A Problem Squared

🔥 How many quickfire problems is it possible to solve in a single episode of A Problem Squared?  🧑‍💼 Why is Matt dressed like a maths teacher? 🃏And we will deal out some Any Other Business If you’d like to ask Matt and Bec anything for our special 2^7 episode go to the Problem Posing Page at aproblemsquared.com - select ‘Problem’ and start your message with AMA! A chicken slapping machine - cl...

🗓️ Does bi-weekly mean every two weeks or twice a week? 🧊 What is the name of the line between two opposing corners of a cube? 🕑 And daylight will be saved with some Any Other Brightness. For more on Rupert and Nopert Shapes: Euler Brick: https://mathworld.wolfram.com/EulerBrick.html Tom7 - Rupert's Snub Cube and other Math Holes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH4MviUE0_s Tom7’s Print files fo...

🃏 What are the odds of actually winning Morgan’s very specific, very fun card game? 🤯 Are people more gullible now? And what are the best ways to persuade someone they are wrong? 👻 And, appropriate to the season, there will be some Any Other Boooooooooooooosness If you have some ingenious suggestions of what Matt can do in lunar gravity, head to www.aproblemsquared.com and submit your idea as a...

🍌 Is there a more consistent system of measuring things (and is it ‘Banana For Scale’)? 🌋 Why and how do hexagons occur in nature? 🔔 And there will be a whole Bec of Any Other Becness Head to our socials to see Matt and Bec playing The Metre Game, lots of bananas for scale, and Matt sporting some very fetching headwear. Some further reading on the origins of ‘Banana For Scale’: https://knowyour...

🎲 What are the odds of rolling snake eyes? (And does it make for good TV?) 🤹How long does it take to learn to juggle with seven balls? 🛌 And there’s some Any Other Bed’n’Boardness Head to our socials to see Matt and Bec in action, rolling dice and juggling balls! To find out more about our juggling expert Darryl J Carrington, head to his insta: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPTqhTwDEeb/?igsh=M...

Unfortunately, Matt has been ill and lost his voice so we were unable to record the episode that should be coming out this week. To make up for it, we are releasing an episode of the usually-Patreon-only I Am A Wizard for you to listen to. It's the one from April this year and features a magical offer from our listener who is, apparently, a wizard - USBinPRL. But we begin with a message from Bec,...

👁️ How do you remember things if you can’t visualisethem in your mind’s eye? 🍭 What’s the best shape for a freeze pop? 🪣 And there’s some Any Other Beachness    Head to our socials to see freeze pop pics, Matt(not that one)’s tooth and the AOB gifts!    Here’s a link to the University of Exeter’s The Eye’s Mind project: https://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/eyesmind/      And here’s a selection of freeze p...

￡ What’s the optimum strategy to win The Price Is Right? 🦷 Why have Tim’s baby teeth fallen apart? 🛠️ And there’s some Any Other Billy Bookcase Business Head to our socials to play along with The Price Is Right and to see a video of Ikea Wars! Here are the GIANT LETTERS sent in by Phillip: https://maps.app.goo.gl/yZaofcfNPaF5HyX17 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillside_letters If you’re in Edi...

🍆 What’s the “female equivalent” of phallic? What’s the font size of the Hollywood sign? 🦈 And we’re always open for AOBusiness Thanks to our excellent experts appearing in voicenote form - Dr Ben Whittle, Chella Quint OBE, and Linus Boman. Daan’s paper in the American Journal of Archaeology which cites this very podcast: doi.org/10.1086/735650   The world’s largest enlarged letter: https://www....

🃏 What’s the deal with cards? 🫕 What is the perfect ratio of chips to dips? 🍔 And there’s some Any Other B-B-Q-B-ness Head to our socials to see the card shuffle and patterns, Bec’s starstruck selfie, and our chips ‘n’ dips experiment! For all your homemade snacking needs: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/tortillas https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/homemade-tortilla-chips-guacamole-charred...

🚂 If you want a career change, how do you decide what to retrain as? 👶 What would be a good set of names for twins or triplets? 🦷 And there’s some Any Other Busi Here’s some baby naming code from Colin Beveridge: https://github.com/icecolbeveridge/zoe_names If you’re heading to the Edinburgh Fringe, you can get tickets to see Bec here: https://tickets.gildedballoon.co.uk/event/14:5884/ And you...

🌞 How far away from the Sun do we have to travel before we can look at it without damaging our eyes? 📆 Is there an off by one error with anniversaries? 🍝 And AOB has been slow cooked and packed up in tupperware for safe storage The starting point for Matt’s theory: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-maximum-light-intensity-that-a-human-eye-can-withstand-without-being-damaged   Astroid Mattparker...

🎶 Why are songs easier to remember than sentences? ⚙️ Can we come up with new names (that meet strict criteria) for leader/follower motors? 🌟 And it’s a glitzy, toothy, clackety AOB   As discussed in the intro, here’s how to get involved with Matt’s Moon Pi Kickstarter: https://youtu.be/nGtVej1Qx5Y And here's the link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/standupmaths/moon-pi-were-going-to-calcu...

