What Happens When Maths Goes Wrong? - with Matt Parker

Most of the time, the maths in our everyday lives works quietly behind the scenes, until someone forgets to carry a '1' and a bridge collapses or a plane drops out of the sky.
Subscribe for regular science videos: bit.ly/RiSubscRibe
Matt's book "Humble Pi" available now: geni.us/9nPhpn3
Matt Parker is a stand-up comedian and mathematician. He appears regularly on TV and online: as well as being a presenter on the Discovery Channel. His KZbin videos have been viewed over 37 million times. Previously a high-school mathematics teacher, Matt visits schools to talk to students about maths as part of Think Maths and he is involved in the Maths Inspiration shows. In his remaining free time, Matt wrote the books Things To Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension and Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors. He is also the Public Engagement in Mathematics Fellow at Queen Mary University of London.
This talk was filmed in the Ri on 1 March 2019.
---
A very special thank you to our Patreon supporters who help make these videos happen, especially:
bestape, Dave Ostler, David Lindo, Greg Nagel, Ivan Korolev, John Pollock, Lester Su, Osian Gwyn Williams, Radu Tizu, Rebecca Pan, Robert Hillier, Roger Baker, Sergei Solovev, and Will Knott
---
The Ri is on Patreon: / theroyalinstitution
and Twitter: / ri_science
and Facebook: / royalinstitution
and Tumblr: / ri-science
Our editorial policy: www.rigb.org/home/editorial-po...
Subscribe for the latest science videos: bit.ly/RiNewsletter
Product links on this page may be affiliate links which means it won't cost you any extra but we may earn a small commission if you decide to purchase through the link.

[@rainworldenthusiast]

This is my favourite Matt Parker video because not only is it the length of a feature film, but it has the plot twists of one too.

[@Jkirek_]

I got the "aw come on" reaction when he said "what are the chances" at the second probability roll, because that's some dad level pun. It wasn't.

[@JB-ym4up]

Still a better love story than twilight?

[@robertnett9793]

@@JB-ym4up: Static white noise has a better lovestory than twilight.

[@joeythehat9]

I was like... the probability of getting probability 3 times is 1/5^3 = 1/125 = 0.8%, or 1 out of 125. WHAT ARE THE ODDS lol.

[@IoEstasCedonta]

I'm genuinely not sure if he was serious about the spinner or not.

[@jeffwells641]

"You can find any pattern you want to any level of precision you want as long as you're prepared to ignore enough data." That's a huge thing to realize.

[@willionaire77]

The basis of every crazy conspiracy theory. 😂

[@7hundao]

that's like the definition of bias ... DUH~

[@conexant51]

You're all so right! Still, it's quite unbelievable, in this day and age, that people will listen to a person like Donald Trump. Sadly I guess it comes down to the premise of 'fake news' and the morons who buy into it!

[@tristanridley1601]

Hence if Pi turns out to be truly random, every single number is somewhere in it, and even every written work (encoded by any/every encoding system)

[@conexant51]

@@tristanridley1601 Nice observation!☺

[@ceruchi2084]

People in the live audience have no idea how huge those name drops were. "My friend James Grime... My friend Tom Scott..."

[@leadnitrate2194]

They didn't know about Matt's huge nerd clout.

[@raadtmaarwat5781]

you did take good look the public animate.. Corona exlude public, am i getting mad and they (beside the few moving wich axtract brain automaticly focus only those moving.. However now i told you look at the adience aint moving.. What adience aint moving...ahh then look closely examin some movements using cheap algoritme..and only part is moving other wise prob looked adience hockey game in the audience computer game! Wannah bet?

[@usualunusualkid7149]

@@raadtmaarwat5781 I am sorry, do you know English?

[@Axel_Andersen]

James Grime ? Tom Scott ?

[@yeiiovv4989]

My favourite Easter eggs.

[@janas.8735]

Probability comes for the second time: "What are the chances!?" Audience: "..."

[@janas.8735]

@omar garaali Thanks

[@milire2668]

@@janas.8735 np fam

[@joshwatt5434]

It's because he edited out the spins that weren't probability, meaning the audience were in on it

[@oscarthegrouch23]

@@joshwatt5434He did? When does he say that?

[@joshwatt5434]

@@oscarthegrouch23 this comment is two years old and I am not rewatching to find out what this was about lol

[@ReneePrower]

From the moment the first spin landed on "probability" I had a feeling it was going to be a long-haul joke; I just couldn't decide whether the wheel was weighted or it was done in multiple takes. Well done, Matt; and props to that audience for being so patient hahaha

[@toriless]

Yeah, that was possibly going to happen.

[@timh.6872]

"Texas, undone by a lone star" That's a lot funnier than the audience reaction gives it credit. That would have been mystery-bisuit worthy on Citation Needed.

[@cresleyb]

Tim H. Exactly what I thought!

[@krashd]

Many in the audience likely just didn't get it as Texas being known as the "lone star state" might be common knowledge in the US but over here it's just a piece of American trivia that could win you a point during a pub quiz :D

[@EleanorPeterson]

[I mean no disrespect by this Comment.] The audience reaction is typically British. Low key, nothing to get too excited about, no need for any whooping or cheering or flag waving etc. Just a pun. We do puns. Meh. We Brits may not know about all the different US State names - familiar day-to-day names such as Nutmeg, Peach, Prairie, Show Me, Pelican, Badger, Beaver (steady...) simply don't feature in schools here, but I'm pretty sure everybody with enough curiosity to turn up to a Royal Institution lecture will have read enough to know that Kentucky's the Bluegrass State; Florida's the Sunshine State; New York's the Empire State; and that Texas is the Lone Star State. I doubt if many Brits know that South Dakota is ALSO a Sunshine State, or that Minnesota is the NORTH Star State; and we ain't got none o' them thar pesky Minnesota Gophers over here, neither...

