A Problem Squared - 116 = Guess The Right Price and Why Teeth Might Splice

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

￡ What’s the optimum strategy to win The Price Is Right?🦷 Why have Tim’s baby teeth fallen apart?🛠️ And there’s some Any Other Billy Bookcase BusinessHead to our socials to play along with The Price Is Right and to see a video of Ikea Wars!Here are the GIANT LETTERS sent in by Phillip:https://maps.app.goo.gl/yZaofcfNPaF5HyX17https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillside_lettersIf you’re in Edinburgh for the Fringe, get tickets to see Bec here:https://tickets.gildedballoon.co.uk/event/14:5884/And get tickets see to Matt here:https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/getting-triggy-it-matt-parker-does-mathsHere’s how to get involved with Matt’s Moon Pi Kickstarter:https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/standupmaths And here’s how to volunteer for Calculate Pi By Hand with Matt:https://forms.gle/w44THpNJ3jWUPqHy6If you’re on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on our pinned post!  If you want to (we’re not forcing anyone) please do leave us a review, share the podcast with 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.

Hello and welcome to a problem-solving podcast, which is a lot like IKEA furniture. Oh, Beck. You send us the pieces and we'll put them together. Oh, my goodness. That laugh is coming from my co-host, comedian, mathematician, and all around Billy bookcase of a man, Matt Planter. I'll take that. I'll take Billy Bookcase of a man.

You're a Billy bookcase because you're tall and you contain a lot of information when being used correctly. Yeah, yeah. And I am your other co-host, Beck Hill, a comedian, adult tooth fairy. And if I was IKEA furniture, I'd be a particular type of light fitting called the Farty G. I'm pretty sure it's pronounced Fartig, but I'm going to go with Farty G. Because I am the original Farty G. You are.

Yeah. The O-Farty G. Yeah, yeah. So the reason for that intro we'll get into shortly, but on this episode. I've calculated when the price is indeed right. I'm talking about teeth. I'm talking about teeth again. Wow.

Really distinguishes it from all the other episodes. Yeah. And we've got some any other, I've really used Billy and Bookcase. What's another IKEA? Ball as in meatball. any other bowl meatness I bet borgs one I bet borgs a thing

blurg any other blugness So Beck Do you want to tell us why Why you had an IKEA themed intro Because we did the aforementioned On a previous episode Ikea Wars show

We did it We did it It was fun For people who didn't hear that episode Beck and I are both We're recording this live from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, we're both doing shows. And in the lead-up to that, you can sign up.

When Matt says live, by the way, like, no more different from when we're live elsewhere. There's no one in front of us. We're always alive. This is not. Oh, yeah, it's not a live recording. Yeah. No, we're just sat in the living room. Yeah, there's no audience here.

No, but we're alive. Yeah. Wow. Way to take the pizzazz out. I just don't want anyone listening going, oh, what? Oh, I could have seen him. Now, that's an interesting point, because when you, you perform and do a show at the fringe, you want to do guest spots or things to help promote the

show. And in a previous episode, you suggested we both do a show called IKEA Wars. We both signed up and we found out mid-recording that we were accepted and we were both going to be on the same episode, the same evening. Yeah, episode. That's what they call them. Yeah. So you and I competed against one another to put together a small IKEA trolley. We didn't know beforehand if we were like a team if we were in competition. I mean, he's got the word wars in the title, so we figured it might be a competition. Yeah, yeah. And we took it seriously.

We did. It was fun. There was some sabotage options. So the format is that two comics compete to see how quickly one of them put together, a piece of IKEA furniture, but each member can also choose three sabotage options, like cards, which can be played throughout the time, whenever you like, we're given an array of options. This is what I find is so entertaining, because a lot of you listening were in the audience. We had a nice full audience at past 11 o'clock at night on a Sunday. It was

very much a home crowd. It was lovely. And as the host, Kieran Bullock, was explaining the sabotage options. One of them was socks for hands. And so you can get your opponent to wear socks for four minutes, I think it is. Over both hands. And that got a very big laugh. Yeah, a surprisingly big laugh. because that is a callback, but we found that very funny because you have had experience doing things with socks on my hands because I forgot my gloves and I was cycling in London during winter. Yeah.

So I was like, well, I'm not going to choose that sabotage to play on Matt because you have had practice. I've already proven. I remain capable with socks on my hands. But you threw me because as soon as we started, I dropped one of the screws and you played that car. I'm taking socks to hands. I'm like, bam.

And then that was the, from there on, it was a, yeah. I spent so long trying to pick up screws. I heard a noise and I turn around and Beck's like staring at the floor and there were screws on the floor. I say, Beck, did you just spill all your screws and bolts? And you're like, yep. And I'm like, sock time. It was the worst time.

Like trying to get tiny screws into holes with socks on your hands was so difficult. I considered using my mouth several times. But then I remembered that this furniture has been taken apart and putting back together by several. Multiple times. Yeah, yeah. It's the same furniture every day. Yeah, you played that. I played T-Rex arms where for four minutes.

