The mathematically impossible ball that shouldn’t exist.

Sign the petition now! mathsballs.com/
Pre-order Love Triangle to read about the Impossi-ball. mathsgear.co.uk/products/love...
All UK options: www.penguin.co.uk/books/44315...
All USA options: bit.ly/3wCTesR
Check out Jon-Paul's balls: / jonpaulsballs
Huge thanks to Jon-Paul and Allison for making the ball and inviting us to their studio. 12p.com/
Thanks to everyone at Liverpool FC for being so accommodating and friendly.
Tim's home sustainability tech channel: / @timandkatsgreenwalk
And his foot donut game: stone-baked-games.itch.io/foo...
Humble Pi stand-up special is on Maths Gear as a download, and all the other places.
mathsgear.co.uk/products/humb...
www.amazon.co.uk/Humble-Pi-Co...
This was my original video from 2017: • All UK football road s...
The UK government parliamentary petition and official government response: petition.parliament.uk/archiv...
Huge thanks to my Patreon supporters. This would be impossiball without you. / standupmaths
CORRECTIONS
- None yet, let me know if you spot anything!
Filming and editing by Alex Genn-Bash
Written and performed by Matt Parker
Produced by Nicole Jacobus
Maths of the Day music by Howard Carter
Design by Simon Wright and Adam Robinson
MATT PARKER: Stand-up Mathematician
Website: standupmaths.com/
New book: mathsgear.co.uk/products/love...

[@unvergebeneid]

You should've told them the sign embarrasses football, not geometry. Nobody cares about education but make a video go viral of tourists laughing at the English for not knowing what a football even looks like and you'll have even the old signs ripped out by next Tuesday.

[@trwn87]

No comment!? Let me fix that.

[@SamuelGeist]

That's a good call!

[@ZapOKill]

i would instantly cross the channel to make some fun of brits, having no clue about footbals or geometry!

[@dodaexploda]

This is me realizing that Canada is better than England in soccer. We can at least draw the actual ball.

[@TaylorXIV]

no wonder they havent won a trophy since 66

[@zlate42]

I just looked it up on Google street view: in Italy the signs show a correct football and Italy has won more titles than England - coincidence? I think not!

[@christophstahl8169]

The german signs are proper too.

[@fademejake]

But at what cost? What about the millions of unnecessary Italian deaths due to accidents caused by those correct signs?😢

[@CraigChrist8239]

This is the way to get the signs changed. Other players in press conferences should say "Well I was worried until we saw their "football" signs, and realized no one in England has ever seen a football, so I think we'll do alright"

[@saoirsedeltufo7436]

@@fademejake worthwhile for the recent Euros I'd say - those pour lost souls would agree

[@christophstahl8169]

@@fademejake Oh no, that is only dangerous for people who drive on the left side of the roads.

[@Loncouverite]

As an ex civil servant, try with the department of digital culture, media & sport. You’re more likely to get them onside and then the request to DfT will be harder to ignore.

[@danielchan1668]

Signal boosting

[@jackboggess3251]

@@danielchan1668adding controversy 😡👿

[@ArcheoLumiere]

Beep Boop I am an engagement bot Just kidding :v

[@robodragonn9506]

​@@jackboggess3251i am refuting the controversy!!!!

[@karlneff]

I reckon a model of a geometrically correct football that is identical in line thickness and scale to the current model just fixing the geometric representation should be enough to convince most rational people. "You want me to fix this? You'll be happy if we import this model you provided and use it instead of the current one? Fine."

[@greedyProphet]

Honestly, if I saw the impossible football on a sign while driving, *that* would be distracting. It looks immediately incorrect in a way that is not immediately obvious. That would definitely distract me as I tried to figure out what's wrong.

[@steviesteveo1]

The more you've seen an actual football the more uncanny it looks, too. The Government is basically trying to kill the England team on their drive to work

[@TheLastPhoen1x]

Would be nice to have some psychologist / neurophysiologist to write couple of sentences about the way the incorrect visual representation comes into dissonance with an engram of the real ball, making drivers subconsciously focus on the sign instead of the road and increasing probability of the accident, if just for expert opinion with credibility that is not so easily ignored.

[@qwertyfinger]

tfw you love geometry so much that you go into fits and crash you car upon seeing a geometrically accurate football

[@hornylink]

and that feeling? ~~Albert Einstein!~~ I mean, whiplash

[@LSA30]

If anything, noticing the abominably-wrong one would make me crash faster😂

[@FHL-Devils]

That they also noted that drivers would not be able to see.

