Perplexing Paperclips - Numberphile

Featuring Tadashi Tokieda.
More links & stuff in full description below ↓↓↓
Part 2: • Subtracting Paperclips...
More Tadashi videos: bit.ly/tadashi_vids
Raw paperclips slow motions: • Paperclips (slow motio...
Video by Brady Haran and Pete McPartlan (animations by Pete)
Spinning Tubes with Tadashi: • Strange Spinning Tubes...
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[@nickkei2838]

Dr. Tadashi Tokieda started off as a painter and moved to France when he was 15. Instead of learning art, he immersed himself in studying linguistics and mastered French. After coming back to Japan, he majored in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew in college. However, after reading a biography of Landau, he felt frustrated that he did not know mathematics very much. So he started studying math using a Russian textbook, and later received a Ph.D at Princeton. Amazing life story!

[@randomdude9135]

So, was Poincare wrong then? Mathematicians aren't made, they're born ~Henri Poincare

[@randomdude9135]

But, obviously, it could be that Dr Tadashi is a born genius with an out of the world aptitude?

[@krakenmetzger]

In Japan, he number one heart surgeon

[@elisnovat3955]

@@randomdude9135 Obviously he is a born genius, and if he was raised from a young age and put into the university of Tokyo or Kyoto then he probably would have achieved something great in regards to mathematics, like the other Japanese geniuses. Yet it's clear his natural intelligence wasn't fostered the best, evident by him being a mere painter as a teen and I dare say his family were working class etc. Yet he was still able to find things to stimulate his larger intelligence and has still made a name for himself. The fact that he learned initially from some old Russian books shows that his family were almost certainly working class, I can only imagine what he would have achieved in a different setting.

[@vaccaciao]

@@krakenmetzger Darryl gave him a job.

[@cmd2tuts]

5:55 "I do that one only for money", what a legend.

[@anthonylnca8737]

Savage lol

[@PrinceJes]

Impossible

[@catdogfishdogcats]

@@PrinceJes clearly you don't have enough money.

[@SquirrelASMR]

@@catdogfishdogcats 🤣👏

[@asheep7797]

@@PrinceJes impossible to pay for the trick.

[@383mazda]

LOL, "after you have tried version number one and version number two it becomes tempting, indeed irresistible, to try them together." I love his enthusiasm!

[@sp10sn]

He often uses a turn of phrase not quite 'normal' but beautiful.

[@francois-xavierdessureault8039]

@@sp10sn NATURE OBLIGES

[@Triantalex]

??

[@SendyTheEndless]

"You appear to be trying to do a spatial computation. Would you like some help with that?" Yes, Clippy. Come here. And bring your family!

[@qwa1986]

lololol

[@klvsrs9739]

+SquareWaveHeaven Lol

[@ThomasNimmesgern]

Great. :-)

[@batfan1939]

+SquareWaveHeaven That got dark fast.

[@unaliveeveryonenow]

We are all old.

[@MrRishik123]

I swear this guy can read out loud a dictionary and make it sound so interesting.

[@katzen3314]

This was interesting tho.

[@MrRishik123]

Katzen4u the interesting factor was multiplied by 1000 times because of the voice

[@MrRishik123]

jmiquelmb he does

[@MrRishik123]

***** have fun with the amazing world of dictionaries

[@dave5194]

Lol my dad likes to literally read dictionaries

[@Arfwid]

Professor Tadashi is a superb explainer and teacher. LOVING IT :)

[@numberphile]

+Arfwid great

[@Maxander2001]

+Arfwid He truly is a delight! :)

[@MedEighty]

+Arfwid Yes, he's great.

[@pablo_brianese]

Same here!

[@Niceetee01]

Very much so. If only I knew how to contact every maths teacher I ever had in the past, just to get them to see his technique. He seems to love teaching.

[@zoranhacker]

I hope Mr. Tadashi never runs out of topics he can talk about!

[@IVIegadude]

You guys can't possibly release enough Tadashi videos. He is truly mesmerizing and enlightening.

[@ibrahimdin7339]

+SuddenDarkness yes please, that would be gr8

[@NickZack]

I love this guy so much He could probably talk about a piece of string for an hour and make it sound interesting.

[@niboe1312]

Ikr! I can see it now! "Now at first you might think, 'well this is just a piece of string.' but if you look closely, you will see that..." And then I'm hooked for somewhere between 13 and graham's number minutes.

