The Mathematics of 2024's Rare Insect Swarms

[@ComboClass]

This is a short episode about the mathematical explanation behind a rare natural event that happened this year…. In a week or two, I’ll have a longer number theory episode out, and then after that will be the Combo Class Grade -2 finale (and then the beginning of Grade -3).

[@tristantheoofer2]

oh shit grade -2 is finally ending??? damn i remember grade -1 ending a year ago. i cant believe we are nearly at the end of the next one, and damn its taken so long to get here

[@ComboClass]

@@tristantheoofer2 This grade is taking a little longer than a year since I wanted to do 36 main episodes like last time, but a lot of these episodes were longer (among other factors). Also, I decided I wouldn't cut my hair/beard at all during Grade -2 as a personal experiment, so soon I'll finally get to shave haha.

[@JerehmiaBoaz]

@@ComboClass I think the Catweazle look contributes to the atmosphere of strange and unlikely events happening while you explain the world to us peasants. The gods must be angry with you for casually revealing their secret knowledge.

[@tristantheoofer2]

@@ComboClass yeah ive noticed the hair hasnt been cut at all (and being real i kinda envy it lmao). and i was also thinkin that there would be 36 episodes like last time so that makes sense :P

[@bjorntorlarsson]

What about complex number theory? Is there anything prime with 13+17i? Multiplication being rotation should fit with your clock stuff. Please use your imaginaration for once and complexify the equation!

[@jessehammer123]

The cheerful insanity of these videos never fails to delight me.

[@yasin_karaaslan]

I don't know why but your videos feel like therapy, my chronic headache stops for a moment and I regain my joy of life. Thank you

[@jellybeanfactory21]

Gotta love the sirens in the background as he introduced fire into the video 🤣

[@ComboClass]

I actually told my main camera guy: if we are doing a normal shot and sirens happen in the background, wait for them to pass, but if we are doing a chaotic shot and sirens happen, we can keep filming during them haha.

[@Sam_on_YouTube]

I took a look at a map of the overlaps of the various broods. There's a double brood emergence somewhere in the country roughly once every 20 years if I remember correctly. Each of these double emergences happens once every 221 years, but there's about 10 places with double emergences happen (again, from memory, I'd have to look at the map again to be sure).

[@ComboClass]

Yeah it would be cool to visit one of those places at the right time. As I mention in the episode, these particular broods have notable traits about their size, which is why the 221 year cycle is extra notable.

[@Sam_on_YouTube]

@@ComboClass There may not be much to see, at least not much more than a normal emergence (which is already plenty). The overlaps are generally pretty small, so even when they are forecasted, they don't always happen in the same place and they also don't necessarily happen at the same time. Each brood is synchronized based on temperature, but not necessarily 2 different broods that are in different cycles, so the emergence may happen twice in a small area rather than having a double emergence in one spot. This one I think was in a small corner of Eastern Illinois and the next one is in North Carolina if I remember correctly.

[@stickfiftyfive]

Double emergences can also happen occasionally unexpectedly when a brood doesn't emerge when predicted for whatever reason.

[@monoman4083]

hocus pocus where's my locust ???

[@TheGrassman451]

this is the math i want

[@jkid1134]

I have listened to the cicadas a several times this year, it's nice to know that there's actually like a cicada happening

[@willo7734]

Awesome video. I had heard something about why this is a huge cicada year but you explained it perfectly in a way that’s a lot easier to understand.

[@taskfailedsuccesfully738]

Cicada

[@RedShiftedDollar]

This phenomenon applies to gear design as well. There is a defect called hunting tooth wear that occurs when the same two teeth mesh and develop a unique wear pattern between them. When this occurs, those two teeth wear out faster than any other teeth. So a more reliable gear set is one where the tooth counts are co-prime so that the frequency in which the same exact two teeth come in contact with each other is as low as possible. This maximizes the chance of even wear amongst all teeth.

[@darkpulcinella9690]

never closed numberphile so fast

[@Jack93885]

What an interesting intersection of insects and integers

[@timetravl3r]

As always, love your work ❤️

[@ennayanne]

I love your channel, please don't set yourself on fire that would suck

[@pingnick]

I wonder if any of them is on 11 year cycle!? Anyway, wild that areas of Eastern Illinois in particular got hit this year in particular by BOTH!?🤯

[@bestintheband5114]

Hi dimotro!

[@iugoeswest]

Like an awesome version of Beakmans world

[@Edmonddantes123]

The Rasputin of math KZbin ❤

[@CaedmonOS]

You know, probably would have been nice to know about this before it happened.

[@TymexComputing]

Cicada emerge'ncy!

[@TymexComputing]

I thought Cicada 17-29 years is long enough :)

[@muskyoxes]

I mainly come here to find out what time it is

[@tomkerruish2982]

I keep worrying that someone is going to narc on you about your fires to the Envirostapo, I mean, the BAAQMD.

[@violetsweet1660]

I knew it would be the Chinese Remainder Theorem, maybe the most fundamental theorem with the worst name.

[@iugoeswest]

I wonder how Leap Years affect these bugs over millions of years

[@TastySalamanders]

Leap years wouldn't effect them, since they are invention of humans to reconcile the fact the actual year doesn't have an integer amount of days and yet we kind of want an integer amount of days to have a workable calendar. i.e. Each year is actually 365.25 days. But a regular calendar year is 365 days, so every 4 years our calendar starts to diverge from Earth's actual rotation so we add an extra day every 4 years to resync it.

[@ComboClass]

Like the other reply mentioned, leap years probably wouldn't effect it, since the bugs are on year-based cycles and not 365-day-based cycles.

[@TalsBadKidney]

Hahahaha yes very nice

[@EricDMMiller]

The bioshphere won't support their re-emergence 221 years from now. This will be the last time ever. Hope everyone enjoyed it.

[@kerrytusc]

Have you heard of these numerals? Inuit numerals! Yay! I love it… en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaktovik_numerals