rock. Now, interestingly, this is not a definitive guide. I thought it was when I purchased it, and then I realised it's missing quite a few things.
Starting point is 00:34:55 First of all, your big cricket bat is in here. No big cricket bat. There are the big cricket stumps, funnily enough. Great. In Coodamundra and New South Wales. Does it tell you what the scale factor is? It doesn't. It doesn't.
Starting point is 00:35:08 It just gives you a little tip. What kind of a big thing guidebook is this? I know it's very much for children for car rides. I will give you that. And it seems to be independently published with the inside text says, hi, I'm Outback Jess. I've traveled Australia far and wide. And one thing I still love is seeing is big things.
Starting point is 00:35:28 I've put my favorite big things into this spotter book. So I believe all the photos were taken by this person and their friends and family. So I've kind of got a soft spot for it. Can we send in a photo of the big cricket bat? I'll submit a photo. Now, this is where we get to the major problem in answering this question, because there's no definitive list of big things. I got conflicting information all across the internet.
Starting point is 00:35:58 This is a journey on location. Matt has already traveled. If I were to go to Wikipedia and look at lists of big things, there is an entry for a list of largest roadside attractions. Oh yeah. Yeah. It does say it may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. It essentially asks for people to make amendments and it has a list of, you know, areas in Asia, Europe, North America. Right. Canada has its own entry giants of the prairies.
Starting point is 00:36:31 Quite a good list there. Oh, nice. Australia and New Zealand both have their own entries. Australia by far has the most listed in a table. Normally that would be probably it, But I found loads of other things contradicting it. Blogs that say that there's between 130 and 250 big things in Australia. One place that said 130 qualified big things, but then they never said what that meant that they qualified. And then I managed to find a research article published in 2022 called Making a Mark displays a regional and national identity in the big things of Australia and Canada.
Starting point is 00:37:16 Amazing. In an abstract, they've said this article takes a comparative approach to the 1,075 big things in Australia. What? And 1,250 in Canada, revealing chronological, geographical, and typological trends that highlight the capacity of these structures to represent the surrounding regions. I suspect they've used a very generous definition of big thing because they want to cast the net wide as a cultural study. Yeah. And they have mentioned in their notes, just how many things they've had to try and take in into account, all the other publishings on big things. But again, there's no like central authority on it.
Starting point is 00:37:57 They said some big things in Australia were approved by local government authorities on the stipulation that they be demountable or movable in cyclonic weather. I did notice in one of the lists of big things that I saw, it included the big Santa Claus, which is in Adelaide, and that only gets put up at Christmas. No, I think it's gonna be permanent. So the thing that I noticed first and foremost is that there's just no, there doesn't appear to be anything that is like the central authority on this except at the moment for On Location Matt and now On Location Beck. What? On Location Beck, I'm going to throw to you. Oh my goodness. Okay. Hello Studio Beck and Studio Matt, it's On Location Beck here at the Big Banana in Coffffs Harbor. Yes, that's right. It is the first big thing built in Australia.
Starting point is 00:38:48 This thing kicked off the whole phenomenon. So do you have any questions, Matt? I did not know the big banana was first. That's incredible. I have a question for on location back. All right. What's your question? How big is the big banana? That's a great question and I'm sure Some notes oh Oh, so we've thrown straight back to studio back for how big it is. Okay. Yes
Starting point is 00:39:20 turns out on location back does not have access to the internet and really struggled to find easy access to any actual information. Have we potentially heard everything we're going to hear from On Location Beck? Can I ask further questions after this one? I think she's done now. Okay, excellent work On Location Beck. She's getting the hang of things guys.
Starting point is 00:39:43 It's her first day. Give her a break. It's the first trip out. Come on location back. She's getting the hang of things guys. It's her first day. Give her a break. It's a, it's the first trip out. Come on. Yeah. Cut on location back some slack everyone. That's good reporting. Yeah. On location back has sent me a postcard though.
Starting point is 00:39:58 I believe every part of that sentence. I'm holding it up here. Great. Great. Great. The big banana. Did you know, great, great. The big banana. Did you know? And then facts about the big banana. Great work. So she figured that this postcard would hopefully answer any questions.