I had my arms strapped to my body in a T-Rex position. And you had to do dinosaur sounds. Yes. Which I would like the record to state I did throw myself into it. Yes. But it was really fun. Yeah, I had a great time. And then you and I had a really fun as Kimram was selling his stickers afterwards.

You and I were like, should we de-assembled? And we did it like two kids who were being naughty, but we were just helping. We were staying back after class. I think most comedians go out and hand out flyers to the audience or promote their shows, whereas we're still on stage. I'm not doing our shoddy work. I just wanted to know that I hadn't lost all the script. I wanted to make sure they had all the pieces for tomorrow.

It was a lot of fun. All of them are doing our own shows. They're going fine. Yes. Yeah, that'd be nice. And I just want to shout out everyone who's come along to my show so far and said hi afterwards. It's been really great seeing everyone.

And what I've loved the most is it is. How many people have gone, as I'm chatting to them, I'm a big fan of Problem Squared, blah, blah, blah. One of my favorite interactions. So after the show, I'm in the, I'm just in the courtyard where there's lots of, like, bars and food vans and stuff. Yeah. And we have like a line of people. You all form a nice, neat, orderly line. I'm very impressed.

So my favorite moment was I was chatting to someone in between people I was talking to. Someone did a flyby, blah, blah, blah. So behind me, someone just walking behind as they passed within earsh. They just went blah, blah, blah, and then ran off. And I was like, oh, okay. That's a good. I'm a square fan, great. Yeah.

That was it. And then they're off to whatever they've got to do with their life. Yeah, that's great. Thank you, whoever that was who did a walk by blah, blah, blah. I do love a drive-by compliment. Exactly. Hey, you're great. Yeah, yeah.

Oh, because I always think of when we were in New York and recording as we were walking down the street. And I just walked past and went, I love your content. Our first problem comes from Calc-Dave. Or one word. Yes, C-A-L-C-D-A-V-E. Either that or Cal-G-D-A-V-A-V-K-A-V. Oh, yeah.

We could do this all day. Yeah, and we have, but we'll keep this ticket along. Calcutta-Dave, however you pronounce it, went to the problem-posing page at a problem-squared.com. selected problem, and asked, how does adding prices right rules affect the best strategy for guessing? Let's say there's an item that I have no clue how much it is worth, but it's in the zero to 100 range.

Without the Price's Right rules, I think guessing $50 would be the best strategy for the first person to try and get closest. But if you have to not go over the amount, should they guess a lower value? I'm a day one listener, I've never missed an episode. Thank you for helping people solve their problems

and keeping your company on my runs, blah, blah, blah. Back out of the blah, blah, blah. It's like now we have to specify. It's blah, blah, blah, blah. I like this problem already. I'd forgotten what the Price's Right Rules were because we had that in Australia. We did have a version of it.

Yeah, that's the one. I thought what we could do, Beck, just to establish how this works, is have a quick round of the price-guessing game for a price, right? So producer Laura here has found some items, I believe. What website did you end up using, Laura? Where are we guessing prices from?

We are going through the Argos catalogue because I've just moved house and it's proving very useful to me. So I figured it was a good place to get. Other websites are available. But this one felt like a good mix of everything. Brilliant. So here's what's going to happen. I don't know the prices either.

Producer Laura is going to show us a picture of something from the Argos catalog. Americans, if you're not familiar with what Argos is, it was like Amazon, but they used to just print out the whole website in a book. Yeah. And then you'd order from the book. Yes. And you can go to the store and it's just a counter. There's no display. It's a warehouse with a counter at the front.

Yeah. You type in numbers and then they bring you that product. Like I care, but without the maze. That's the one. Or the meatballs. Balls meat. Now. So.

Now, whoever gets closest wins, you have to guess the nearest whole currency unit, so we'll be doing it in pounds. Okay. And if you go over, you lose, would you like to guess first or second on this first round? Ooh, second. Second. Okay. Whoever goes first describes the product. I think that will be helpful. If you want to play along, we'll put these on socials. So people can check them out.

Okay. It supports the podcast if you want to bring up the picture. Okay, what do we got? Okay, so we're going to start with the Dyson. Super Sonic R hair dryer with diffuser in ceramic pink. And there is a picture for you. That's a funny product for you to have to guess, Matt. Oh, okay. He's a pipe.

It's a pipe with a resistor and a fan. It's a glorified resistor. How expensive can it be? It's a curved pipe and it does come with some accessories. I reckon that's going to run you 45 pounds. Oh, Matt. Oh, come on. Well, naive, little mat.

I've not gone over, is it? That's true. I'm going to go minimum 150. Whoa. All right. Okay. What is it? So, this is the most expensive hair dryer that Argos sell.

Oh, my goodness. And it will set you back 449 pounds 99. Oh, my goodness. No. At that price, it better give me hair. It's giving hair. So ridiculous. Oh my goodness.