[@mbenoni7397]

@@EleanorPeterson This is the most British comment I've ever read.

[@NenadKralj]

The lone Star State (:TEXAS :) !! Love TX

[@Richard_is_cool]

"Lots of my friends procreate" as a bridge to talking about children's books was suboptimally received.

[@Peter_1986]

The topics sex and procreation aren't harmful to children, and the phrase "a lot of my friends procreate" is the exactly same kind of phrase as "a lot of my friends have children".

[@MadMethod-qs1en]

Well said

[@astropgn]

And he said so calmly lol

[@alaindubois1505]

At a disability lunch at the Bison Park, a man attending with his wife, introduced himself as a father of four! So what was this all about? He managed a heterosexual act four times?

[@bcubed72]

Well, you could say it was optimally received, if the desired variable were "unease." Just optimized for a different variable than you anticipated.

[@musichunter8176]

"Maths is difficult, but the people who're enjoying maths are not the people who finds it easy but the people who enjoy how difficult it is." very inspiring.

[@Michelle-pn9xt]

who're is not a word.

[@peteconrad2077]

@@Michelle-pn9xt it’s included in several dictionaries although it’s considered improper for formal use. But it is a word.

[@huskiehuskerson5300]

@@peteconrad2077 But look how hilarious it is omg. Another eg.

[@huskiehuskerson5300]

@@Michelle-pn9xt But you're

[@peteconrad2077]

@@huskiehuskerson5300 it probably is to little minds....

[@wesleymays1931]

"But neither of them are going anywhere because parents are jamming up the whole system..." fell out my chair, Matt

[@eltodd124]

"Texas undone by a lone star.", is a great line. I think you would have gotten a bigger laugh in the states.

[@melvyniandrag]

haha I was surprised by the silence, forgot where the talk was

[@melvyniandrag]

@escorpiuser Texas is nicknamed "the lone star state"

[@ckmym]

Matt did the same thing at google and somehow got even less laughs.

[@katavenger]

@@melvyniandrag that still isn't funny.

[@jaybeezy4124]

@@TXDude not to be rude but math is one of the largest components of physics. Math is at the core of it all.

[@mseldenthuis]

"Are there any... wait for the end of the sentence." This has 'teacher' written all over it, I love it

[@scibanana3542]

@MichaelKingsfordGray it has work boss stapled all over it.

[@classicalphysic]

Ignore teachers. Their teachers lied o them too. And the teacher then lied to his students.None of these quantum theorists have thought an original thought or questioned their fanaticism. And dogmatic religious fanaticism always holds back the pursuit of knowledge. As did the quantum forefathers... the religious fanatics running europe in the Renaissance. They stopped copernicus and Galileo from publishing. As with modern quantum clerics...The truth was too much to take.

[@MeesterG]

Teacher here. When that happens to me, I sometimes like to go: Is there anyone who....[all hands in the air].... Peed their pants? :D humor is easy with kids, I love it.

[@BroudbrunMusicMerge]

@@classicalphysic What.

[@toriless]

Wait for the end, not if Sheldon Cooper said it. It would still be going on.

[@Theprofessorator]

Watching Matt keep holding back smiles as his wife demonstrates the evidence of the recovery was amazing. That's a team.

[@yuvalne]

It's amusing when he asks Lucy what is her research, as if he doesn't know. It's even more amusing when you realise they are married.

[@EricLS]

As soon as I saw probability as a subject to be chosen *at random* my eyes narrowed. Well done.

[@joyfuljaj]

same

[@bettyeldridge]

@@joyfuljaj : me also

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

not only was it chosen at random, it was chosen at random 3 times out of 3

[@ten77emt]

I was sure the wheel was rigged... and, they probably could has saved a ton of time if they had rigged it. The participants spin the wheel clockwise, but Matt spins it counter. 🤔🤔🤔 And, once, even claims, "it does land on other colors".

[@lindsaybrown]

@@HappyBeezerStudios What are the chances of that?

[@AlDunbar]

Here's one for the book. I learned in a highway design course that early on, they studied accident statistics and determined that, since accidents were more likely when driving on a curve or over a hill, that they could reduce the number of dangerous stretches of road by combining curves and hills whenever possible. This worked perfectly in achieving that result; of course that made the road even more dangerous.

[@sMASHsound]

lolllllllllllll. if that was early on, im interested to know what they did later on.

[@AlDunbar]

@@sMASHsound when they realized their error they stopped designing roads that way.

[@sMASHsound]

@@AlDunbar what led them to realize it what bad?

[@AlDunbar]

@@sMASHsound our prof didn't say, but I think accident statistics might have had a hand in it. Either that and/or someone realized the logical error and explained it. Note that the people who made the invalid deduction might or might not have changed their minds. It is not as if there is a single cabal of engineers who make decisions about design methodology, and are the ones responsible for correcting their mistakes.

[@richardthomas6301]

There is another road in Spain I think that is completely straight and has one of the highest accident rates in the world. It is a very long road.

[@lolaritter7518]

As an Australian, watching him discuss the ancient Woolworth stores in England is fascinating.

