Stand-up comedy routine about bad science

[@skyclaw]

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

[@anhuynhpc]

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

[@FKProds]

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

[@nagualdesign]

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

[@PinataOblongata]

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

[@SpencerTwiddy]

@@PinataOblongata liberals*

[@zacksinger4366]

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

[@runforitman]

exactly what I was expecting

[@randomguy-]

I was waiting for this the entire video.

[@wardrich]

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

[@NOTNOTJON]

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

[@TheDarkestSmurf]

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

[@wardrich]

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

[@The_R_Vid]

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

[@cubethesquid3919]

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

[@vistheindian]

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

[@Fearnil]

Are you counting in °Carlin or °Pryor?

[@U014B]

*roughly 2pi times

[@sevret313]

Or is it six times less boring?

[@stephenbenner4353]

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

[@neilh.4385]

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

[@BrotherAlpha]

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

[@mravenger3070]

In india cold starts at 27 degrees celsius

[@BrotherAlpha]

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

[@mravenger3070]

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

[@mravenger3070]

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

[@Peter_1986]

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

[@gurmeet0108]

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

[@alexwang982]

>:(

[@Paul-yu4ep]

You know Matt made them ;)

[@BlissToby]

steve, it worked, I'm convinced now

[@Tentin.Quarantino]

That’s a Parker subtitle

[@AlienValkyrie]

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

[@tilhanab6307]

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

[@SteveMould]

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

[@eragon78]

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

[@MurderWho]

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

[@eragon78]

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

[@m8edofallm8eds]

7:18 I cried, what a perfect delivery

[@37thraven]

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

[@MedlifeCrisis]

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

[@carlosbarzottowirti1895]

You been a doctor, I can only imagine the pain

[@AlexandreJWKlaus]

you, a doctor!

[@PedroNacht]

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

[@johannesvahlkvist]

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

[@StoutProper]

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

[@dave_jones]

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

[@MikkoRantalainen]

I actually LOL'd for real.

[@benjaminanderson1014]

Can I come to one?

[@mattking8016]

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

[@TotoDG]

Probably a Warhammer enthusiast.

[@spma07]

Automatically generated

[@HermitianAdjoint]

Vi Hart?

[@THExRISER]

AVE IMPERATOR!!

[@redpepper74]

10:31 I bet it was himself

[@vale.antoni]

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

[@fredeisele1895]

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

[@aspie96]

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

[@molly.dog8brooke792]

aspie96 #Showerthoughts

[@ianwang8688]

Are all airplanes outside of an airplane?

[@redpepper74]

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

[@Batman-zi5hh]

@@ianwang8688 !! NOBODY THOUGHT OF THAT!!

[@zeikjt]

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

[@Name-ps9fx]

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

[@oafkad]

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

[@nitePhyyre]

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

[@199NickYT]

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

[@loreleihillard5078]

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

[@maxximumb]

I tried that, it is trippy.

[@kiwanoish]

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

[@ethangilchrist3534]

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

[@georgeruiz9211]

No one Callum : *noclips into earth*

[@falconerd343]

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

[@ZenoDovahkiin]

@@falconerd343 You go to r/ihavereddit instead.

[@0LoneTech]

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

[@Nixitur]

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

[@AntsanParcher]

Goddammit, you said it better than me.

[@RichardBronosky]

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

[@alexandertheartist1]

Nixitur I thought the same thing!

[@standupmaths]

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

[@RFC3514]

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

[@Faxfaces]

Love the τ vs π at the end!

[@kuark99]

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

[@xinthralgaming]

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

[@macnolds4145]

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

[@BrightBlueJim]

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

[@ryanpaull8517]

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

[@RFC3514]

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

[@raykent3211]

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

[@ryanpaull8517]

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

[@ryanpaull8517]

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

[@RFC3514]

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

[@MrGallagher]

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

[@anotherviewofthings]

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

[@Mephistahpheles]

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

[@BrightBlueJim]

"This light bulb uses 300% less energy."

[@Mephistahpheles]

@@BrightBlueJim lol Yup.

[@jubuttib]

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

[@Fungo4]

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

[@jubuttib]

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

[@Mbd3Bal7dod]

Saudi here, it start to get cold after 22C

[@s-t-f]

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

[@Scum42]

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

[@lukesmith5018]

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

[@jursamaj]

Now I'm interested in Matt's blurb about "edit live footage using projections outside of a sphere"… Edit: Oh wait, is it the "Stand-up comedy routine using a live spherical camera" that's appearing in the watch-this-next list?

[@cQunc]

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

[@MotoCat91]

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

[@josephhayden8844]

Sad they fixed it before I saw it:(

[@Apollo_2763]

God dang it

[@heart-bitstudio6163]

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

[@johnyepthomi892]

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

[@JimFortune]

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

[@shadowfire04]

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

[@LupusTheGamer]

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

[@DawnnDusk-k4n]

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

[@lansfriszt7767]

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

[@JeremiahFrye]

Okay, but did you manage to fix the printer?