Okay. All right. Let's do another one where Beck has to go first. Okay. We are looking at some V-Tech, two-toot drivers, two-car racer pack. They are some funky little toy cars. They've got fun.

They got little faces in the windscreen. I feel like V-Tech, they tend to do those kids' computers and stuff like that. Oh, you think there might be, like, fancy electronics in these? Maybe, but I'm going to go like, I don't know, 15 bucks. Okay, 15 quid. Now, here's the thing. I suspect they're probably a little bit less than that. I'm going to guess one pound.

Not because I think they're one pound, but I think they're less than 16. And by saying one, I can't accidentally go over. Hmm, I see. So currently, Argos have them in their sale. So the V-Tek-Toot-Too-Drivers, I just want to say that again. V-Tek-Too-Drivers' two-car racer pack is currently £13 and 60 pence. Oh! I was screwed by the sale.

Yeah, because the pre-sale price was 17 pounds. Oh, so close. You would have had it. So close. Oh, my goodness. But you could have guessed 16 and you would have been fine. Okay, given we've done one each, should we have a tie broke? Yeah, there's.

Okay, whoever gets this wins, and I'm up first. Okay, what do we go? And we win all the prizes, right? Yes, all the prizes. You get a really expensive hair dryer and some tutu-toot drivers. And for round three, a Vialida 50-meter sunrise outdoor rotary clothes era. So this is a four-armed rotary washing line that you stick in the ground. Oh, okay, yeah, it is like a folding hills hoist that you just kind of screw into the ground.

That's quite industrial. That's going to run you some... Now, I'm making big assumptions about how robust that is. It looks like it's metal and folds pretty reliably. There's a big range of how good that metal could be. I'm going to reckon that was... 60 pounds. I've been looking up a lot of furniture and stuff recently.

And that's roughly around the price. I would you guess for this. It's one of those things where you're like, either this is quite expensive because it's good, or it's very cheap because it's a badge. I call it the August lucky dip. I also don't know how big it is.

There's kind of a picture of a woman hanging something up. Well, it has a total drying space of 50 meters and it holds five washloads. You can't count the individual string as like 50 meters. They have. Yeah, they should. be saying, oh, it has a drying capacity of a square meter.

What fabric? No, like the size that I... Oh, I understood, understood. Like, if I was like, will this fit in my backyard? You go, well, it can fit 50 meters of line on it. I was like, that's not useful. Um, oh. And here was me hanging my washing out on one continuous linear line.

I'm going to have for 70 pounds. gotcha but for the record and for i was thinking 65 okay because that'd feel safer but for some reason i want to get closer it's very interesting i should have just gone for 61 why not because i've already done this i've already said what i'm going to do oh okay fine fine fine okay i realize in hindsight i should have just said 61 because there's no one else after me yeah yeah okay what do we got so i have bought not this exact product but a rotary washing going this week and what i found out while shopping for rotary washing lines is they're way more expensive than I thought they'd be. This one is 159 pounds. 159 pounds. Congrats. Okay, so we have a winner. Becker's won the first ever

the square is right. And what's interesting about that is you then did stumble onto the optimal strategy, which is to just guess one dollar or one unit above the other. otherwise highest guess. Because for the hairdry, when I said 45, you knew it was more than that. You could have just said 46 and you're guaranteed, there's no way I can win at that point. Yeah, but that's less interesting for listeners. They want to know if I'm going to get the price exactly right. Yes, no, yeah, you've gone for the, I want to play the game in the spirit of the game.

Yeah, yeah. And what Caldave wants here is just optimal strategy. Yeah, that's true. And I'm going to kind of... It's called the price is right, not the price is almost right. The price is optimized to be right on average. That's what I would call it. Someone mock that up now.

I'm going to do that. I'm going to kind of ignore Caldave's specific question because I think it's just interesting the difference between trying to solve problems or playing a game show for fun or the way it was kind of intended versus just the optimal strategy to win on average. And someone called Ben Blatt went through one and a half thousand episodes of people on the US Price is Right playing that guessing the price game and worked out how often they would have won if the last person,

just looking at the last person, if the last person to guess just had picked $1 more than up until then the maximum guess. And it turns that if they had just done that, the last person would have won 54% of the time. If they didn't even try and guess what the price is, they didn't think about the product at all, if they ignored any, how much is this worth and just guessed $1 more than the highest bid, even though they're only one out of four contestants, or however many, they would have won 54% of the time. In reality, the last person won 35% of the time. Because by trying to

be clever about it, they actually won less often. Yeah. Well, it's not being clever. It's just trying to show off. It's trying to show. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's trying to use your smarts. It's trying to use your knowledge about products and prices to play the game. Rather than your knowledge of the game. Following the rules. Yeah. Yep. And so for this kind of guess the price but don't go over strategy. As Kark Davis said, if you know it's in the zero to a hundred range and you just want to be the closest on average, if you pick the midpoint, assuming the prices randomly between zero and a hundred, but pick in the middle, you'll be the closest on average. But now you're thinking, well, what should you do if someone else, like you can't go over? I would argue it's

the same. You still pick the midpoint because when we were playing then, if you think the actual answer is above what the other person's guessed, you should guess one dollar more. If you think it's below what the other person guessed, you should choose a dollar. Because you're claiming the entire range. Well, now, you're basing this on where the two people are playing. Yes. But if four people are playing, and the first person says for $50, and you're like, I think it's less than that, you're second, and you go a dollar, well then...