[@Tapecutter59]

The 3 cogs logo is a surprisingly common mistake. It happened at my work - a multi-national engineering firm. Upper management proudly emailed their new logo to tens of thousands of engineers, hilarity and red faces followed.

[@rhabenic]

Ha! Not a 'good look' for an engineering company, I presume.

[@AlDunbar]

@@rhabenic in a drafting course that was required of civil engineering students, one day we were shown a video of a guy demonstrating how to go about sketching a threaded rod. He was doing a great job until he noticed that the threads on the model went the other way than in his sketch. I immediately laughed out loud as I knew what he was going to do correct the discrepancy. But when he turned the model end for end i was very disappointed to not hear anyone else laughing. I guess the guy thought that screws did not become left or right handed until they were given a head.

[@Walthanar]

@@AlDunbar I laughed so hard

[@sMASHsound]

and it was the artist that decided to make it work...

[@keithmills778]

And, in the case of the gear train on the coin, it’s more complicated than just having an even number of cogs. The gear ratios have to be correct so that it runs smoothly without locking up.

[@badlydrawnturtle8484]

"Is it a head on both sides" "No" "Is it tails on one side" "Yes" Wait a minute...

[@IceMetalPunk]

I thought the same thing! "So it could be tails on both sides?"

[@samuelwoods6648]

The number of sides which are tails is 1. Not "1 side is tails, but this tells me nothing about the other side." hahahahahahaha

[@samuelwoods6648]

@icemetalpunk This is what didn't happen: "Is it tails on one side?" "No, it is tails on 2 sides." It's so difficult to convey a different perspective!

[@benchapple1583]

Yes, that was my instant reaction as well.

[@aravindvissamsetty]

This guy would have done well as a lawyer.

[@The_Tsar_Chasm]

This guy is precisely my kind of pedantic nerd, and I freaking love it

[@karlbethke9645]

In the crescent moon misrepresentation, Matt correctly points out that stars shouldn’t be drawn inside the moon’s circumference. What is more troubling (to me) is that the tips of the horns have to be antipodal, I.e. 180 degrees apart.

[@godminnette2]

You know, when it landed on probability the first time, I figured that Matt had rigged it to land on probability all three times. I did not expect him to have people spin it until it got green all three times, I figured these talks had a time time schedule and at 1:07 it had probably already spilled over by a bit. Bravo.

[@availablehage]

Some game of luck

[@ASMRDoodlez]

"A lot of my friends procreate" is one of the strangest sentences I've ever heard. (9:56)

[@julieenslow5915]

Clearly, you don't run in truly geek circles! LOL (I don't either - now - but I was in an accelerated class with three super geniuses starting in fourth grade through 12th grade. Such a sentence would not have been at all unusual in that class!)

[@SathvickSatish]

What does that mean?

[@julieenslow5915]

@Sathvick Satish The most common word that is very close in meaning "reproduce"

[@dhaenir]

@@julieenslow5915 That seems a little bit young to be using that sentence, even in an accelerated class.

[@julieenslow5915]

Yes it does. Not my choice when to start it - I think the fact they had 3 super geniuses meant they needed to up their game fast. Please note I was NOT one of the three!

[@EternalDensity]

"In every second story, everybody died." Perfectly balanced...

[@commonpepe2270]

*Harvey Dent wants to know your location*

[@user-ld4qt6ci7b]

...as all things should be

[@HailG3]

Thanos would be proud

[@DevranUenal]

That put a smile on my face.

[@The1wsx10]

not quite because if there is an odd number of stories its not balanced kzbin.info/www/bejne/pqPLaGV4gbOdf80

[@edwardabel3716]

Matt, Thank you very much for being honest that took so many times to get three instances of Probability.

[@kristinehatkinson7323]

I thought it was a crooked wheel...

[@XoanChannel]

it's scripted that he will reveal it though

[@_rlb]

I've been very pedantic regarding the "stars where the moon should be" for years now, the difference between me and Matt is that he makes people laugh about it and I make people want to throw things at my face.

[@TheRoyalInstitution]

It's our birthday today! And we couldn't think of a better present than this extremely enjoyable talk all about maths and what happens when it goes wrong. We've even been told there's Pi. Mm, pi...

[@opossumj]

Happy birthday! And thank you: you make my day any time you publish a new video! Greetings from Italy!

[@aryamankejriwal5959]

The Royal Institution HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

[@Tjousk]

My birthday too, how improbable. (:

[@IWouldLikeToRemainAnonymous]

Happy Birthday The Royal Institution.

[@aidanlevy2841]

Keeping up the good work for another year :)

[@Ryanisthere]

3:08 "were not gonna edit it out" but you will edit out the 50+ spins of that wheel

[@masonbronson3194]

tis the point of the talk

[@katherinekellmeyer5428]

See, but by specifically mentioning that they didn't edit one bit out, they imply that they aren't editing anything else out! So it sort of sets us up.

[@loturzelrestaurant]

@@katherinekellmeyer5428 Hi and Hello. I gather people for a good cause: I wanna provide people with Links leading to bad or toxic people. Mobber, Racists, Sexists, Bullies, more. I got the Links and i need help with reporting them. KZbin is in a bad state and i think you heard of that. Many complain about it, its strike-system and its CEO: Susan. But... I mean... complaining about the State of the world is nice and dandy, but... how about acting? Doing something? So i made a Wiki where i store Links for all to use. You can at least pre-emptive 'block user' regarding the Racists and all those, but you can also do one thing more and report them, so YT becomes a better place. Interested?