🎲What’s the best design for non-traditional dice? 📄 What should you call paperwork that doesn’t involve paper? 🙋And it’s more a comment than a question in AOB Head to our socials to see Matt’s excellent Angry Man In Local Newspaper photos. If you’d like to peruse and purchase more dice variations, head here: https://mathsgear.co.uk/collections/dice   If you have any paperlesspaperwork suggestio...

4️⃣ What would it look like to be trapped in a 4D world? 🥰 What is the meaning of marriage? ✨Izzy Wizzy Let’s Get AOBusy Head to our socials to see some fantastic representations of 2D meets 3D meets 4D in fiction, some magical magic, and an alphabetically perfect travel route (for 40 days in 1990). If you’re heading to the Edinburgh Fringe, you can get tickets to see Matt here: https://www.plea...

🍻What’s the best way to politely tell a friend that they’ve had too much to drink? 🗞️ Is there a way to prove that something existed before a certain date? ❌And AOB brings us some friendly corrections… A useful menu of alcoholic choices… https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/   A hash of a DING! 1f2b352be3c09872b3e38083ec6f0d2b22615a99c5a446a03abf24430187c484 If you’re heading to the Edinburgh Fringe, yo...

🧱How many megabytes are actually in a gigabyte? 🌕There have been some Moon Developments… 😎And AOB will bring a little sunshine into your life Here is NASA’s Press Release about navigation on the moon: https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/somd/space-communications-navigation-program/nasa-successfully-acquires-gps-signals-on-moon/ And some further reading from Matt:  https://www.gpsworld.com/lugre-r...

🗺️ Is there an alphabetically perfect travel route? 🪵 What can be done with karate chopped wood? 🤙 And we ride the crest of the Any Other Business wave You can find the data-basis for the alphabetically perfect travel route here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_territories_by_number_of_land_borders Here are some of Bec’s aesthetically pleasing solutions: https://www.youtube.c...

📆 When is the next Prime Number Day? 🤣 What is the oldest joke? 🪨 And we get to the rock bottom of Any Other Business You can find Matt’s Divisibility Rules video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pLz8wEQYkA You can read more about the world’s oldest joke here: https://www.wbur.org/endlessthread/2022/08/05/sumerian-joke-one And you can get your Philogelols right here: https://archive.org/d...

📃 Is a sheet of A-45 paper big enough to wrap the earth?  ✏️ Why do we still call pencil graphite lead? 👔 There’s business to attend to.  You can find Matt and Hannah’s protractor up the shard video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckcdqlo3pYc&ab_channel=Stand-upMaths Here’s Matt’s Truncatable Prime Pencil: https://mathsgear.co.uk/products/truncatable-prime-pencil?srsltid=AfmBOorhZ6qk_I...

🤫 Which synonyms are Caesar ciphers of each other? 🎨 Bec and Matt attempt to help a listener decorate their home.  💼 The tax business briefcase is wide open.  ⚔️ And battleships heats up.   It’s time to go see ‘Bec Hill: Guess Who's Bec, Bec Again?’ at The Adelaide Fringe! https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/bec-hill-guess-who-s-bec-bec-again-bec-hill-s-bec-tell-a-friend-af2025 You can see...

✅ What’s the best way to leave your mark? 🗓️ Can Saturday Night Live be on Every Day? 📍 And there are some big locations in AOB Top Marks: https://neatnik.net/steganographr/#results SNL Spreadsheet: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/i9leqlafx0orjfp6l8a6t/weekend_whatdate.xlsx?rlkey=vetpi2qg9etbb35jq0zculjt1&e=1&st=q5vl7052&dl=0 Big Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/8kf2XcYPXWnqGqn88 See Matt...

🔺 What are the most “interesting” years? 🍌 Bec goes big on Big Things 🎉 When Party Tricks Go Wrong 🔢 And there's some numerical AOB Here’s Max-matics’ video that Matt mentioned - Turning a 2024 Ball Pyramid in to a 2025 Ball Square for NYE 2025 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXUlKCIgV8U Some further reading on the 2025 maths https://aperiodical.com/2025/01/numerical-coincidences-for-2025/ It’...

Hello you wonderful listener, Welcome to a new year. 2025 - has a nice ring to it doesn't it? This is a short announcement to say that there will be a very short feed break - just an episode or two, don't worry - to allow us all rest for the first two weeks of January. Matt will tell you everything you need to know in his very organised PSA. Have a listen. Thank you for your continuted support and...

To celebrate A Problem Squared’s 100th episode… 🎼 What is the least popular instrument in an orchestra?  🍎 Matt is appalled.  🔮 Another unplanned, unexpected mystery segment!  💼 And the business briefcase is (briefly) open.  A big thank you to Katie Steckles for her brilliant contributions to this episode. You can find more from her on her website: https://www.katiesteckles.co.uk/index.html ,...