[@orang1921]

iirc, they were talking about the construction to replace the signs being what distracted drivers, which implied that they clearly didn't read the full appeal because made clear that he only calls for the change to be made when the old signs needed to naturally be replaced, meaning no extra effort would be necessary

[@EebstertheGreat]

@@orang1921 No, the concern is that any unnecessary change in signage could distract drivers who are used to the old sign. Even if it only occupies their attention for an extra half second, that's a nonzero risk. These departments also have limited budgets and specific mandates, so they can't justify spending money designing and testing a new symbol with no plausible safety benefit. That's what the "the purpose of a traffic sign is not to teach geometry" stuff was about. Now, I'm not sure I totally buy that. Because their own point that the change would barely be noticeable in a car contradicts their claim that it would distract anyone, and I tend to agree with that one. Also, the ball is just wrong, and fixing a wrong sign isn't completely pointless, even if it's not very important. And I think the current sign is more confusing than they give it credit for. But I'm sure they didn't think Matt was proposing they replace perfectly good signs for that before their end of life. That would be insane; no one would do that.

[@frederf3227]

"The worst they can say is no." Government proceeds to lie to your face, invoke public safety, insult your intelligence.

[@larswilms8275]

Sounds about right. Normal service.

[@0LoneTech]

And demonstrate they didn't even read the proposal properly.

[@notar2123]

You do realize writing such an absurd request is literally an insult to their intelligence? I guess Matt was playing a meta-joke to see if anyone will find him serious and you all fell for it.

[@pkuvincentsu]

@@notar2123 Is it even an insult, if their response is proving exactly their lack of intelligence?

[@ahettinger525]

@@notar2123 I don't know, expecting your local MP to know that "Geometry" isn't a plant is really giving them far more credit then they deserve.

[@jpdemer5]

There's only one thing left to do: print up adhesive stickers that show an actual soccer ball, and start plastering them on the street signs.

[@alexanderbrinkley4332]

A larger scale decal for creatively harmless vandalism in spirit of Rudolphing the deer crossing signs throughout much of the US with red dots.

[@thomasmiller8289]

Exactly, and it would look so natural noone would ever think to question it!

[@Smallpriest]

Dude that's vandalism

[@jpdemer5]

@@thomasmiller8289 I wonder how many accidents it would cause.

[@Kyle-nm1kh]

​@Smallpriest and they'll know the culprit

[@loganstrong5426]

On the one hand, I understand why this issue wouldn't be a priority to them and they'd want to just say "no, go away." However, once there was a fully signed petition, why nobody used this as a "do something effortless to get good PR" opportunity is beyond me. They don't even need to change current signs, just add one sentence that says "if replacing the sign, replace it with this version instead."

[@Insan1tyW0lf]

Well, not "effortless" - they'd still need to prepare and approve the updated symbol and update, communicate, and distribute the associated standards documentation. But certainly less effort than doing that AND replacing existing signs. Honestly, even if Matt provided a new, perfectly functional graphic in all appropriate formats along with a legal transfer of all rights to the image, the updating of standards docs to use the new image would still be a non-trivial cost. Not "unreasonable" or "unjustified", but non-trivial. Status quo has a lot of inertia but I for one do hope this does get done. Of all the things to spend money on, this is far from the worst and makes a fun story.

[@demonicsquid7217]

The current government would need to find a company connected to a wealthy donor that deals with signs and geometry. At that point, multiple contracts would be drawn up so that said companies would be able to milk as much revenue from it as they could before they got rumbled...

[@geekjokes8458]

dude, governing isnt like writing code, you cant just "if then" stuff (sorry, i rambled quite a bit, so TL;DR it's not a simple task) as insanitywolf said above, you need to prepare and approve and communicate, but even that can be a mess by itself - so lets imagine a scenario who's gonna design it? how much should they be payed? should it be proportional to the number of signs? should it be a single payment based on projected numbers of new signs? who's gonna make those projections? should they be payed each time a new sign it put up? ... "why not use pre-made images?" well, how much should the treasury spend on THAT? and even if it is a supposedly free image/drawing, who says the distributor and/or "artist" that created it wouldnt attempt a lawsuit if, for example, they _simply dont like_ that their image is being printed on millions of signs without credit? ... should we use AI? then people who oppose its use might fear creating a precedent and protest against it ... will people complain that we're debating minor issues when there are other pressing matters? et _motherfucking_ cetera, but most important question "we" would ask is *would we lose votes over this?* so even IF the MPs were dilligent workers and actually CARED about this, it could still take MONTHS governments have bureaucracies to make sure that (most) forseeable (as in, not dependent on new event/tecnologies, but adapting to those is a whole other can of worms) working on serious issues do not stem precedent-causing loopholes, but doing so obvously restricts the speed and light-heartedness you can take something; then there's the issue that you are (hopefully) representing a generally *inconcievable* amount of people, unique people, who might as well take issue with the dumbest things, from whether the signs are mathematically correct to whether the mathematically incorrect one is _better_ - but also trivial-sounding debates that are complicated enough to have warranted sectors/secretaries/ministries in the past: like traffic sign _font and colour_ design