Yeah, you know, 100%. This is assuming, well, for the Calcday, we've got the two-person version 0 to 100. If you've got multiple people that gets much more complicated, the price is right is also much more complicated because there's no upper bound. So there's no range that you can try and split the middle of. Sure, yeah. So the optimal strategy in general would depend on the range and depend on the distribution of prices within that range because they probably won't be evenly distributed so every amount's equally likely

depending on the sorts of products there's going to be a bit of a distribution in general I don't think there's optimal strategy if you're playing a two-person version over a set range with equally likely amounts you're going to be right in the middle because if you're not in the middle someone will claim the bigger range by either going one or one dollar more you can claim whichever is the bigger section the other person's left you. And if you're the first person you want to go in the middle, what Ben Blatt did was

look at all the price of rights over one and a half thousand episodes to kind of that kind of bakes in what the range is and what's going on. Yeah. And show that if you're last, the $1 more strategy is

going to win more often than not. Yeah, interesting. And people don't do that. Well, I guess because Generally, people know the rule is that you don't want to go over. So everyone is going to guess either the price that they think it is, like, deep in their heart, or slightly lower than the price that they think it is because they don't want to go over. They're not going to over guess. So you're more likely that whatever the top guess is, it's not going over because no one is trying to go over.

You're 100% correct. The stats have shown exactly what you're saying that people tend to guess down. and what you really should do is actually go a little higher. So if you're not last, you should at least go higher than you think. Although if you're the top guess, you're going to get sniked by the last person. Unless the item is $61, and that person guessed $60, so you went 61. That's pretty, yeah, you're right. It's very unlikely to get it exact.

I think the game show even gives you a bonus if you get it exact because it happens so infrequently. But I thought we could play a different game from the prices, right? And we'll see how we go. So this game is called Now or Then, and you will be shown six products that will all have a price, and four of them will have their current price. Two of them will have a price from the past. I haven't bothered getting the products, and we're going to assume that you're just going to be guessing at random.

Right. Because you could put a lot of effort into working out if you're. think it's the now price or the then price. Or you could just assume it's completely random and see if you can win the game or not. And the prices are put out in a circle. So I've written now on four cards and I've written then on two cards and I've put them in a circle. You can try and guess them in any order you want. You just need to end up with three correct guesses in a row. It's guessed now or then and you need to end up with three touching guesses that were correct. I'm looking at at stuff and I'm struggling to understand why anyone would do this.

Okay, so... It's a game show. They've got a lot of time to fill. That's true. May I please have that one? I'm going to say now. You think it says now? It was now.

Okay. Let's go the closest one down from it. I'm going to guess that that one is... Oh, there's now's and there are thens. Okay. All right, so I'm going to go now again. Now again? Yeah.

Turning it over. It's now. Oh. So now there's two now. now's and two thens? Yep. Left. You've only got to get three in a row. Okay, the furthest left, I'm going to go for now. It was then. Oh, okay, and the one above it, I'm going to go for then. You think this is then? It was a now. Ooh. This is going to be tricky. I don't want to spoiler it, but you can definitely win this. Oh, okay. So why can you definitely win? Because,

Well, it's a 50-50 chance. Yeah, there's two cards left. You haven't flipped over. One's a now, one's a then. But what happens once you've seen one of those? Oh, do I get to choose all of them? Yeah. Oh, okay.

Right. For some reason, I thought this was my last go. No. Okay. What's your strategy to definitely win now? Okay, well, we know that whatever one I flip over, if it's a, let's say the bottom one, if I was to say that that is,

now and it said then then I know that the last one is now and it's the top one and that links all of those so either you win on this next guess or that will give you the information to win on the following guess and both of those will give you a chain of three doesn't matter which one yeah so for completeness let's do it oh okay all right then correct you won

and if you'd have been wrong you would have won on the next move yeah that does not seem like a good game That's because if it's stripped of all context, it's not. Right. Of course, if it had pictures of products and prices on there, then I would be overwhelmed by all the information and confuse myself. And you would be trying to use your knowledge of the products and what the prices probably are and what they were in the past to guess.

Has anyone, like, gamed the system? The person Ben Blatt, who analyzed the one and a half thousand episodes, also looked at this game, and if you do what I've done and just ignore the products, it's just now or then in that ratio, you can win every single time. I was going to say, I feel like then there's no way that you could... You can't, you can guess three in a row to start with, and depending on which ones you get right, you can do the remaining ones in the order to work out the information to fill in the final row of three. You cannot lose that game. However, when they analyzed the last 13 years,

of prices rights, the person playing that game won 68% of the time. Because the other people just weren't looking at the obvious answer. Correct. They were trying to think about the prices. Yeah, I would have been one of those people, I reckon, too. Like, I would have easily... That makes for a better game show. Yeah. But in reality, you should just play it using cold clinical algorithms.