[@ijemand5672]

we're*

[@SunnyIntervalsORG]

I remember watching Have I Got News For You in the 90s when they talked about the Arianne 5 crash. Angus Deayton called it "Arianne Cinq" which if course sounds like "Arianne sank".

[@Peter_1986]

I just recently started realising what Matt meant when he said that math is about "getting it wrong and working towards the right answer". That is exactly what my current course in Applied Mathematics is like - that course is about a bunch of super-complicated equations that simply cannot be solved exactly, and instead require a lot of trial and error with various approximation techniques.

[@HariEaswaran98]

I'm a simple man. I see Matt Parker on RI, I hit like and binge an hour watching him rant about numbers

[@chrisj4288]

This is true

[@feelinghealingfrequences7179]

you have failed to use the word "binge" correctly please try again

[@lunadusk8590]

your not the only one.

[@Sylfa]

I hit like and made the number of likes the first 3 digits of pi. Nice. (Assuming an accuracy over 3 digits, no rounding)

[@Koni.1122]

@@lunadusk8590 you have failed to use the word "your" correctly please try again

[@brandonmarsden8256]

I liked this video purely for the joke “Troops should not break... dance”

[@thetinkerist]

This is one of my favorite maths (and logic) presentations, because it is fun! Thanks Parker, still love it.

[@happybuddha1148]

Hats off to you, Matt! Loved it, esp. the ending -- @ 1:07:14 "...and I'm like, yeah, people have to earn the book"......yes, Matt, I'll do that.....thank you for this superb video!

[@bobsquirrelking]

"Texas, undone by a Lone Star." Very nicely done.

[@skylerbirch8248]

Bob, Squirrel King honestly, how did that not get more applause

[@eidodk]

@@skylerbirch8248 Because it's in England... literally NO ONE in England knows Texas IS "the lone star state"

[@skylerbirch8248]

eidodk ah, I thought it was a more common name across the way

[@skylerbirch8248]

Connor Mcnally huh. Well thanks for educating me on this lol

[@Scum42]

I'm really sad more people didn't get the joke, but I can't honestly expect people in the UK to know the nicknames of the states when I don't even fully understand exactly what countries and regions "the UK" even is.

[@nowonmetube]

When he showed the falling Jenga tower that required less energy because of the resonance, that was absolutely amazing.

[@TobiasJohansenMusic]

You can simulate the same phenomenon in a bathtub full of water. If you shove your hands back and forth randomly, no meaningful waves will form. Only if you hit the resonance frequency of the tub (that is dependant on the size and shape of the tub) will a big wave form. For normal sized tubs that means pushing way slower than your intuition tells you.

[@DacuberTM]

Its so easy to show. Take a swing set. Watch someone swing. There you go?

[@rewrose2838]

@@DacuberTM I thought the same about swinging and how it's like two things (the person and the swing) moving synchronously

[@kingjames4886]

now go find a gyroscope.

[@BldgOnMyMind]

The jenga buildings part really resonated with me... 😋

[@dilankakasun6033]

45:15 Another fact that has to be considered is that the projections that the maps used to pinpoint the locations could also affect the shape. The previous researcher could have even selected the same locations on a different kind of a projection and identified another pattern. They're just random conincidents.

[@mrsportysomil]

Just went through the comments and I'm kinda shocked to see how little people appreciated this lecture. This guy is absolutely phenomenal. I was smiling throughout and learning some really cool stuff at the same time. He did an amazing job and I hope to see more from him on Ri. Huge fan, Matt!

[@Lawofimprobability]

I read Humble Pi. The examples are all found in the book but the jenga tower wasn't.

[@jasonp.brunke3601]

There's not enough of us in this world who appreciate knowledge... who possibly want to expand themselves, learning new topics... he's quite good...

[@AlexanderNash]

There are thousands of comments and certainly you didn't read all of them? Even if you did what about all the people who watched but didn't comment(millions) which you can't know their level of appreciation. Maybe you appreciated it but you certainly didn't learn anything about ignoring data did you?

[@alexg9996]

"Average means I'm above 50% of books" Should we from now on call median a Parker average? I'm fine with that.

[@AshiStarshade]

You raise an interesting point, except that he probably could have better explained. This is a skewed distribution, so in this case the average is in fact better than 50% of the books.

[@shambosaha9727]

Actually, median, mean and mode can all be called average, which is where a lot of misleading statistics comes from. I read this in Darell Huff's excellent book "How to Lie with Statistics".

[@surfingbilly9654]

@@shambosaha9727 median, mean and mode can all be called average ONLY if the data you are looking at follows a normal distribution.

[@shambosaha9727]

@@surfingbilly9654 Technically speaking, they can all be called average ALWAYS. They have the SAME VALUE if the distribution is Gaußian.

[@downtroddenmusic]

I used the median recently in a report and to avoid the confusion of talking about the 'average' value, and knowing that the audience would not have heard of the median, I referred to the result as the 'typical' value i.e. the typical number of days worked, rather than the average number of days worked.

[@mercyrx3455]

I was in an 80 story building during construction that during a strong wind storm that started twisting ( not just swaying) like crazy. It was quite scary. This was before the mass damper tank was constructed on top which I’m sure was where all the maths came in 😊

[@tncorgi92]

I worked in a brand new office building in Florida, someone didn't do their maths right because the first time we had a big wind storm the building bent and twisted enough to make some of the windows pop out of their frames. Anyone who parked in the lot adjacent to the building (think: upper management) had huge sheets of glass falling on their cars.