[@sakesaurus1706]

​@@geekjokes8458i mean at some point you begin to wonder if government is even worth it with so much slog in every initiative

[@Richard-dc5he]

@@geekjokes8458 It actually is trivial. Traffic signage is updated regularly by statutory instrument (minister fiat). Several of the symbols and wording have been changed since the petition closed, and the documents are updated every year. - The latest edition of the official "Know Your Traffic Sign" is dated 2023. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/656ef4271104cf0013fa74ef/know-your-traffic-signs-dft.pdf - page 119

[@MyChevySonic]

The sign is both too small for drivers to see details, but it also would be potentially dangerously distracting to drivers with the correct geometry. Schrodinger's football.

[@FathDaniel]

Keep Schrodinger out of this. This is just Idiocratic government.

[@rmsgrey]

Is that what illegal immigrants use for a kickabout while they're lazily on universal credit while stealing all our jobs?

[@knickohr01]

But wouldn't wrong geometry be more dangerous? I'd imagine that I would start thinking about geometry and lazy politics everytime I'd drive past one of those signs. Luckily I don't live in the UK, so this has never happened to me

[@PSUQDPICHQIEIWC]

"We're right, but even if we're wrong, we're right."

[@0LoneTech]

@@knickohr01 I agree. In fact, the current design is fundamentally wrong on *more* levels. Why the heck are the polygons closer to center *smaller* than the ones toward the edges? Are we looking at a concave bowl?

[@Jimorian]

The UK government just called for an election, so time to ask every politician how they stand on this touchstone issue!

[@foobar476]

I guarantee that they will give the answer to an entirely different question that they prefer to talk about.

[@EebstertheGreat]

@@foobar476 I don't think they could weasel their way out of this one. It's all the world wants to hear about!

[@palpatinewasright]

How great would it be if this was a question to a candidate

[@oblivion_2852]

Lol funny to see you here Jim. Used to watch you play Factorio

[@hedgehog3180]

Ask Count Binface.

[@ralphmay3284]

2:56 Love the condradiction, "It wouldn't be visible to drivers" and "It would be so distracting drivers would have accidents" is just so Town Council that it's kinda inspiring in a way.

[@markpolo97]

I have to admit that despite only having been in England twice, each time for less than a day, I was unduly distracted by these footballs. "That doesn't look right". "Wait, it's all hexagons!". "Don't they know about the Euler characteristic of a sphere?" Good thing I wasn't driving.

[@clemensruis]

I hate to correct people on the internet, but I'm sure that you'll agree that you actually meant "footballs". Stay safe and don't let those "footballs" distract you too much!

[@lolcat1382]

@@clemensruis they... did say footballs, though

[@voidmayonnaise]

Nobody would notice the sign difference. But also, the change would be so shocking it would distract drivers.

[@alexsorin9346]

Behold the power of subliminal geometry.

[@louisvictor3473]

Proof that UK politicians are in fact Lovecraftian eldritch horrors, whose non newtonian geometry is both imperceptible and highly distracting without contradiction!

[@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648]

It would soccer it to 'em.

[@p_Hak]

void mayonnaise, you made me lose 75 energy. not cool bro

[@kvdrr]

Ever heard of angular distance? You would need to move your entire head (and lose sight of the road) if you were to notice the change only up close, possibly hit brakes to look at it a bit more too. If you could tell the difference from far away then the angular distance is small enough for you to not lose sight of the road when looking at the sign.

[@Tker1970]

The emails reminds me of one of my favorite Onion headlines "CIA finally realize they've been using black highlighters"

[@RedHair651]

😂

[@BS-vx8dg]

🤣

[@emilyrln]

Lmao

[@Firebird1005]

I must infer that the reason England has not won the football world championship since 1966 because of the utter confusion of players being confronted with a different ball on the playing field then the one they just saw on the sign directing them to that same field. That might be an useful argument. Also getting stressed trying to find football stadiums abroad might negatively influence their performance. Btw the football ⚽️ in the emoji has the right configuration.

[@the_reto5195]

"Like our models, it works perfectly from one angle" the man just summarized ALL of science in one sentence.

[@user-ix6gx1gp6k]

Yeah… :)

[@fetB]

erm no. Science is science because it works from all angles. Everything else in sonsense

[@keiyakins]

​@@fetB So your answer to "why do things fall" is "I dunno."? No model of gravity has yet been able to work for everything.