Starting point is 00:40:12 So funnily enough, it does say 13 meters long, 5 meters high, and 2.4 meters wide. That's a big banana. I would like to know when was it built? It was opened in 1964, in December 1964. Oh wow, that's an old banana. It is an old banana. I thought you might also want to know that, but... I have since researching for this question, seen evidence to suggest that the Big Scotsman, which is an Adelaide thing, it's very close to where I grew up, the Big Scotsman
Starting point is 00:40:53 apparently was built a month before the Big Banana. A month? Now, normally I would ask why, why a banana? But I feel like it's in a banana growing region. Like that part of Queensland is famous for growing bananas. So I understand why there's a big banana. People want to sell more bananas, more that jazz. So I'm always curious what they made it out of. And you know, two thirds of the time it's fiberglass.
Starting point is 00:41:20 What is the big banana made of? Primarily ferro concrete. And then in the eighties, it received a fiberglass coating. Oh, there you go. Yeah, classic. But I thought you would really enjoy this. On location Beck has also taken some photos and asked me to pass them on. Great. Okay, so I got some photos here. Amazing. There are some commemorative teaspoons. On some graph paper. On some graph paper.
Starting point is 00:41:49 Assumed cross section traced around slice of banana. Wait, was this like in a display case? Yep. So what is this from when they designed it? Yeah, can you see in the second photo there's a picture of a banana. That's great. So they've got like a printed out cross section of the banana labeling the horizontal center line and then they've got, I assume this is any one of several bits of paper they use when designing it, the cross section relative to the central axis of the banana to make sure they could accurately recreate banana shape at scale. Yeah. Oh and there's a display board. Well done on location Bec. Building the big banana. It seems that the best way to get the correct shape for the big banana was It seems that the best way to get the correct shape
Starting point is 00:42:25 for the big banana was to obtain the very best banana possible, enlarge it to the desired size. Gordon Jarrett, an award-winning local banana grower, searched his packing shed and selected the best banana in which he had, which was approximately 11 inches long. Back in 1964, there were no photocopiers, which could reduce and enlarge a drawing or photo.
Starting point is 00:42:43 So the banana was supported on a table in the position desired and a line zero to zero was scribed completely around the banana using the surface gauge, thus creating a horizontal baseline. Another straight line was scribed along the top to provide a reference to the plane curve. So obviously he did some cross sections of the banana. Sliced up the banana. Yep. The did the cross sections. En banana. Sliced up the banana. Yep. Did the cross sections.
Starting point is 00:43:06 Enlarged them by six times. That answers another one of my standard questions. What's the scale factor? Six times. Well, then what happened was they poured flat concrete slab griped with square lines, approximately seven times the spacing of the lines on the design drawing. So that gives us a scale factor of 42, which gets us up to pretty much 12 metres.
Starting point is 00:43:29 Now the remaining question that we like to ask our on location representatives is always would they recommend other people visit said big thing? So would on location beck, I don't know if she mentioned this to you, on the back of the postcard, would she recommend people visit the big banana. Look, if you happen to be near Coffs Harbour, and I mean, like, no more than an hour's drive out, like real close. Got it. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:43:56 Yeah. Um, I, I, yeah, I would, it was a good gift shop. In fact, I did get myself a tote bag. Tote bag. This is an image from like when it first opened. It has the word bananas on there. I don't know why. It's only one banana.
Starting point is 00:44:14 And it's not even scented. And the thing is, this is on, this is the same design for all of, like, you can get t-shirts with this, like at no point did someone say, let's tweak this design. It's on everything. And it's, it's such a bad design that I was like, well, I'll get a bag. Bec, you got to remember this is from before photocopiers. That's right. This design was actually first sketched out at six times the size.
Starting point is 00:44:40 It was locked in. One, you can't change it. Once you realize you've misaligned it and the word big didn't fit inside the frame, your bag just says bananas. Someone's like, well, I mean, slap on an S, bananas, probably better than just banana. We'll stick our images of this up on various social medias. Look, I don't really have an answer. There's a research paper that suggests there's more in Canada, but I, I, so I, I feel like Australia has the most, but I am biased.
Starting point is 00:45:15 I think I'm going to challenge our listeners, right? I think if you live near something that purports to be a big thing and it can't just be like, oh, you know, that's a pretty big picture of a pizza. That's a big flagpole. That's the big picture of a pizza. Yeah, yeah. Like it has to name itself the big thing. Like it needs, that's it's-
Starting point is 00:45:39 The big thing. It has to have the title of- That's his name. The big or the giant or like, you know, it is, and that's its sole purpose is that it is a big thing. Will accept, yep, yep. Will accept world's biggest in some situations too. But you know, you can't have like, oh, we serve the world's biggest pizza. No. It's not the same. It needs to be like a fake version.