[@aneeksaha7068]

Teaching concepts like resonance using real world examples. I learnt a lot of things from this video. Keep it up

[@davidgould9431]

Great show from Matt as usual! And Happy Birthday RI! The cogs thing reminds me of when my wife showed me her team's illustration of a marketing process with interlocking cogs: "that won't work!" I said. She was unconvinced it would matter, but did go back with my fixes. The next customer she spoke to confirmed that they were all engineers and, yes, it would have been a major barrier to credibility if they'd carried on with it as it was. I don't think I got any brownie points: she just realised that 'nerd' is a wider-spread condition than she'd thought.

[@IceMetalPunk]

@@stupidtreehugger Do you realize that none of those links work?

[@bakedutah8411]

IceMetalPunk, LMAO. 😂😅🤣

[@schuwi4]

@@stupidtreehugger Ummm, excuse me, what the frick? That is the most forced transition I have heard in a long time and I don't see how your single-origin stuff is related to the original comment or video in *any* way whatsoever. I'd write you off as a bot if it wasn't for this horrible introduction that shared a word with the original comment. That would still be impressive to pull of for a bot.

[@TheEternalPheonix]

Bwahahahahaha!

[@dssingh8218]

Thats a good one!! 👌

[@skyeturner5003]

maths and doing things incorrectly, finally a video showcasing both of my skills.

[@andrerenault]

Parker maths

[@donsmith717]

I found this video while aimlessly browsing (It's COVID time and I'm bored). Well, it could be a turning point in my life, or not... But either way, thank you so much for sharing your time, energy, friends, and family with the rest of us. For now, my lips are frozen in the shape of a big warm smile.

[@henk-3098]

Although I will probably (pun intended) never be a huge maths enthusiast myself. I can appreciate the fun you can do with it and the important part it plays in the world we live in. Thanks for this interesting video! My younger self would've never believed I'd spend an entire hour watching a video about math in my spare time and enjoy it ;-).

[@yetinother]

The glitch in the matrix started when the 'guest' spinner was supposed to call out the category, but then Matt did for the teen and adult. A good use of a Good Hour! Keep up the great content!

[@DanksterPaws]

Guy called “Tom scott” Lmao

[@DanksterPaws]

Nah fam i just had a laugh how casual that mention was

[@twinsunianlp7359]

Clearly his full name is Thomas Scottland.

[@NiteshMaharjan11]

@@twinsunianlp7359 Thomas "red shirt" Scottland

[@richardremillard4451]

Mr Parker is someone who takes a few moments to get used to , but now I am very grateful he has these videos. He is really interesting and entertaining.😅😊👍👍

[@c-wayne-u]

This was a very fascinating and entertaining talk. Loved it...

[@yafu2599]

I honestly thought the wheel was rigged, as the audience were turning it clockwise and matt was spinning it anti-clockwise and there was some mechanism that only worked in one direction.

[@pahlkott]

What is the odds of it landing on probability?

[@yafu2599]

more pertinently what are the odds of a complex clockwise/anti-clockwise fixing mechanism versus matt just re spinning till he get's green and editing the video But to answer your question, it's 1 in 5, or for 3 probability in a row I believe it's 1 in 125 (1 in 5^3)

[@OB1KXB]

i thought the same thing. and after he said the "dont believe everything you see on the internet" thing, i thought "but what if the video ISNT edited?"

[@NoNameAtAll2]

3 _green_ is 1 in 125 but 3 _same_ in a row is 1 in 25

[@PDeRop]

I’m a magician. Probability is my game. I was blown away, that they did several takes to make this happen :)

[@mistermarkeys]

To speak to the probability stories in this video: My wife is originally from Utah, and her dad grew up in American Fork. After we moved to the Portland, Oregon area, we were in a mall where we overheard a woman talking to a store clerk about her upcoming voyage to Utah. We had just moved to Oregon (literally a few months before), and we interjected ourselves into the conversation saying that we had just moved from Utah and was curious as to where she was going. She mentioned where she was going, but she also happened to mention that she lived in American Fork for a while. My wife said, "That's where my dad's from!" She asked his name, and when my wife told her his name, she exclaimed, "I dated your dad in junior high school!" We were BLOWN AWAY. Right then, my wife called her dad, and they talked for about twenty minutes on the phone in the most impromptu lovers' reunion I had ever experienced. It still brings a smile to my face.

[@renedekker9806]

Mmm... it's no longer something that happens to somebody in the world, but now we need to take into account it happening to a viewer of Mats video. That is a much lower chance.

[@MrSJPowell]

@@renedekker9806 You have to increase the probability by a factor of how many strange coincidences you allow, as well as distance from the teller of the story. Matt's specific examples revolved around pictures shown to those about to get married. Now we're up to meeting someone who had a passing relationship with n degrees of separation. Each of these makes things exponentially more probable.

[@shawnheneghan4110]

Last summer a young lady I had never met had her small puppy named "Stevie Nix" chase my young kitten named "Little Richard" up a tree. Strange coincidence? Sure, but that's not the real strange coincidence. After finally retrieving poor Little Richard, we got to talking and discovered that we had both gone to the same high school - 4500 km away. Albeit 40 years apart That was a day to play the lottery.

[@57thorns]

@@MrSJPowell Not to mention that we have to factor in what constitutes a "weird occurence". If there are no rules set up before hand, literally anything goes. While it is unlikely that one specifik freak occurrence happens to one person, and it is likely that it will happen to someone at least once, it is also,. by the same logic and reasoning, impossible to go through life without experiencing at least one weird event as an individual. You just need to look for the patterns.