[@fetB]

@@keiyakins you're conflating the unknown with "all angles". All angles, implies allthe angles we know, and as such, we have firm grip on gravity. What you're talking about is religion where theres an answer for everything, usually "he has his ways". Science is the practice of scrutinizing a subject till failure.

[@AFastidiousCuber]

I was driving when the notification for this video came up. Fortunately, the football in the thumbnail is geometrically incorrect. Otherwise, I could have been in a serious accident.

[@FathDaniel]

Luckily I was driving a bus. So once I crashed it due to sheer geometric beauty, I boarded an oil tanker. Sadly I had this video on pause, so I crashed the tanker as well.

[@c.jishnu378]

​@@FathDaniel Guess i am not alone.

[@publiconions6313]

Lol

[@tonnenpanda]

Who came up with that line of text and thought it is a good argument. That is one of the most random things I've heard in a long time. 🤣

[@FathDaniel]

@@c.jishnu378 greetings fellow geometric enthusiast. Do you too enjoy realistically styled pictures of geometric polyhedron and crash vehicles wherever you see one? I too love doing perfectly human things, with my friends and their perfectly fine human larvae.

[@derosterhase1]

In contrast to fixing some street signs in the UK, fixing all footballs in the world sounds like a reasonable task (I guess)

[@foldionepapyrus3441]

Only have to fix all the balls for which the stadium they will be used in there exists a road sign. Which is very much the Premier League and perhaps one step down, as I rather doubt many of the smaller fixtures have the geometrically incorrect road signs. (At least in the UK, I don't know what the roadsigns look like for every other nation)

[@phiefer3]

No no no, the plan isn't actually to try to get the balls changed. The plan is to convince the Premier League to convince the government to fix the signs so that they don't have to change the balls.

[@gdclemo]

or in contrast to changing the design for future signs, changing the design for future footballs. Though that would involve talking to a greater number of suppliers I guess, who probably also sell to other markets than the UK. So possibly changing the design for the entire world. That might be a harder sell.

[@AnthonyFlack]

Good idea, let's just change the balls. Now all we have to do is figure out how to tesselate a sphere with hexagons.

[@kaitlyn__L]

Wait, they both said the change would be unnoticeably insignificant AND dangerously distracting? Simultaneously? Incredible.

[@louisBrother1988]

Probably written by two different people

[@woowooNeedsFaith]

​@@louisBrother1988 ... or one politician.

[@spelcheak]

“Appreciation for geometry” was the wrong direction to go in, it should have been “to not look like idiots” from the start.

[@hannahwatermelon]

Classic government move saying both "it doesn't matter at the distance that drivers would see it" and also "seeing a geometrically accurate football will cause an increase in the risk of accidents" in the same document LMAO

[@glub1381]

I can see a case being made that most people wouldn't notice it, but those who signed the petition or are very interested in geometry might get distracted if they did change the signs. And the change is subtle enough that they'd have to take their eyes off the road and focus on the ball for a few seconds, which could cause an accident.

[@xenmaifirebringer552]

​@@glub1381 but those interested in accurate geometry can also get distracted by the wrong and confusing current version

[@nicholaslau3194]

@@glub1381 The sign impedes vision of the road ahead, thus increasing the risk of accidents

[@smallwisdom8819]

@@nicholaslau3194 Just getting rid of all signs, would reduce accidents, including those distracting yield and stop signs.

[@PrograError]

@@smallwisdom8819 [ Crash rate suddenly increases _-100%_ ]

[@afluka]

You'd think that the intersection between people who don't care for football and people who don't care for maths would be very small (especially in the UK), but I'm not surprised that those few people work in the government.

[@apmcx]

I laughed really hard at this thanks

[@0LoneTech]

Nor accuracy. Their care is exactly sufficient to produce bullshit excuses to avoid work.

[@AnthonyFlack]

If only all the people who didn't love football had a passion for mathematics.

[@424ever]

> The incorrect geometry is not noticable while driving > The correct geometry would be so distracting it would cause accidents It feels like only 1, if any, can be correct

[@trinidad17]

Covering all bases to attempt to justify saying they just don't want to.

[@SWalkerTTU]

@@trinidad17 It would’ve been simpler to give him the Arkell v Pressdram response.

[@Pedro_MVS_Lima]

Let's see then if both can't be correct (which I believe it's your conclusion as how it feels?) Assume the 1st statement to be true. We then know the incorrect geometry is not noticeable while driving, and we can also derive that if the geometry is noticeable while driving, then the geometry is correct. Considering now the 2nd statement, we can see there is no contradiction. Let's see it from the other end now, assuming the 2nd statement to be true. So we know that the correct geometry is so distracting that it would cause accidents. So if there were no accidents at all, then there had been no distractions and therefore the geometry is incorrect. Which doesn't contradict the 1st statement. So yes, it would seem both could be true, even if they are nonsensical.