[@gizatsby]

+No videos here saying "grahm's number minutes somehow" feels like more of an exaggeration than "infinity minutes"

[@niboe1312]

Leonardo Cisija Infinity is overrated :P

[@PTNLemay]

These vids are like the polar opposite of clickbaits. The title seems very meh, but the actual content blows your mind.

[@elfutbolphenom]

Absolutely LOVE the way Dr. Tokieda chooses his words... "we thought nature should behave in a certain way, and nature obliged."

[@BarelyNoticeable]

"and.. this is carved out of a single piece of wood and when I first bought this in Africa I was very impressed to hear that then.. it occured to me that it was the only way to carve something like this of course" AHAHHAA OH MY GOSH HE'S AMAZING :D

[@Dansg08]

My line of work is far away from the world of mathematics, but given the chance I'd probably sit in on this guy's lectures just for fun, he's that engaging.

[@nicholasmichalak6631]

dansg08 I

[@geraldjohn8587]

"Excellent!" At 16:16 is amazing haha! Sounds like a villain in a movie.

[@astropgn]

"Always guess before solving any problem."

[@geraldjohn8587]

Great teaching sense in this guy!

[@woodfur00]

I love the way Tadashi can seemingly show you the same thing over and over yet still keep you on the edge of your seat.

[@GaMatecal]

I want more of Tadashi. I've been showing my young nephew your tricks, and he is astonished by it. He is 4 now, but with these kinds of things, it'll definitely develop his mind to ask the harder questions, WHY! He always does, and I explain in great detail and he understands. He even shows his friends :D

[@Fblthp]

Tadashi is my favourite Numberphile personality

[@Locut0s]

I love professor Tadashi one of the best Numberphile guests. Fantastic educator. You can tell he really knows his stuff because his explanations are so clear. I also love his accent, perfect English, better than most native speakers, but still with that wonderful Japanese accent. And I don't mean that to be an insult or negative!

[@desfefe]

+Locut0s I am crying thinking if only the lecturers I had could explain that well, or were as easy to understand...

[@desfefe]

NeoHCgbz Words of wisdom from the uneducated muppet of the new generation...

[@Fanofjambi]

+Locut0s I agree although I don't think you should have to worry about being offensive when you had a clear, concise point that was obvious not insulting or negative

[@rtpoe]

I now know how I'm going to waste time at work tomorrow.... trying it with three loops....

[@Ivo--]

Professor Tadashi is now my favorite numberphilian.

[@Ivo--]

***** Sure but a numberphilian is a person who is featured on the numberphile channel. ;-)

[@StoneGarage]

+spankmeister bonus points

[@jopaki]

+spankmeister say it aint so

[@romanr9883]

those slowmos will give me nightmares. just sayin. they are filmed like some 1950 russian electroshock experiment

[@shanlykrismas1326]

Roman R not to mention the sound

[@DocFunkenstein]

I loved his laugh when he said "I only do that for money." It was the pinnacle of nerdom!

[@adnanabbas.]

Props to the editor! Great job

[@adnanabbas.]

And brady you're smart as fuck

[@CastorQuinn]

I love Professor Tadashi's videos. It's like, I know he's talking about maths, but you have to work to figure out *how* he's talking about maths.

[@TiagoSeiler]

"Maybe the two rubber bands get linked, although I do that only for money" Top kek, love Tokieda!

[@jvarunkumar]

What does it mean? I didnt understand the joke here.

[@Moneyisgoodforme]

Same

[@Moneyisgoodforme]

Same

[@Moneyisgoodforme]

Same

[@SuperHurra]

The joke is that it's impossible, so it'd be magic he'd want to be paid for.

[@redherring6268]

What sorcery is this?

[@matthewlewiscomposer]

Witchcraft

[@Omegadarkdrake]

+Red Herring modern day science and physics might as well be considered magic to the basic modern layman, let alone 1 from pre-1600s

[@2Cerealbox]

+Matthew Lewis Mathcraft!

[@SKyrim190]

+Omegadarkdrake This is much more related to topology than physics

[@tedchirvasiu]

+Red Herring mathemagic

[@WhiteRAZOR]

This guy needs to do audio books

[@skroot7975]

+White Razor Agreed.

[@Triantalex]

??

[@nytrex2001]

Tadashi videos are always so fascinating. I love his dry sense of humour. More Tadashi please.

[@CristiNeagu]

Borromean rings, eh? One does not simply link two paper clips together.

[@AntonAdelson]

Haha, nice!