Yeah. It's like that, you know, one of us always tells the truth and one of us always tells you're exactly like that it's exactly one of those puzzles you just got to think through it logically and you're guaranteed to win i think it's very funny that a game show has a game where optimal strategy wins 100% of the time yeah and the track record is 68% wins yeah but it's wait better tv don't get me wrong they wouldn't be on the show if people played it properly they would have swapped it out for a different game of course but people don't Humans. God, we're so stupid.

This has made me sad. It's humans. I mean, I love this stuff because you know, I love puzzles and games, and you're easily obsessed by them. But we don't live our lives thinking through things logically like this. And I'm not suggesting we should make all our decisions this way, but I just think humans. We're too easily drawn in by the details and the illusion of how smart we are and thinking it through in using our insight to be clever, when in reality, just do it logically.

I've talked about this before on the podcast, but just the amount of positive feedback I got when I had my 2020 tour booked, which obviously got cancelled, there were all like 30 dates and instead of listing it chronologically, I listed it by city, by alphabetical order, because I, no one needs to know what my schedule is. Yeah. They just need to know if I'm performing near them. and the amount of people like oh god this is so much easier

because they could see if I was performing in Birmingham or less like quickly yeah and I thought that was a very obvious way to put dates on posters and it wasn't until people responded that I realized that no one else lists them that way because we're so obsessed on the order

in which we're doing these things even the marketing teams the managing teams they're all thinking in terms of chronologically and it's like but that's not I think audiences look at it. My tour might be in chronological order on my And you can change it to alphabetical. We're officially halfway through the fringe right now. I'll check my slide.

I might have done 13 shows in chronological order. And you've now shamed me. Here's me. Oh, blah, blah, blah. Use logic. Yeah. And I'm not. And if it's a slide, even worse,

because it's going to take them longer to see if you're performing near them. Back. So the conclusion is we're all dupuses. Yeah. We can choose a bit more logic in our life. Yeah, that's true. So there are, Calcdave. I don't know what that answers, but you're welcome.

Yeah, I'm going to give it a ding. Thank you for pointing out how flawed we are. The logical step is to give it a ding. Our next problem was sent in by Tim, who refers to episode 111, where aspiring tooth fairy Beck mentioned that her going rate, because Beck is the adult tooth fairy, for those of you who aren't familiar with us. And she's also, she's fine. She's great.

Her going rate when she's buying teeth off other fully grown adults, there's a lower rate for broken split teeth. At least you were theorizing. Yeah. You'd offer less if the tooth wasn't in good condition. Yeah. Now, it turns out Tim has, for reasons I don't want to go into, a large plastic tooth filled with most of their own baby teeth

at the back of a drawer somewhere. They think maybe the local tooth fairy did a return to sender and got a refund from his parents. But whatever the case, for some reason, Tim has held on to their own baby teeth. And in the intervening years, every single one of them has split in twain directly down the middle. So Tim's problem is, Beck, as a definitive tooth expert, is this common for teeth to do? or did I, this is Tim speaking, just have particularly poor quality teeth? And they do add maybe they didn't drink enough milk as a child. So Tim had assumed it was maybe because the teeth had been mouthless for two decades.

Why did you have to say it like that, Tim? Yeah, it's not a mouth that's toothless. No, it's a tooth that's mouthless. And maybe being mouthless for so long, the teeth had dried out. But then Tim thinks they've seen very old teeth in museums. seem to be fine. So what's going on? Beck, there's no one with more experience of a wide range of old teeth. Well, a couple decades old teeth than you. What can you tell us? Okay, well, firstly, let's not oversell my knowledge of teeth. I am not medically qualified.

That's true. I think I deliberately said experience. Do you know what? This is me across the board is I know a little bit more than most on weird subjects. And it's enough. to get by. You know more than 90% of the population. Yeah. And there's plenty. Yeah, but not as much as actual experts. However, I do know someone who is an expert. What? I know. I went back to the source. Ah, here we go again. Denta Sophie. I feel like sometimes I'm co-hosting a podcast with Denta Sophie. Honestly, that would be a great spinoff. I would love that. I love Denta Sophie very much. So I sent this problem to Sophie who said, oh, that's so interesting. Of course. I wonder if it's the molars incisors and canines all affected, if it's just the molars, that sort of makes sense

because they have multiple roots, like a milk stool. So have a natural weakness through that vertical axis. Right. Like a milk stool? Yes, I got stuck on that as well. Have you ever heard of a milk stool? No. I assume dentists are just obsessed with milk. Is that where you eat and drink nothing but milk for multiple days? And it comes out as a milk stool. And then you pass a milk stool. No, I'm going to send you a picture that Sophie sent me after I ask what a milk stool is. Oh, it's a stool. It's just a stool. It's a small, so I guess like a milking stool for sitting on when you're milking. Oh, it's not because the legs look like others. No, no, I think it's because you'd have a little stool that you'd sit on. When you're milking a cow. Understood. Now, this one has

three legs. She pointed out because she just did a quick Google, but yeah, if you imagine a molar, yeah, it looks a bit like a little stool, but it's little roots that come down. So, uh, Dent of Sophie said, You know, maybe it's split because it's naturally divided into those segments. She then went on to say, the canines and incisors, though, were single-rooted and tapered, so that's very curious. A nutritional defect is an interesting hypothesis, but I doubt that's the case. Teeth are incredible in their embryological origin and subsequent morphology, which is a fantastic sentence. Love it. Now, do you want me to expand on that sentence?