[@daviddegeorge2667]

No no! You cannot get that "if the geometry is noticeable then it is correct" from the first statement. You're clearly confusing "this specific incorrect geometry" for "all incorrect geometry". They are saying the current football like depiction's flaws are unnoticeable, which is already false because they got a petition from people who noticed. However, I do feel that the idea that a depiction of an actual football might not confuse and startle Brits. If it's too convincing they may well stop their vehicles at random and attempt to kick the realistic image, causing chaos in the roadways. Also. ⚽.

[@Pedro_MVS_Lima]

@@daviddegeorge2667 Haha, well, maybe not. I was taking the statements at face value, with no particular relation to the video. In that sense, "The incorrect geometry" is equivalent to "Any incorrect geometry". But let's go a step further then. Considering the video, it is reasonable to assume that, regardless of which incorrect geometry, the authorities answers would have been the exact same, which would then generalize the situation to "All incorrect geometries". What I was trying to address was that although it feels like the statements can't both be true (I feel it that way, too), that feeling may very well be in error. On another note, I'll be driving soon, so I shouldn't have seen your emoticon as it might cause me an accident from memory. As I drive on the other side of the road, I can only hope that particular chirality doesn't affect me. Cheers!

[@chrisckelly]

Over here in Ann Arbor, Michigan, there's a mural featuring a Rubik's cube that is impossible to solve due to having two white centerpieces. The mural also includes the phrases "Challenge Everything" and "Create Anything," which offer a reassuring message and diminish the frustration upon reading them. 🤷‍♂️

[@LeonCoretz]

Remember when "Challenge Everything" spoken in a whisper was Electronic Art's slogan? Pepperidge Farm remembers.

[@timetraveller6643]

Nowhere on the sign does it claim to be a football. Perhaps it represents a frisbee.

[@jpdemer5]

No other country has 80,000-seat frisbee stadiums.

[@jamesmnguyen]

​@@jpdemer5 Then it's time for a change.

[@nathangamble125]

@@jamesmnguyen I always wondered what "FC" stood for, obviously it means frisbee club! If we're still not able to get the government to fix this issue ourselves, perhaps we need to get the WFDF (the governing body of frisbee sports) involved?

[@Bear-re5xm]

Hrm... can you have a completely hexagonal frisbee??? that sounds like a new video!

[@jpdemer5]

@@Bear-re5xm Where's Steve Mould when you really need him??

[@gordonwiley2006]

Personally I think that the footballs should be even more geometrically complex. I think it should be like those naval ships that got covered with weird shapes and colors to confuse enemy spotters. We need antagonistic sports equipment.

[@johnladuke6475]

Antagonistic sports equipment sounds like boxing gloves.

[@reddcube]

Matt should sell stickers that have the correct pentagons. And then just let vigilante nerds fix the signs.

[@TheXtrafresh]

I just LOVE how changing these signs is at the same time devastatingly trivial and a reason to systematically hound the government for YEARS.

[@NoNo-nr2xv]

5 years later "So Premier League got back in contact with me about changing the ball, aaand it's a no"

[@JohnSmith-ie8ir]

"So, what does this mean for our petition?" "Well here we are today in New York, USA, standing in front of the UNHQ; right on time, just as the 2029 General Assembly--"

[@HebaruSan]

The next petition should request updating the sign to show the side with the octagon

[@bryanillenberg]

LMAO yes!

[@Yao_Guai]

😂

[@QuantumHistorian]

The funniest thing to me is someone from Liverpool FC inviting Matt to see some of the players, and him turning them down in favour of the analytics team. Bet that's never happened before.

[@zinsch5588]

It was a joke.

[@QuantumHistorian]

@@zinsch5588 No, really? A funny bit in a video was a joke? I bet no one had any idea that was the case until your enlightened us

[@Kyle-nm1kh]

I think it's happened before. Plenty of people just go to talk stats I bet.

[@brois841]

@@Kyle-nm1kh pretty sure this is the first and only time

[@astropgn]

17:22 the famous Parker Kick

[@sakesaurus1706]

he's moving on from math to more fields He's such a polymath

[@JavSusLar]

Add an argument to your case: in Spain, traffic signs DO RESPECT geometry.

[@DanielHarveyDyer]

That's very much not in our favor. Do you think the Brexit loving public would stand for us adopting European Road Sign Standards! Good lord no.

[@uIteriormotives]

I never noticed the geometry of a football on the street signs here in Portugal lol, definitely will check soon

[@stechuskaktus8318]

In Germany, they do too. Whether that's a pro or con, that's another issue.