[@hypnoticfart]

This is might be the best video/teaching tool to explain computing that I have ever seen. No previous knowledge of any science is required to understand how our brains learn things and build upon them. Absolutely incredible.

[@Cresanova]

Slomos are like something from the Ring

[@MrMerowind]

Scarry :(

[@GarioTheRock]

Spooky scary rubber bands...

[@Po0dle99]

"The rubber band ring"

[@grapefruittango4707]

send shivers down the paper

[@Matthewkyle12]

Every single video with this guy is absolutely amazing, while at the same time spectacularly simple. I love it!

[@NothingMaster]

“It’s very lucky that I have another rubber band.” 😂 Once the paper clips and the rubber bands have been strategically placed on the manifold they are already attached in a ‘higher dimension’, but only by removing/manipulating the manifold itself you would be able to see their particular order of attachment in 3D. Now, try reversing the process [if you could]. In other words, try to go from the attacked 3D state back to the manifold setup.

[@droro8197]

This is, for me, Numberphile's greatest video. It presents the essence of mathematics (which is basically pattern observation) so gracefully and clearly. Plus Tadashi is such an excellent Teacher!

[@MarkHarlan]

I love how this guy is so passionate about rubber bands, paper clips, and paper. He just exudes so much passion, enough for me to watch an almost 20 minute video.

[@ThatBulgarian]

I love the Tadashi videos :D

[@tubefu]

try it with different colored paper clips and rubber band to see how they connect

[@JimFortune]

Paper goes in, paper goes out. You can't explain that.

[@minijimi]

I agree, more Tadashi....... please!

[@DontMockMySmock]

Tadashi is awesome, more videos with him!

[@xerkules2851]

He's right about the guessing thing - the benefit for learning has been demonstrated in many experiments. Learners who are told to guess before seeing the answer retain the answer better (as measured by performance on a delayed test) than those who are told to just wait for it without guessing.

[@AwesomeCrackDealer]

Not only Tadashi is a great speaker but Brady did a spectacular job at animating and editing. Really, this channel is superb.

[@TruthNerds]

The animations are done by Pete McPartlan though.

[@N....]

The fact that it works isn't so surprising to me - it's the fact that it works so consistently that blows my mind.

[@parkers.8748]

I agree.

[@hombreg1]

I wonder, though, how the paper clips would behave if positioned in such a way that the "linking" was less likely to happen.

[@Harlequin314159]

I would watch this gentleman explain paper math for hours. Cheers!

[@whatthefunction9140]

I like that profs voice. hypnotizing!

[@jacobyarinsky5130]

This guy is my favorite. He is Brady’s greatest gift to the internet.

[@DanielFlint]

lol @ 5:55 "well I do that only for money", I feel like that joke was greatly under appreciated.

[@GaneshNayak]

Huge respect for Tadashi. love his videos

[@DenisRyan]

Professor Tadashi has the most fascinating videos on this channel, which is saying something given how fascinating the rest of the channel can be!

[@chody5840]

The one liner about the links being carved from a single piece of wood had me dying. That troll grin is legendary.

[@mattgar921]

I love Tadashi

[@Chewy427]

It would have been so epic if the rubber bands became linked

[@TuynRabiz]

He only does that for money, according to him, haha.

[@dlee645]

How can anyone not like this video?

[@reinekefuchs267]

Numberphile videos with Prof. Tokieda are always such a delight, just fascinating. Just read the wikipedia article about him, this guy is unbelievable, started out as a painter, then went on as philologist before even getting seriously involved in the field of maths, furthermore he is fluid in about six languages. this man is a genius, a beautiful mind.

[@lobsterfork]

I never thought I could be entertained so much by only paper, 2 rubber bands, and 2 paper clips.

[@osculocentric]

Prof. Tadashi is Experimentalist of Mathematicians.

[@FrankHarwald]

+Chetan Waghela Link theory & magic tricks go together like fire & flames

[@37metalgearsolid]

Really interesting. I love Prof Tadashi's videos.

[@MrMalthusMusic]

Mr Tokieda is always a delight to watch, thanks for awesome videos as always!

[@eoghan.5003]

First the cup chiming video, now paperclips. This man sits at his desk playing mathematically with various objects

[@Ripa]

It's a kind of magic... thanks for this video. You and Prof. Tadashi are great!

[@superj1e2z6]

Definitely not a Parker clip

[@julessmith2]

Tadashi is AWESOME. I love how he does maths with physical objects and how you can see the patterns and theory being applied to real world, rather than just being numbers on paper. It's fascinating and intuitive and what maths is really about.