I want you to unpack that sentence. Yeah. Because you just say it again, very clearly. Yep. Teeth are incredible in the embryological origin and subsequent morphology. So she's saying they're interesting when they first develop, and they just keep getting more interesting as they grow. Yeah.

So first of all, I didn't know that what's on the outside of our teeth and what's on the inside of a teeth are made from different things. And that's why Sophie thought so fascinating that these teeth split, because you need two different problems to create the split. Oh, because you've got enamel on the outside. Yes. And love and happiness on the inside. I'll tell you what's on the inside.

So when I asked Sophie to explain... You'd been through the stool conversation. All of that, the embryological origin and the morphology. Got it. She said, your teeth are made from ectoderm and mesoderm. So imagine you've got a horseshoe shape of white Play-Doh sitting on top of an identical horseshoe shape of yellow Play-Doh. Got it.

So basically, we're building a jaw. Oh, oh. If you think about the shape of your... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Along the horseshoe shape, you make... 10 indentations, not enough to perforate the white layer, but enough to create a cup shape. Inside the white plato are cells called ameloblasts, and they are awesome because they make enamel. Enamel is the strongest thing in the human body, so they have a lot to brag about.

So inside that indentation, they get going on making enamel. In the yellow plato below, the mesenheim, you've got other cells called odontoblasts. So we've got ameloblasts, making enamel, and odontoblasts. Odonto means tooth. Blasts are cells that build. So these are tooth-building cells. Yeah. Anyway, they build the rest of the tooth.

Dentine, pulp, cementum, and periodontal ligament. Each of those ten indents you made at the start become a baby tooth. And that's a simplified version of dental embryology. You know what I really like? You can tell when the different aspects of... that were discovered by how they were named. So the really hard to find stuff has got like, what was the name of the cells that make enamel?

A meeloblasts. Yeah, that's a modern name. And at the very end, what are they calling the bits once they've been made and we can see them? Cementum. Cementum. Someone just went, that's hard. Dentine. Cementum and dentine.

Periodontal ligament. Yeah, yeah. Interesting. Oh, by the way, the bone that holds your teeth. is called the alveola bone. Right. So that's like the horseshoes go on to form your upper and lower bone. Oh, and it's called the alveola bone because of the tooth sockets,

those little cup in in dents, alvelois, alvee, L-O-U-S means small hollow. Oh, yeah. And those baby teeth in those little indent start forming while in utero around week six. Week six. Week six. Teeth time. And I think we've mentioned it before, but you see those x-rays of baby's heads. Terrifying baby heads.

Because then, yeah, we end up with the adult teeth. Fuller safe. Yeah, I love it. It's great. So, we've unpacked that sentence. Yep. So the components of the crown. Top bit.

Yep. Differ from the components of the roots. Bottom bit. That's what we just discussed before. Yeah. So Sophie's guess is that if it was a defect of the enamel, that wouldn't necessarily try. translate to a defect in the rest of the tooth.

I mean, I have terrible enamel. I have to use special toothpaste. Right. That's not too abrasive because my poor enamel is like, oh no, it's too abrasive. Yeah, exactly. So Sophie's saying, like, even if your enamel has defects, your whole tooth shouldn't split. Yeah, my teeth are fine. It's got other stuff there.

Yeah, yeah. It's like if the paint's coming off of a bit like, like, or like if a paint coming off something metal, you might start rusting on, it might start rusting underneath, but the whole thing doesn't immediately fall apart. Oh, I'd rather have the enamel. Yeah, yeah. Sophie's guess at first was that maybe it's just affecting the molars because of dehydration and the weakness butts and that sort of thing. But then she was thinking more about the enamel issue, because initially she was like, well, if there was an issue with the enamel doesn't necessarily mean it's an issue with the rest of the tooth. However, when your baby

teeth fall out. Now, can you think just visually, what is a difference other than size between a baby tooth and an extracted tooth? Oh, like an extracted normal adult tooth and a baby tooth? I didn't think there was a difference. I mean, I think maybe because I've seen a lot. Yeah, this is what I'm saying. You've got a lot of experience of looking at teeth. Like by size, I mean, obviously baby's teeth are smaller, but they're also smaller for another reason. Oh. Why is that? They don't generally have much of a root. Oh. So think about when your baby teeth come out, they're kind of like rootless at the bottom.