[@abydosianchulac2]

​@@stechuskaktus8318 I don't know either, how's the traffic incident rate around your football pitches?

[@stechuskaktus8318]

@@abydosianchulac2 Not sure. But I asked ChatGPT about this, and that's the first time I got a very clear and one-sided response. The AI thinks a mathematically impossible football is more distracting than a correct one.

[@euti]

That jersey is so fitting to Matt because at least they tried to get the initials right. One could say it's a Parker jersey.

[@samvknip3297]

Underrated comment

[@andrewkepert923]

They won’t change the initials on the jersey - it would be too distracting and cause accidents. The only way for the jersey to make sense is for Matt to change his name.

[@brenthooton3412]

One could say the signs have an image of a Parker football.

[@Crayonberry1212]

Only the govt would argue that it's too insignificant of a change AND the change would be too distracting.

[@stechuskaktus8318]

I know a sign with a perfectly fine football, and I can tell you, the pentagons make me want to drive into the opposite lane every time.

[@ajaxmajor]

wait a minute they can't say that it's such a small change that it would only be noticeable up close AND it'll be so distracting that it'll cause accidents pick one buddy

[@oijosh6286]

That's government logic that is.

[@kamo7293]

government logic: I made it the f up

[@GryphLane]

Department for Transport in a nutshell

[@nochsta]

Of course they can.They’re politicians.

[@GryphLane]

@@nochsta Not all of them. Mostly civil servants. Pen pushers that only have the Traffic Signs Manuals on their desk for the pretty pictures

[@Mulakulu]

Arguably, due to your obsession and influence, the sign has spread more awareness of footballs and their geometry than if it was correct in the first place. Keep up the great work

[@jupitahr]

Some: We met in real life Others: We met online Matt: We met through a foot donut

[@Gunbudder]

where i live, we have citizen's initiatives! this means that when a petition reaches the number of signatures required for the state government to respond, it just goes directly to a vote on the next ballot. The state government has nothing to do with it and can't even stop it if they wanted to!! then the people vote in the next ballot if the initiative should become law or not. we have had a lot of awesome things passed directly into law this way, like the registration fee for all vehicles was reduced to about 20 bucks (down from hundreds of dollars). the state couldn't stop us and they just had to find that funding for road repair somewhere else. initiatives are amazing

[@yaitz3313]

Where is this? Switzerland? I know they're big on citizen democracy in Switzerland.

[@illdeletethismusic]

Switzerland doesn"t use dollars

[@rsyvbh]

2:53 if i noticed the wrong geometry while driving it would be way more distracting than the correct geometry

[@HebaruSan]

Enjoyed the cameo by Matt's hair

[@Impossiblah]

"You wouldn't be able to see the detail from the road. Also the design would distract drivers." Incredible

[@htfx11]

The ball displaying a nice impossibility on the front only to have to compensate with lovecraftian abominations on the back is such a good metaphor for the state of the government these days

[@oristur3443]

The octagon could have been cut in half, forming two hexagons, and transforming the adjacent pentagons into hexagons too as a bonus.

[@Pystro]

That would make it a 12-pentagon 36-hexagon ball. Which is in between the counts for regular "footballs" (12pentagons + 20 hexagons, 12 pentagons + 80 hexagons, ...)

[@sydhenderson6753]

@@Pystro Chemistry fans recognize buckyballs.

[@Kyle-nm1kh]

I agree the octagon could have been dealt with better

[@MikewareXGR]

Came here to say the same thing. Bisect the octagon and pull the seam in a bit, then you're making the adjacent pentagons into hexagons as well.

[@adamboyd1132]

The correct approach is obvious. The UK government clearly does not care enough about football to GET IT RIGHT. How can you call it your national pastime if you don't get the SIMPLE details right on the signs?

[@kaitlyn__L]

Of course the Tories don’t care about football, they only care about hobnobbing at cricket and the derby 😂

[@existenceisillusion6528]

Should get that ball into actual play in the World Cup ... for maybe 2 minutes. Then have everyone sign it and auction it off, and give 200% to charity.

[@needamuffin]

I love that you argument isn't "we'll get it to match the other direction", it's "getting it match the other direction would be a significantly larger task".

[@DuelScreen]

I suggest you try again but this time include this video AND include a 2D suggested replacement football icon to make it as easy as possible for the committee to accept your changes.

[@trwn87]

Good idea!

[@bretscofield]

I'm not even a fan of football, but I'm convinced!

[@lars_larsen]

I think government-endorsed misinformation is a big NO. The signs need to change.

[@danaclass]

Someone should make up a bunch of stickers that are the right colors for the signs of a correct ball and slap them on all the signs..