[@FullOfFallaciesVideo]

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

[@letartean]

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

[@tilhanab6307]

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

[@landsgevaer]

3:12 "Also some aeroplanes have freezers on them" Actually, that freezer is the only one *not* outside of the aeroplane, so the temperature in that freezer could be 6x less cold than outside the plane (whatever that might mean) and is precisely the case that allows your head *not* to explode. She "does the music things"?

[@Simon-nx1sc]

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

[@NourSelim0]

break; // There you go :D

[@enzoqueijao]

That's a non-convergent alternating series

[@kenlieck7756]

As far as coldness, all I know is if you divide an igloo's circumference by its diameter, you get Eskimo pi...

[@serenityrahn5656]

that's actually pretty clever!

[@ElHeisa]

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

[@RFC3514]

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

[@paulsengupta971]

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

[@RFC3514]

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

[@rozaepareza]

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

[@iang0th]

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

[@davisdiercks]

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

[@MatterStorm1]

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

[@whollypotatoes]

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

[@dmarsub]

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

[@whollypotatoes]

@@dmarsub 10 degrees in what units?

[@dmarsub]

@@whollypotatoes kelvin and celsius.

[@whollypotatoes]

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

[@FyaaahS]

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

[@coryman125]

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

[@dmarsub]

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

[@DANGJOS]

@@dmarsub What??

[@2drewbaker]

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

[@coolguy284_2]

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

[@dmarsub]

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

[@missybarbour6885]

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

[@AstroFerko]

and they're Canadian lol

[@meithecatte8492]

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

[@twistedsim]

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

[@coryman125]

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

[@StarshipVGer]

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

[@yukimoe]

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

[@sk8rdman]

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

[@PrivateSi]

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

[@ericveatch9819]

I watched this when it first came out 4 years ago and just had a thought on it today. I believe there is a meaning but the numbers the authors use don't quite work. My memory of this video was that the claim was the temp outside an airplane is 2 times as cold as a freezer, the correct factor was 6. If 2 then it does work, here's how. We do not need a zero reference for coldness or hotness, we need a zero reference for comfort. If we presume 70F / 21C is comfortable, then some level of cold will be measured as a negative departure from comfort, not a negative departure from the threshold of cold. Steve's right the recommended temp in a freezer is 0F / -18C. This can range from -2F to +6F, a very warm freezer (if you don't mind liquid ice cream) would be 10F / -12C. The departure from comfort (70F / 21C) is -60F (70F - 10F) or -33C (21C - -12C). So a freezer's "coldness" is 60F below 70F or 33C below 21C. If the comparison were twice not 6 times, then: Twice as cold as a freezer means twice the departure from comfort, i.e. 120F below 70F = -50F or 66C below 21C = -45C. With the rounding I've done -50F is very close to -45C, and this is (approximately) air temperature at cruising altitude of 30,000 ft. By this measure you could say that the air outside a plane is indeed twice as cold as inside a freezer. But not 6 times. My memory 4 years after the fact was in error and the original claim doesn't hold up. I do believe that both Steve and his friend were justified in saying it is an ambiguous statement, but, it does have meaning. I looked at it today not by crunching numbers to make something fit but rather looking at the base line reasoning. "Coldness" itself doesn't really have a meaning unless you also consider "hotness" at which point I realized both are measured as a departure from "comfort".

[@thomasnickel8808]

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

[@serenityrahn5656]

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

[@bethanysouza5445]

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

[@ProPcGaming1]

Mediterranean here, cold starts at +15 degrees C

[@BrightBlueJim]

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

[@Alexander-vg5qf]

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

[@asailijhijr]

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

[@chuck1prillaman]

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

[@cobra6481]

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

[@Double-Negative]

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

[@pXnTilde]

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

[@ShiftingDrifter]

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

[@NeverSuspects]

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

[@freetolook3727]

Works in Fahrenheit also. Freezer temperatures usually -10 F and outside temperature of airline in flight at altitude is 6x = -60 F. But that's making the results fit the equation not the other way around.

[@admkbldwn]

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

[@giraculum9981]

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

[@jerrybobteasdale]

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

[@Anvilshock]

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

[@ca-ke9493]

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

[@EebstertheGreat]

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

[@bitoffabyte]

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

[@clintoncoker6]

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

[@decyrano]

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

[@John-tq4bf]

Punch line should be "They're the Canadian government Minister of the Environment". Great video start to finish.