Starting point is 00:45:58 Comically scaled up. Yeah. Yeah. I'm thinking of like, uh, world's biggest thermometer, which I saw this in America. I went and saw it and you're like, it's called world's biggest thermometer, but it's clearly a comically oversized thermometer. So that counts. Yeah. So I think everyone wherever you are, if you're near a big thing, check out the Wikipedia entry for big things in your country. Is it listed?
Starting point is 00:46:20 If not, maybe it's time to stick it in there. Now, Bec, I feel like for no fault of your own, you've been unable to solve this big problem just due to the quality of the current information available. And you've taken strides to remedy that. However, the fact that you sent on location Beck to the big banana means I have to give on location back a ding for on locationing well done. Yeah, so a ding to on location back. You definitely didn't happen to be passing it and figured I should probably film it in
Starting point is 00:46:51 case something comes in about me. No, no, unrelated. But for everyone else, please do. Please let's thought out the Wikipedia entry on this. Let's get some standards. Let's get some photos. We can do it. And then we'll get the big ding. And then we'll get the big ding.
Starting point is 00:47:06 And then we'll get the big ding. And now it's time for any other bandito, which is a card game. Oh, I thought you were going to go with Boggle, but that works too. Yeah. Boggle is good. Any other Boggle is nice. And it sounds like some sort of curse that you would say instead of a swear word. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:47:30 Boggle. Boggle. Yeah. Boggle off. Anyway, we heard from Gnfnrf. GNF, NRF. They have not bought a vowel. They're saving money there.
Starting point is 00:47:45 Yes, NRF. They've not bought a vowel. They're saving money there. Yes, they are. Uh, we were discussing the most listened to piece of music in episode, uh, nine, nine, I think nine, nine. And, uh, they said they believe the most listened to recorded piece of music as discussed in episode nine, nine is without a doubt rock and roll part two by, uh, Gary Glitter. Now we're not going to talk about Gary Glitter and how problematic that person is, but now I believe is that the song, it says sometimes known as the Hey Song.
Starting point is 00:48:13 Is that the one? I'm just looking it up. I'm playing it right now. It is. It is. Yep. You nailed it. Anyway, they go on to say this piece of music was everywhere in American
Starting point is 00:48:23 professional sports for 25 years in the late seventies, eighties and nineties. It was played at nearly every NHL, NBA, NFL and MLB game and at most college and many high school sporting events as well. Now I think that's a good point. I think that's very interesting. However, how are we deciding most listened to?
Starting point is 00:48:44 Because let's say it's played at a major sporting event in 10 states every night of the week. Yeah. That's 70 plays, right? Are we just going by the fact that it was played 70 times or counting how many people were listening? Listening to it, yeah, because then you've got to multiply that by thousands, maybe tens of thousands, depending on the game. Because then you could argue it's the national anthem of whatever country has the most events where the national anthem is played. Off the top of my head, I don't think that's going to outweigh plays that people listening at home. I feel like that's still going to be more significant than sporting arena plays.
Starting point is 00:49:27 But I haven't run any numbers on that. That's just my instinct. If people want to join in and comment on that, let us know. Yeah, or discuss it in the Discord. Discord. Very active. Under Reddit. Next bit of any other boggliness. Adam got in touch sliding into our problem
Starting point is 00:49:46 posing page with not a solution per se but a warning. This is back relating to our discussion about can you make tea in a microwave by just microwaving a mug of cold water to make it a cup of boiling water. And Adam, and I think a few other people may have chipped this in as well, warned that a microwave can lead to superheating of the water due to a lack of nucleation points around which bubbles can form, which is very dangerous. Disturbing the water can lead to it instantly and violently boiling, such as adding a tea bag, spoon, or even just moving the mug. So they wanted to just warn us and everyone
Starting point is 00:50:23 else. So you can to just warn us and everyone else. So you can both super heat and super freeze water where if you're very gentle you can get the temperature of water above the boiling point or below the freezing point and the water hasn't noticed because it needs it needs a little kickstarts the wrong expression I a little kick starts the wrong expression. I mean, nucleation points, the correct expression. It needs something to get the ball rolling. So it's either going to start.