They don't have the, whereas extracted teeth, you're either get a nice, big tapered root or the, all the molar ones. So the reason, I didn't know this, is that when the baby teeth fall out, they fall out because the roots have been resorbed. Resorbed? Yeah. So the roots break down. So the other teeth are like the, whatever the name of the cells that make teeth, we're like, you know what? We're having that back.

Give us back all that root material. We're making adult teeth. Yeah, exactly. So Sophie says to simplify, under each baby tooth is an adult tooth. As the adult tooth grows towards a surface, it puts pressure on the baby tooth root. That pressure triggers cells called odontoclasts. The odonto class release acids to break down the hard stuff, root cementum and dentine, and proteins and enzymes to break down the soft stuff like collagen.

So odontoclasts are also tooth destroyers. This allows the baby tooth root to resorb fully until the tooth is so wobbly, you can wobble it out. Right. So is what Dentosophy you're trying to say is baby teeth are inherently weakened because they were partially eaten. Yeah. before they were kicked out. Yeah, exactly. So it very possibly could have been an enamel defect because a lot of the other stuff

has actually broken down. Right. In the drawing. Resorption phase. Yeah, yeah. A couple of other awesome facts. Your enamel is made from crystals. Great.

Crystals of hydrozypapatite, I'm guessing. And you can find that in metamorphic. rocks too. Great. Leverman rock. So basically, the mesenchime does so much work laying down the foundation of your tooth, building the ligament that holds it to your jawbones, the pulp that brings blood and nerve supply, as well as the regenerative capacity of teeth and the dentine which hydrates the tooth, and the ectoderm covers it with spectacular crystals and calls it a day. We get it, Sophie. Teeth are great. Yeah. And then Sophie ends by saying, so all I'm really trying to say here is, can I interest you in a bespoke milk stall? And I'm going to add that because

when Sophie sent me that picture, she was like, oh, I was just thinking that might be a nice stool to get and then she saw the price. So the final part of my answering to this question, Matt, is do you want to guess the price of that milk still? Oh, I love it. Now, you've given me the information that a dentist winced at the price. Yes. It's in Australian. It's in Australian dollars. Okay, in Aussie dollars. I'm just going to go back and look at the picture again. Now, do I have to get it right without going over?

Yes. So here's the thing. That stall, if it was in IKEA, would be a 30 bucks stool, maybe 50 bucks. But now I look at it, the legs are all slightly different, as in they've been handmade. That stool, I'm going to say $300. Higher. No. I didn't give you three attempts without going over.

Okay, a thousand bucks. Oh, you just went over. I went too far, too far. What was it? $920. $920. That's nuts. We'll stick a photo on the...

That's about $307 a leg. But you get the top for free. Yes, so I think, I think, I think, I think I've answered that question? I think so. The answer seems to be baby teeth are weaker. Weaker. Because once they've come out.

Yeah. They don't have so much good stuff in there. So it could have been an enamel issue. It's not a diet thing. But yeah, it could also just be the way that you've kept them and the dehydration and that it could just be that they've dried out in particular and had a weakness in that spot. Maybe you didn't brush them after they fell in. But it's not normal, so congratulations, Tim.

Yeah. Anyway, let me know, Tim. Let us know, go to the problem posing page, click solution instead of problem, and let us know if that's a ding for myself and dentist Sophie. And if you want to sell those teeth at a discount rate, back's your guy. Yeah, let me know.

Do they come with the box? That's what I want to know. Just about the box. And we're on to any other business, or as we will call it, this episode, any other blurgness? Bjorkness? Not quite. No, not the same country, but still. And I'm excited to say that we heard from Thetla or Tecla, we weren't sure how it was pronounced, H-E-K-L-A, who made a teeth offer.

We discussed this on episode 113. they had the Messiodens, Messierodons, Messierodons, the single tooth that are grown between the Bios tooth. And I'd asked them to let me know what they thought was a fair price. They said, I reached out to you previously. Having now heard your thoughts on a price point and having discussed it with some friends, I'd be happy to part with my lump of enamel for 20 pounds. Oh.

As a bonus, I can also bring it along to the Edinburgh Fringe to eliminate any risk of it getting lost in transit. it. Oh gosh. That includes shipping. Yeah, that's a good price. But also, we are halfway through the fridge, so have we missed that? At the time of listening, we still have a week of Edinburgh fringe remaining. So I either have it now. Yes, or in the last week, which is an organic way to say everyone, you've still got one week to come and see our shows in Edinburgh. Yes, Matt, what time is your show? Would you believe it's a 6.30 in the Pleasant Squoietard? What about yours, Beck? Oh, it's at 7pm at Appleton Tower, Guild of Balloon. Is that why neither of us can work? the other person's show.

It is. But I've had a lot of wonderful people say that they've seen your show and they loved it. I know the things about your show. So, we're both great. Our next bit of AOB was sent in by Felix, who has a solution to Beck's Lido problem. This is where Beck, and you didn't say it was a problem. You just complained about outdoor British swimming pools for an extended period of time. And you were right to do so.