[@MarthVader1]

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

[@cameronsmith3047]

I hate to say it it was humor

[@Peter.Sky.Walker]

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

[@LeeSpork]

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

[@geoffgunn9673]

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

[@alexwang982]

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

[@scmtuk3662]

I like to think of this kind of question by comparing it to distances. Imagine "higher/larger/warmer/etc" is like travelling north, and "lower/smaller/colder/etc" is like travelling south. Now when you travel any distance, you obviously have to start _somewhere._ Therefore, if you say something like "this place is twice as far as that place", that alone doesn't make sense. There has to be a third place. "This place is twice as far _from another place_ than that place is _from the other place._ Therefore, if you say "this is twice as tall as that", what you should be thinking about it is "this is twice as tall _from the ground_ than that". And if you say "this is twice as short", you should have a third object. If for example, object A is 30 feet tall, and object B is 25 feet tall, you can say "B is shorter than A". If a third object C is 20 feet tall, then, since B is 5 feet shorter than A, and C is _10_ feet shorter than A, you can then say "C is twice as short (as A), as B (is as short as A)"

[@99baking]

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

[@stevensneedberg4879]

I bet you live in a first world country.

[@veegaanmyooon44]

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

[@mooncowtube]

This episode is six times shorter than the entire show.

[@Qermaq]

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

[@limingxu8648]

I like how he spends 10min explaining the math and basically just end with "and that proves stereotypes are six times funnier than math".

[@lastsanitystreak8443]

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

[@donepearce]

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

[@AnonymousAnonymous-ht4cm]

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

[@MrLeschi]

I think the inlaws and the book were referring to multiplying the relative value of the temperatures from 0C. For example if a freezer was -9 degrees Celsius, it would work. The average temperature outside a plane is -54 degrees C. (-54 divided by 6 is -9C and therefore 6 x -9 = -54) However a freezer should be at -18C. I would say that the air outside of an aeroplane is actually 3 times (not 6 times) colder than in a freezer if we assume that outside is -54C and a freezer is -18C. (-54 divided by 18 is 3 and therefore 3 X -18 = -54)

[@phillenan2494]

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

[@chemistryrockstar_official]

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

[@ISpillMyDrink]

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

[@HarriW]

He missed another interpretation: The temperature difference from room temperature to outside the aeroplane temperature is six times that of the difference the temperature of a freezer to room temperature. Now the scale used is irrelevent

[@RichardBronosky]

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

[@RFC3514]

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

[@jsl151850b]

*Wiki:* NIST uses a temperature of 20 °C (293.15 K, 68 °F) This standard is also called normal temperature. Freezer: -18C/0F. ________ Outside airplane at altitude: -55C/-68F. 20C to -18C is a change of 38C. 20C to -55C is a change of 75C. 68F to 0 F is a change of 68F. 68F to -68F is a change of 134F. *So, what they should have said is nearly twice as cold.*

[@ofek24G]

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

[@Lawrence330]

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

[@stjames3852]

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

[@fabi-fe2uw]

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

[@brekkoh]

Mould for pres (nationality not important)

[@maxximumb]

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

[@Peter_1986]

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

[@matts.6234]

Also, from a chemistry/physics standpoint, there is no concept of "cold", only "having less heat". X has 6x less heat than Y is a verifiable statement, but describing something as cold is a secondary quality so it has less scientific value.

[@starfishsystems]

Yep, just about everything that could possibly be misstated appeared in the original claim. The authors, the editors, the publisher, the bookseller all either failed to notice anything amiss or gave the book passing marks anyway. Our civilization is doomed.

[@BrightBlueJim]

@@starfishsystems The real problem comes when primary school teachers teach this kind of nonsense to children who believe them. Didn't work on me - I realized in second grade that much of what my teacher said was wrong. Don't even get me started on primary colors.

[@fyggy5480]

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

[@chopinbloc]

10:05 Wait, how many floppy disks would it take to store this video? If I did my math right, it would take about 2,730 3.5" LS-240 disks to store this video.

[@l.swethaswetha6249]

6 times shorter not 6 meters shorter.. what?? Was that a joke Division, Steve not subtraction. So Debbie can be 6 times shorter than callum.

[@oscarbarda]

Hmmm Excuse me, but if I may point out a FACTUAL inacurracy in your statement in the video at 10:06 Helen IS hilarious. Thanks for your attention

[@mrmjdza]

Reminds me of a conversation when someone said "It's twice as hot as it was yesterday!" And I responded "No! It's not 303° Celsius!" Which led to an hour long debate about the concept of temperature, and finally my decision to never interact with anybody with so little regard for the scientific method. I mean, honestly, if you're not capable of understanding that temperature is a measure of molecular kinetic energy, how could you be capable of any sort of meaningful interaction??

[@zergreenone8111]

I can tell that you are a Rick and Morty fan already

[@robin888official]

Inlaws: "No, no, no, it means the temperature outside a plane is one sixth of that in a freezer! In Celsius." Steve: "In a freezer it is -18 °C. That makes the temperature outside the airplane..." :-)

[@richmondvalentine9738]

Yeah. I noticed that. Should be -3. So warmer! :)