[@samsmith1580]

A really lovely mix of live action, animation and super slomo. All with the mellifluous sound track of Mr Tokieda's voice. A very excellent video indeed. Well done Brady.

[@miraie]

This video made me want to try this now :D

[@MizhiBirb]

I miss the osu content

[@crazy4hitman755]

This is the coolest ‘’magic trick” I’ve seen😆

[@dimpelgimpel]

The animations are very nicely done!

[@MagicHotline]

I just taught a beginning Magic class at the University of Texas last Saturday, including this basic trick, and one of my students started experimenting and came up with some of these other versions on his own. Thank you for the very clear explanations!

[@xystem4701]

The animation in this video is both very well done and very helpful. It enhances the experience incredibly, nice job!

[@AtuOma]

The animation quality is godly! damn spot on!

[@BenMcKenn]

Wow, transparent paper! Where can I get that? Oh, wait...

[@Borednesss]

Your videos are so pleasant to watch. The shots flow so well and the animations are awesome

[@LordBax]

Another amazing Tadashi video. Well done.

[@knexator_]

My guesses were always wrong... Like a Parker Square.

[@Weriton001]

+Daniel Hurtado Did you get them almost right though?

[@Neis999]

+Daniel Hurtado At least you gave it a go.

[@adymode]

Fabulous production on this video too

[@aboriani]

I love the way Tadashi speaks... calm and concise... Sometimes I catch myself thinking using his voice...

[@jessemastenbroek7343]

I could literally watch this for hours, the way he shows us things and explains it is so engaging!

[@xnick_uy]

Pretty cool and excellent animations, again!

[@Lostpanda123]

So interesting! More of these videos thanks! :)

[@pneptun]

Mr. Tokieda is totally awesome! Can't wait for part 2 of this video!

[@RazalasTrebla]

I love this video! I love this channel!

[@abdulmuhaimin9780]

this is topology right? also foot guy is back!

[@alejandronq645]

yep!

[@fransezomer]

+Abdul Muhaimin YUP 10 points! As in Universal Quantum Computing consisting of: Gate Flow, Adiabatic, TOPOLOGICAL, and Measurement Based Quantum Computing. Measurement Based is almost the same as Topology but in 2 dimensions.

[@abdulmuhaimin9780]

Pietje Puk I have no idea what is all of that but im just gonna go with it. Wow thanks for telling me all of this!

[@fransezomer]

Abdul Muhaimin no worries mate. I just wanted to show off my big brain, my bad. :)

[@TurkishLoserInc]

+Pietje Puk Doesn't this also cover combinatorics?

[@captainzork6109]

PART 2 IS COMING OUT FCK YES!!

[@ChrisBreemer]

Great stuff, wonderfully lucid and understated presentation. A joy to watch, and tricks to remember.

[@mthielssalvo]

I love the animations on these Tadashi videos!

[@ThunderChunky101]

This is one of the most hard to visualise things .... And yet, intuitive!

[@RoelfvanderMerwe]

I love this guy

[@rbbrchkn]

Love the segments with Tadashi Tokieda. Simple, yet so enjoyable.

[@kamitebyani5309]

Best video on numberphile, I can listen to Mr. Tadashi all day long.

[@P61guy61]

Great video. Thank you for posting. Subscribed

[@TroyOi]

I still remember my grandfather teaching me the original version ("version 0") of this trick some 55 years ago. I guess that was just a short time after Bill Bowman introduced it.

[@Prelude2ADream]

Love these videos by Tadashi Tokieda - more please!

[@Zothaqqua]

I've spent too much time in the past visualising what was happening to the clips. Well done for filming it in slow motion!

[@duden1788]

Now i can start my magic show :D

[@yousorooo]

I need part 2 now!

[@altrogeruvah]

Very fun to watch and great animations, thanks Brady.

[@ve666a]

tadashis vids are always so much fun! i love doing all the little experiments along with the video uOu

[@kajetanczerwinski3962]

Every time he said *of course* I felt stupid.

[@TheGamblermusic]

If I had tried that it would have caught on fire

[@TruthNerds]

Being able to make fire with some paper and a few paperclips might be handy, come the zombie apocalypse. ;-)

[@annayosh]

I saw Tadashi in the preview and I knew I was going to like this. I was not disappointed. Thanks guys.

[@Nilguiri]

Lovely graphics, and the slow motion close up with transparent paper in black and white is pure genius!