Felix wants you to try rice lip lido. They say it's got a beach, it's got trees, and, now this might bump you over the edge, it's got a little miniature railway. I would go for the railway and potentially stay for the subway. There you go. Okay. Well, that way, let's just maybe you emotionally commit to the miniature railway, and when you're there, maybe the Lido will win you over.

Do you want to do a, should we do a problem squared excursion to Ryslip Lido before the Summer runs out. I would love to. My mom's going to be in town in September. Maybe I'll take my mom. Sold. We also heard from Nicole, who was also responding to something else in episode 1-1-1-4, chip-to-dip ratio.

Nicole said, it's funny. I knew exactly what problem Higgins was talking about, even though I never actually struggled with it. It is so simple. Always ensure you have leftover dip. Dipperables, while they can be eaten on their owner, often dry and boring. But leftover dips can be upcycled. Leftover salsa goes into my weekend Bolognese.

Doesn't matter if it's half a glass or just a spoonful. Cream cheese or dairy-based dip also go into pasta sauce for me. Almost or vegetable spreads, beetroot, perhaps can sweet potato get recycled into salad dressings or spreads on sandwiches, which are my go-to week meal lunches. Just because it says salsa on the tin doesn't mean it can only be eaten with nachos. Be adventurous with your cooking. You might discover something delicious. I love listening to the show and I never knew I needed a number.

nerdy comedian until I was introduced to Matt, and Beck is essential to keep his explanations understandable to the every man. You too make a good team. Thank you for making it available to everyone. You're welcome. Hey, look, considering, considering we're trying to get more people to get on board with Matt's. Very true.

They need the every man. They need this guy. Nummy like me, he was like, break down the big words. please. Now, and symmetrically, I get to be the every man saying, but why do you need so many teeth? Exactly. Between us. Between us. We are normal. Yeah, there you go. Great. On average. Philip here says, hi, Beck and Matt, exclamation mark, love the show. Insert as many blasas as necessary here. Great. I'm glad that memes evolving already. They just finished episode 115, the previous episode and they've got some bigger letters than the Hollywood sign. Philip, what do you

got? So they say it's nowhere near one billion point, okay, but lots of schools and colleges in the Western US put a giant letter on a nearby hill to represent their school. That's why I don't stand around schools in the state. They might put a giant letter on me. So they say Lassen High School in California has a 580 foot tall owl. That is a big owl That's a lot of feet A lot of feet Western Colorado University

has a 420 foot W That's nuts And if Philip has done the math right They're saying That's like 716K point And 518K point fonts Oh my goodness

So over half a million point And they've provided links That we will share That's amazing I think they may be the biggest letters that we have in the running. Well, further to that, I did let Rees James know that we had covered the inconsistency. Oh, really?

This is the comedian who made the original joke that started this all. Oh, Reese was great about it. Reese said, love that. That's when you know you're really cutting through. I've had enough pedantic comments to know it's closer to about 50K-ish, is that correct? People have already sent in the correct point size. Yeah, that's so great. And then Rees did say, look, in the Mock the Week game that they were playing that this clip was taken from,

the answer is a billion and you come up with the setup. Right, yep. And Reese was like, oh, it's the point size of the font. Yeah. So Reese does point out, it's not like they could go, it's a bit, well, actually, I think you're fine. It ruins the joke. Despite the fact that Rees has clearly had nerdery come after him

for the fact that it was wrong, Reese was still very... Very good about it. And he said, I'm thrilled, thanks for telling me. Excellent. And while Rees James thanks us, we would like to thank you. We would.

Yes. Thank you for listening. Thank you for, in advance, for telling your friends to listen. And a special thanks to all of you who are financially supporting us and making this podcast possible for everyone else. And if you would like to

support us you can over at patreon.com forward slash a problem squared where you will get to listen to our bonus podcast. I'm a visit. It's pretty good. You get a little insider information we don't talk about on the main show. And you are in with a chance for having

your name read out at the end of an episode when we choose three at random. We will mispronounce it though and this episode, those people are Ahr! Ons-Eng Will I am, all eight. Dara, Noelle, Nungton.

Thank you so much for supporting us. And thank you, Matt. Thank you, Beck. Remaining rigid and being easy to move from rental property to rental property. Yes, thank you me for Farty. And a huge thank you. to the Alan Key. Oh, bit work.

Puts it all together. Nicely done. Our wonderful producer, Laura Grimshaw. And I would like to say to all of you, Faval, or Avsked, or adio. One of those might be pronounced correctly. And we'll mean goodbye in Swedish. Oh, well done.

Meatballs. Meetby. Okay, back, it's your shot. Now, if I believe correct, you ended on a hit last time. You did. Okay. So I'm going to guess C8. C8, adjacent to your previous hit, is a miss.

Ooh, okay. And I'm going to come in with I-9. I-9. I-9. Hit. Yes. The cold algorithmic logic wins again.