[@thorongil9]

I love that changing the signs would simultaneously be so subtle drivers wouldn't notice, and so distracting it would cause accidents! lol

[@natecurley3090]

Bullying a multi-billion dollar organization is hilarious and would be a perfect intro to a comedy sketch.

[@MyChevySonic]

If the government can't fix a small problem, what hope do they have in fixing big, exit related problems?

[@giteausuperstar]

So the new sign would be simultaneously too subtle to notice a difference and also so distracting that it could cause more accidents? That’s truly impressive.

[@bungalo50]

Really a missed opportunity to have some pros kick some free shots and look at the weird aerodynamics

[@danaxtell2367]

Yes! I was hoping for a corner kick to see it curve. Because it's not tri-laterally symmetrical, the curve will change depending on the axis of spin (much like a baseball). And a kick with little spin should get a knuckleball effect.

[@chasingwildlife6584]

Exactly what I was thinking, getting Trent to curl it miles wide of the top corner would have proved a point.

[@VivekYadav-ds8oz]

Honestly, the government should really listen and change the sign. It's just an appreciation and acknowledgment of the nerd culture.

[@PleegWat]

Checking a few Dutch football stadiums, I found several (different) icons of footballs and they all had black pentagons.

[@N0zer0]

Even the soccer ball Unicode character has black pentagons. It's so trivial that you need to be British to get this one wrong.

[@frenkgoes]

Liverpool: That's incredible. Come on in, we'll get some players and... Matt: No I want your analytics!

[@t5tom]

Arne Slot off to a strange start

[@damadmax]

What about a kickstarter campaign on printing accurate stickers to put onto the wrong signs? Guerrilla style! ps: any chance on a followup video giving some detail on this data-collecting-during-soccer-games topic?

[@bergerniklas6647]

in switzerland, schools use unsymetrical footballs to level the playingfield during sportsclass between the football kids and the unsporty kids.

[@RedHair651]

Interesting!

[@ahettinger525]

In the US we use asymmetrical footballs at all levels... (okay, bad sportsball joke)

[@beagleboy31]

​@@ahettinger525no it's good actually

[@louisvictor3473]

@@ahettinger525 I mean, they're symetrical though. Not infintielly symmetrical, but they're symmetric in three perpendicular axis.

[@ahettinger525]

@@louisvictor3473 are you sure? are you counting the laces?

[@oflameo8927]

Another option is to put stickers on the old signs to fix them.

[@gregory596]

Congrats to Jon-Paul. He did a great job.

[@davidstigant9466]

This seems like a great opportunity for a guerilla art project. Print a bunch of sheet magnets of the right size and design and just cover up all the signs you can find with the correct geometry. You could sell them to raise money for charity etc.

[@fieora]

I can't believe we got a parker jersey... close, but not quite his initials

[@HunterHogan]

I've never seen that sign or heard about this issue before, and I did not see a soccer ball on the sign: I saw a domed stadium. Also, the government's arguments (up to 4:12 at least) includes burden shifting, arguments from ignorance, and the is-ought problem.

[@benjaminpedersen9548]

I would argue that being geometrically inaccurate is making it more likely to distract drivers, however, it is also more likely to spark curiosity of geometry.

[@BaldorfBreakdowns]

I mean, that's basically this video in a nutshell, right? This guy has been so distracted by the sign he's made multiple videos and petitions in an effort to change it.

[@benjaminpedersen9548]

@@BaldorfBreakdowns Exactly!

[@Alex-js5lg]

Make the ball out of the standard panels, then _print_ the Parkerball pattern over it. The aerodynamics will stay the same and the ball will match the sign.

[@chasingwildlife6584]

the visual spin will make it much harder to understand where the sides are and so the milimeter precision of professional free kicks will become impossible. For me though it would make no difference, I completely mishit 50% of shots anyway 😂

[@Firebird1005]

This sounds too much like a reasonable solution. I'm not a fan.

[@Morbius907]

Having a slightly incorrect picture of a football should not be an issue for the inventor of the Parker square.

[@Ditocoaf]

The Parker Square represents "giving it a go". The incorrect football represents "couldn't be arsed". Trying something hard and enjoying partial success for the sake of interest, versus total disinterest in addressing a situation one way or another. Total opposites.

[@Morbius907]

@@Ditocoaf The person who designed the football image did "Give it a go" and had "Partial success."

[@the_jono]

I was looking at the thumbnail for a while, wondering if I should watch the video, then I noticed the ball was only hexagons. Had to see how you did it at that point!

[@SuperMegaCoffeeGuru]

I appreciate that their answer was indeed "It's not something drivers would notice" and "It would distract drivers" simultaneously without any sense of irony.