[@jayeisenhardt1337]

Small number of people in the same location. And its easy. Only 300+million outta a few billion so what are the odds? Remember most Americans never leave the States. East coast to West coast its not even the entire continent.

[@MadScientistProspecting]

Very nicely done. I love the lesson to try and then correct and then try again.

[@Drewsta4]

I was lamenting the same topic coming up but ended up glad about it, I do hope there will be another to cover some other topics as examples and in the meantime I'll buy the book.

[@2HeadedNinja]

When Matt asked "Does the coin have two heads?" and "Is there tails on one side?" it still could have been a coin with two tails :)

[@sleekotter1109]

If there's tails on one side there's tails on one side.

[@KaiHenningsen]

@Sthaman Sinha How do you know? That doesn't follow from the data available at that point.

[@Peter_1986]

@@KaiHenningsen I think (s)he means that "tails on one side" is supposed to explicitly say that there is a tails on ONLY one side.

[@sMASHsound]

he stressed 'one' so i assume he meant 'only one side'

[@RockStudioLive]

@@sleekotter1109 But still, that's not tails on only one side.

[@TPrisoners]

"Making cogs grate again"?

[@phoenixstone4208]

Tim Fairless puns will never grind my gears

[@MrDannyDetail]

OMG that joke totally flew over my head when he said that in the video. I totally forgot that great had a homonym.

[@984francis]

I wonder how many people didn't get that, also the the three cogs cannot rotate? Maybe they are not cognisant😬

[@MCLooyverse]

OH. That's good. I did not get that at first.

[@anantkerur557]

@@MrDannyDetail *homophone

[@SquirrelASMR]

This makes me realize how easy it is to mess something up. Like imagine writing an entire movie franchise without having these kind of mistakes would be so hard.

[@DaveScottAggie]

I took an engineering ethics course in undergraduate. A couple of our case studies were in your book. I recall we watched a video interview: the person said CAD really stands for "Computer Aided Disaster". As often the output is "trusted" because the computer calculated it (and often there isn't an easy way to check it)

[@JamieJamez]

47:11 Wheel was on green, camera cuts to man about to spin, wheel is on red.

[@gliese3095]

Good eye, good eye !

[@KumaKaori]

Ah, can also freeze frame at 26:18 to notice the peg grabbed in the wide shot, is not the peg released in the "good spin" close up.

[@nicholasn.2883]

JamieJamez Did you watch the whole presentation?

[@JamieJamez]

@@nicholasn.2883 Frame-by-Frame

[@neutralmst6855]

@@JamieJamez I assume he ment, if you watched the whole video. Because in the video itself this exact gets explained and specificly adressed.

[@kw3494]

Parker is my favorite mathematician which is something I never thought I'd say about a mathematician xD.

[@zoltankurti]

Except he doesn't do what a mathematician should. He is rather a standup comedist.

[@crytocc]

And what "should" a mathematician do, exactly? You do realize that people can be more than one thing, right?

[@MrDannyDetail]

@ K W I know what you mean, but the logic of what you actually said doesn't work. If you never thought that "X is my favourite mathematician" was something you'd say about a mathematician, then that suggests you thought you'd say it about a non-mathmatician, which obviously is then a paradox.

[@liebert234]

​@@MrDannyDetail I don't think never thinking to say "X is my favourite mathematician" about mathematicians implies that they would have thought it of non-mathematicians either. It definitely makes it ·strange· to specify mathematicians, but that doesn't necessitate that they would have thought about it at all. "I would have never thought I would have a favourite member of set A that was in set A" is logically equivalent to "I would have never thought I would have a favourite member of set A", since any favourite one could have from set A must also ·be· in set A. I think this is more of a linguistic question of what including that redundant detail implies of the speaker, rather than a question of logic. When it comes to language, including unnecessary details like that imply that there exists a possibility that something could've been otherwise, or at least that the speaker thinks so. "I picked up a stone, and it was a stone" is completely true and logically valid, but the fact that the second clause is in there makes it sound like it the speaker is surprised that the stone was a stone, which is an illogical thing to be surprised by.

[@MrDannyDetail]

@@liebert234 Great response! As you say it's a linguistic amibiguity that depends on whether you consider the 'about a mathematician' part to be unnecessary repetition of the same fact, or a new piece of information that's critical to the intended meaning, which in turn depends on how the person says it. Perhaps I misspoke when using the word 'logic', but I'm not sure what other word could be used in it's place. I mean the deduction that the repetition would not be there unless it conveyed the possibility that something could have been otherwise, is itself a form of logic. I guess it only fails to be true logic because it would be an assumption rather than a hard fact.

[@Brians-Easy-Low-Tech-Solutions]

South Korea, buildings, exercising Paul Shepherd and Jenga! (relates to the bridge feedback chapter). There is a Korean show on netflix called "my Mister" where the lead plays a civil engineer who designs buildings, and it mentions a building he designed where a gym caused problems and the damping mechanism he put in to counter it.

[@ValisVengeance]

I wish I had you as a maths teacher! You make me wanna grab my old A-level notes and do some calculus and logarithms.

[@aryamankejriwal5959]

Omg, by the third one, I knew something was up but I thought it was a weighted wheel or something 😂

[@merdehappens]

Also the props he had on him.