Starting point is 00:50:53 Yeah. A little bit of activation energy. But in this case, when it's freezing, it's akin to it needs somewhere for the ice crystals to start forming. And once they form, more crystals form on them and more form on them and the whole thing freezes. And boiling, it needs a point where the bubbles, like the vapor starts becoming gaseous and then bubbling out and then it cascades and it goes nuts. So you'll see videos, I saw one recently, I think it was a vending machine that had accidentally supercooled
Starting point is 00:51:22 bottles of water and people took them out and then hit them, the whole bottle freezes like magically at once. It's very cool. We will put a link in the show notes to either we can find the one I remember seeing or an equivalent one so you can see some water super freezing in a bottle. But you need very pure water in a very clean container so there's no little bits of dirt or grit or anything that would cause it to start which you know most of the time there is because we live in a messy reality and you need
Starting point is 00:51:53 to cool it or heat it very very gently and so if you've got something in a pan or a kettle it's never going to happen but a microwave is the perfect situation to heat water without disturbing it so you can end up with superheated water. You pick the mug up it all suddenly like very violently boils at once and erupts out of the mug and you can get very serious burns because of this. So Adam is completely correct. It's the boiling version of this the superheating is incredibly dangerous. Please be careful. Don't just microwave water and grab it out.
Starting point is 00:52:27 And I know I mentioned just called earlier speaking of which people on discord have been discussing when a problem squared will roll over have a roll over. They've been harder work yeah. Yeah so we list our episodes as 001 onwards, which means that we have a maximum of 9. I thought ahead. Yeah. Yeah, you did. I've seen other podcasts start and get to like 99 and realize they've not left the room to move. And now ordering things, like sorting things in a spreadsheet doesn't work properly anymore. If you've got a design based on putting the number in it doesn't work anymore. So I was like, look out of the gates, three digits, let's just be consistent.
Starting point is 00:53:12 Yes. Though that one obviously lasts forever. Three digits will get us a long way. And I didn't, because we've changed the rate at which these come out as well. So, so there will be a point in the future where we will hit 999 and then we're in trouble. So the word on the discord with their current estimates of the rate we're producing podcasts is we will run out of digits on the 23rd of June in the year 2059.
Starting point is 00:53:43 So the question for us back is, will we still be making this podcast in the year 2059. So the question for us Beck is will we still be making this podcast in the year 2059? That is a good 34 years from now. I'll be about to turn 80. I'll be 79. I like to think we are. I like to think we might be like, you know, a band that was successful and then breaks up, but then keeps getting back together whenever we need more money. Oh, we spy on time.
Starting point is 00:54:11 Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll come, we'll get back together and do another, another quick hundred episodes. And then we're back. Yeah. Then we'll have another falling out. We're back into retirement. It'd be great. But that will have gaps, right?
Starting point is 00:54:23 So we'll be fine. I like to think that maybe we're more than a podcast by then. Like, Oh, what if we're franchised? We're whatever the new medium is. I think a problem squared is going to be like a very popular hologram based content. Yeah. Well, here's something I can say with some certainty, Beck. Neither you nor I are particularly good at planning for retirement.
Starting point is 00:54:48 So I think we're going to be doing this for as long as we need to buy groceries. We're going to have to keep this going in order to pay our nurses. And if anyone has opinions of what we should hypothetically do when we run out of digits, there's a thriving discussion on the Discord. People want to put it in hex, different numbering systems, put a letter on the front if you've got an opinion dive in and speaking of people who
Starting point is 00:55:11 Listen and care about us This is a segue isn't it we like to thank you done three of our Supporters chosen at random at the end of every episode and on this episode those patreon supporters are Vike Tor Ver Stray Ellen. I stand by that. That's it. Final version. B. Anx-a. There's more. There's more. B.
Starting point is 00:55:43 Car. B... car. Ma-Tee-Tee. G old. And finally, I want to thank everyone for listening. I'd especially like to thank my cohost, someone who I would recommend for players age two to 100. And for up to four people. And I'd like to thank our incredible producer, Lauren Armstrong Carter. Our producer is like the dice to the board game
Starting point is 00:56:21 that is a problem squared in that she's integral and has snake eyes. So thank you, and to everyone else who makes this podcast possible. We couldn't do it without you. Intergalactic Battleship B. Okay. I4. Hit. And. You sunk my battleship.
Starting point is 00:57:00 Oh! It's gone. Yeah. It's a secret. And you sunk my battleship. Oh, it's gone. Yeah, it's a sad day. But before it sunk below the waves, it was able to get one final shot off aimed squarely at F4. Hit.
Starting point is 00:57:21 No sound of sinking. Interesting. Nope.

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