[@kaspernr.18]

The bigger Problem with the signs is how bad the P on the Parking sign is centered

[@sakesaurus1706]

wtf it kind of is Can't unsee

[@illdeletethismusic]

time to update the petition to include all grievances with the current signage

[@ericherde1]

Talk to the opposition if the government won’t listen. Surely you have some viewers who live in the constituency represented by the Shadow Minister of Transportation. Ask them to connect you with their MP!

[@thistemba]

Kudos to Matt for getting out there and playing

[@baconhopper8090]

That ball would improve football in a similar way to how landmines would improve F1. Love you, Matt!

[@PeloquinDavid]

Two lovely visions within one simile!

[@virtuous-sloth]

It might help to render a geometrically proper version of the icon in SVG and perhaps some bitmap versions so that the government has no excuse around the cost of updating their design source.

[@BridgeBum]

This. Don't make them do work, give them drop in replacement files and ask them for 30 seconds of their time.

[@hothambassador]

Gotta set up a lobby for change

[@jcskyknight2222]

Have you spoken to Count Binface to see if he’d look at this as a policy?

[@Masterpdudley]

I’m so mf excited for this collaboration

[@rodrigodemiguellamminen5244]

Glorious. I saw John Paul's TikTok when he posted it, as I'm fascinated by his construction of footballs. I even commented on the importance of him contacting you, and now this popping up on my KZbin feed has truly made my day and perhapes even my week.

[@Schrotkehlchen]

Looking at the positioning of the P for parking in its box in the background, they really don't care about the symbols on their traffic signs

[@RaindropsBleeding]

Matt, I have several friends who have worked for the government in the past. If you make a replacement image for the sign and present it with your appeal, they might accept it. They just don't want to design it themselves

[@SchnitzelDaemon]

Bonkers video, loved it!

[@iamdigory]

The government's response was infuriating, they cited no reasonable downside. The people involved are almost certainly bad people in subtle but important ways

[@tommyhetrick]

the downside is it's too much work for them ::P

[@iamdigory]

@@tommyhetrick if they would have said that it would be much more understandable.

[@sakesaurus1706]

​@@iamdigoryMaybe they don't want the bad optics so they spin it, saying the petition is something dangerous

[@weckar]

"Invalid Turnstile response" That's exactly what I want from my petitions!

[@smugless191]

This is so funny! I would love to have one of these as a memento for bizarre mathematical objects.

[@andyclynch7569]

Stand-up Maths AND Liverpool FC!! This is officially (not actually officially) the best video on KZbin. Matt proving that maths can get you anywhere, even Liverpool’s training HQ.

[@JETAlone12]

Shoulda called it Matt's Balls.

[@Jesse-st1qw]

The Parker ball perhaps?

[@TheMcIke]

Just print out a few thousand stickers of a correct ball, then go about the country then overlay the correct ball on the signs (yea, I know, defacing government property, blah, blah, blah, but you gotta do what's right some times!).

[@jurjenbos228]

"pretty good at football" while kicking into empty space: I love it. You play footbaal like a true mathematician!

[@abydosianchulac2]

Don't go to Liverpool, go to somewhere like Ipswitch Town where they'll be spending crazy amounts of money anyway now they've been promoted. If nothing else, they can sell these in their gift shop

[@DubioserKerl]

Matt plays 6D hexagonal chess with the government

[@lbeg323]

well now that I've signed the petition, I really think I deserve a donut.

[@Mark_LaCroix]

The flaw in your petition was the "appreciate of geometry" angle, as that was seemingly the only part that the response focused on, and was right to dismiss. You should have said "The signs are in error. That is not a football. Spain will make fun of us if we don't change it." I'm only partially joking, because while I completely understand and even agree with the position taken by the response, I think they'd have a harder time refusing to change it (at least on new signs) if the argument was focused on the cultural "meaning," aka: the actual purpose of the signage. That symbol, ultimately, doesn't mean "football." That is still a pedantic, technical argument, but it would have better chance than one focused on math alone.

[@masterandexpert288]

If you haven't seen the special I would HIGHLY recommend it. It was funny, entertaining, and engaging the entire way through. Plus you get to support a great creator in the process. Two thumbs up Matt!

[@deathab0ve]

16:22 Matt Parker confirmed next member of Dude Perfect.

[@connorgibes709]

"Dude Perfect Number"

[@LSA30]

This might be the only time in history someone asked to see Liverpool's maths nerds over their star players. Shoutout to Tim!

[@Zummeli]

I find it impossible how you managed to fit about 2 hours of interesting banter and information into a video less than 20 minutes long. You truly are a mathemagician❤

[@flapjacki9579]

They made the impossi-ball possible!!