[@solomonarbc]

Nothing was up. That's why he said he'd never use the wheel again, because he wanted to bring up something else than probability 3 times.

[@aryamankejriwal5959]

solomonarbc I’m not sure if this comment was meant to be a joke but he said that they just cut out all the footage in the middle

[@OrangeC7]

@@aryamankejriwal5959 I think he was joking about that. Like he said, don't believe everything you learn on the internet. >:)

[@aryamankejriwal5959]

OrangeC7 😂😅

[@douglasmagowan4918]

I had a "that's me" moment, surfing random videos on you-tube, finding myself in the background.

[@amber1862]

I wonder how many KZbin videos I'm in? It's actually scary to think there has almost certainly been a time, where someone online looked at me in the background of someone else's video (from a local vlogger or filmmaker for example). It's not scary that someone has seen me, what's scary is that I'm still there right now, and there are many short moments of my life literally sitting in servers all over the world, accessible to almost anyone.

[@mmitja]

It only counts if you married the uploader before seeing the video. 😅

[@roberttomsiii3728]

I really enjoy your work, and didn't think I was in the mood for it at the moment but let it play in the background anyway. Well I'm happy to be wrong. A good show so far and I'll be letting it play to the end.

[@drassx615]

As an old school IT nerd, I appreciate the URL. Intentional or not the I love it, and will purchase the book, or rather ask for it as a birthday gift since that's around the corner.

[@Blxz]

Mildly interesting probability story. I once visited Tokyo and during a wild night out lost my mobile phone. The next day my friend received a phonecall to come and pick up my phone. Turns out, it had been picked up by someone I had gone to primary school with 15 years prior who had recognised me in the photos on my phone, had contacted back to our mutual home country to get all the relevant phone numbers and then called through to arrange a meeting spot. The chances are pretty small and I am eternally thankful they went to the effort.

[@Blxz]

I don't know about luck. what I do know is that it has nothing to do with my comment that you are replying to. Maybe you meant to put in the main thread?

[@ZipplyZane]

I just assumed the spinner was rigged. Of course he'd go about it the Parker way--don't cheat, just repeat.

[@MrSJPowell]

Well, James Grime did it with the 10 coin flips in a row video.

[@bluellamaslearnbeyondthele2456]

Love your avatar

[@bryceschug486]

it was a little suspect that it stopped on the purple before the green on the last one. that (at least in my mind) confirmed the rigging

[@EvilSt0ner]

37mins in an wasn't planning on watching this, very good job keeping the audiences attention. No ads either, I usually close my tab an reopen KZbin if an Ad interrupts what i'm watching.

[@photografr7]

As a math major during the Middle Ages (actually, the 1970s), I loved your lecture. Also, as an amateur astronomer in the 1960s, I seem to recall an image of a crescent moon with a star coming through the dark side. We had a good laugh about that.

[@maxjefferison1654]

46:20 remembered a quote that is incredibly relevant to what he says here "No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong" - Albert Einstein I remembered that from a Space Engineers loading screen, I don't look up Albert Einstein quotes in my free time fyi

[@availablehage]

Hahaha what's wrong in looking up quotes in free time😂

[@mattgilbert7347]

Dats called falsification. Mr. Popper

[@CZTachyonsVN]

When wheel landed on purple the 2nd time i suspected it was rigged but I underestimated Matt. He actually went out of his way to involve the audience and editors to fool us viewers! Love it!

[@toriless]

Fun with magnets!

[@toriless]

Man, about five spins each time

[@rogerwright1902]

I love these lectures, and just ordered both books.

[@tonpal]

The earthquake/exercise class story reminds me of a Blaster Bates tale: His job was close to houses so instead of one big blast he was setting off a series of small charges. First he sent someone to the nearest house and set off a test detonation. The observer and householder were happy that there was no effect on the house or it's contents so Bates carried on with the sequence. He had hardly started, however, when a lady came running and shouting from further along the road saying that her home was being shaken badly: resonance and wavelengths!

[@jackbrennan7891]

- What happens when MATT goes wrong? - They call it a square.

[@lightyearahead]

I remember his last lecture. Good to see you again matt.

[@chrisklinetob7389]

Of the 300+ video's I've watched on math and science, Matt Parker is my absolute favorite presenter. I am surprised, however, that a man of his obvious brilliant intellect would to ask, "Can everyone hear me OK?" as if anyone who couldn't hear him could possibly answer a question they haven't been able to hear!?!?! That sounds a bit like asking the audience, "Please raise your hand if you were unable to be here tonight"? LOL!

[@The1JTA]

Great Presentation - I like math because no matter how long it takes me to get to a solution, the math never gets mad or frustrated - it patiently waits for me to succeed!

[@Tocsin-Bang]

I love the idea of maths being a progression in which you get less and less wrong. At school I got a lot wrong. Five years later I met my old maths teacher and he asked me what I was doing now. I was able to tell him that I was teaching maths!

