Tag: math

• Cookie Efficiency and Lab Meat

  Have you ever stood over a rolled-out slab of cookie dough and pondered just how to best cut out cookies with as little waste as possible? Now, even math experts have given up on finding a computer algorithm to answer this type of geometric problem. Jeff and Anthony discuss something that seems simple, but is actually impossible. Then, lab grown meat has existed for a while, but it has been too expensive for public sale. Now, a new company plans to put a kill-free meat on the market. Anthony and Jeff deabte the merits and potential of such a product. [more]

  December 20, 2020Episodes

• Paradoxes and Mr Fusion

  Paradox-free time travel is theoretically possible, according to the mathematical modelling of a University of Queensland undergraduate student. Jeff and Anthony attempt to step through the methodology and ramifications of these computations. Then, what if we could have clean, abundant energy by 2035? All it takes is creating a star inside a power plant. Anthony and Jeff discuss just how close to nuclear fusion humanity might be. [more]

  October 9, 2020Episodes

• Math and BBQ

  Math is hard. So hard, in fact, that most humans would rather deal with nice round numbers than think about the ramifications of real data. Anthony and Jeff discuss Attribute Framing, and its impact on advertising and civil discourse. Then, Ron and Diana Watson in Witchita have eaten the same single meal every day for 15 years. Jeff and Anthony consider removing variables to such an extreme and whether it is a net positive for stress and anxiety. [more]

  July 10, 2020Episodes

• Sum Answer Bee

  Bees seem to understand the idea of zero – the first invertebrate shown to do so. When the insects were encouraged to fly towards a platform carrying fewer shapes than another one, they apparently recognised “no shapes” as a smaller value than “some shapes”. Jeff and Anthony zero in on the topic. [more]

  June 29, 2018Episodes

• The Odds in Your Flavor

  893.35 quadrillion to one. That’s the likelihood of what’s happened to 20-year-old Dylan McWilliams. He was bitten by a shark, attacked by a bear, and bitten by a rattlesnake—all in just over three years. .He’s one of the unluckiest guys on the planet. How unlucky? Since each event is independent the odds of each are multiplied together, he said, making the odds of this happening 893.35 quadrillion to one. Jeff and Anthony are going to politely decline your camping invitation. [more]

  May 9, 2018Episodes