[@WhatnotSoforth]

Buffer Overflows, Hydrazine, and Giant Jenga; An Introduction to Statistics by Matt Parker

[@wierdalien1]

And Parker Square

[@JewelryDeconstructed]

Talking about probability... 1st: Many years ago I was in the Army in Texas. My Supply Sargent who I enjoyed annoying all of the time left the unit as she was transferring to Germany. So she took a months leave at home, then went to her new unit in Germany. 3 days after she arrived, she walks into a bar and sees ME sitting there with friends. or so she thought. She walked in and tried to find out how I had gotten there before her. Well, it seems that she walked into a bar where my identical twin brother was. His unit was in the same city. Because of this, we have stayed in contact for decades and I consider her family now. 2nd: A few years later after I had left the Army, the store I worked in had a flood overnight when the store was closed for Christmas. So we had a Temp Company send 6 people who could spend the day vacuuming the water up and moving displays that were soaked. One of the guys kept looking at me with a bewildered look on his face. So I asked him why. His first words were "How did you get here from Germany and how did you grow your hair so long so long so fast?". It seems that he had just separated from the Army and had come directly from my brothers' artillery unit in Germany. He had been drinking with my twin at his separation party just 3 weeks prior to meeting me. So what are the chances of that happening twice halfway around the world!

[@XxShantilisxX]

When it fell on "probability" the second time I joked to myself, "what's the probability of that!?". When it happened the third time I thought, surely it's rigged, but then I remembered you spinning it at the beginning and then you spun it again. Once you revealed the truth, it put my mind at ease, "oh thank God, it's just someone on the internet lying to me.".

[@Kelnor277]

Matt, I'm from Texas and it's obvious that star is where it is from gravitational lensing. On an unrelated note, I'm not sure how to convey in text when my voice clearly indicates I'm grasping at straws.

[@CraftQueenJr]

james jones it’s obvious. * tips hat *

[@Schizopantheist]

This is because in Texas the moon is way bigger

[@petertaylor4980]

I don't think gravitational lensing can explain the gradient background showing through...

[@puedojoe]

Perhaps the Earth's shadow on the moon merely coincidentally resembles the plate's background very, very closely.

[@renedekker9806]

I thought it was just Texas redefining the size of the moon, like Indiana did with pi.

[@devincory9695]

So 2011 is "disturbingly recent" but 2010 is "the distant past"?

[@TauGeneration]

2011 is as far into the past from 2019 as 1997 is to 2005

[@CP110]

gotta draw the line somewhere

[@hdckighfkvhvgmk]

Well it depends on what it is that is recent, i guess

[@devincory9695]

@@hdckighfkvhvgmk "anything" I think was what he said.

[@Fete_Fatale]

It's the "rule of 7" most of 2011 is within 'seven point something' years ago, while 2010 isn't.

[@Luke-iq9yk]

Such a naturally talented maths communicator. Wish my math teacher was this engaging.

[@omp199]

You must have composed that comment on an aeroplane. I can spot the point at which you crossed the Atlantic.

[@unedited8204]

Probability, probability, probability, first time, what are the chances? I was wondering what the conjuring trick was, until Matt admitted it was editing for internet. This is an absolutely fascinating talk, and Matt Parker is every bit as entertaining as you might hope a comedian would be, and he achieves this by skill, not just chance. (Same goes for the Royal Institution, and the probability of finding fascinating talks they hosted, time after time, is a great deal greater than on most other channels.)

[@atanuroy8405]

Sir you won hearts when at the very beginning you said, " that person is on phone, while I am talking. once a teacher, always a teacher'.

[@caphunterx2322]

I'll have to say that the way you brought this with comedy, metaphors and plot twist this is one of the best shows I have seen so far. Amazing work I'm a great fan or yours

[@keltiquewood]

20:38 Round of applause for total destruction of Jenga buildings! :-)

[@davidcox1951]

A good intuitive way to discuss resonant frequency and how small additions can multiply is by using a swingset. We pump our legs at the resonant frequency of the swing to increase our amplitude of travel. We also do the same thing to slow down.

[@WeWereYoungandCrazy]

11:30 "That's not a bad angle for the shuttle taking off". Except the shuttle takes off vertically.

[@joeydunn7727]

It has to leave the atmosphere at an angle or else the friction from the atmosphere burns up the shuttle. Like how it is softer to dive into a pool than it is to do a cannon ball.

[@johnmurrell3175]

@@joeydunn7727 Agreed - what you need to achieve is velocity parallel to the Earths surface if you want to go into orbit.

[@hadz8671]

"Till clomb above the eastern bar / The hornèd Moon, with one bright star / Within the nether tip." The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

[@akizeta]

And the star in the crescent is a big Muslim icon, they've got it on the flags and everything.

[@WolfricLupus]

Brilliant. I love this lecture, thank you! I genuinely laughed out loud with the wheel (no spoilers) : Brilliant - would have been some nice mathematical poetry

[@anonymousperson1315]

Fascinating. I wanna watch more. I was a math major, and I can't intuitively figure out why the Grimes dice are not transitive. Going to have to research.

[@liam27]

"When maths goes wrong" I'm sorry, did you mean... Parker maths?

[@lyrimetacurl0]

I came to say something like that too but you said it

[@DecayedPony]

Parker Maths, when something is so close to being right but is still wrong.

[@SathvickSatish]

Liam West haha

[@starkis14159]

Yessss

[@robert4445]

What is parker maths

[@Attabasca]

He does such a good job with his lectures. So much fun to watch!

[@BroudbrunMusicMerge]

"Texas - undone by a Lone Star." Thank you for that joke. Got a jolly chuckle and made my day brighter

[@bluebird5173]

"What happens when maths goes wrong?" Just add a constant😂

[@randywells2771]

Parker is funny, articulate, and entertaining. The way in which he has explained these concepts and ideas is remarkable, good show.

[@garyingle7440]

I am so glad this popped up in my feed, excellent talk👍

[@bryanprice9328]

I love Matt Parker as a mathematician and stand-up comedian.

[@ajsim]

Great lecture. Thank you