Series 1, Episode 01: FUEL

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In this episode, Helen talks fuel for your body, Matt talks plane fuel (or lack of it…) and Steve talks origin theories for a particular fossil fuel. Plus a song from Helen about the ultimate source of Earth’s fuel:

01:10 – Matt’s bit
10:30 – Helen’s bit
22:30 – Steve’s bit
33:50 – Helen’s song

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Corrections and clarifications first:

• 08:22 – Our Formula One knowledge is somewhat out of date! F1 haven’t allowed refuelling during pit stops since 2009… but other races still allow it, and the problem of vehicle weight vs. pit stops still exists. @Thexscha was the first to point this out, but many many many more of you have since then… thanks!
• 20:41 – This CO2 decaffeination method uses supercritical CO2. That means CO2 at a temperature above boiling point and a pressure above atmospheric pressure, giving it the unique properties of both a liquid and a gas. It’s not simply liquid Carbon Dioxide. Cheers @amypeace for being the first to chemical engineer to listen and flag this.
• 02:55 – Matt mentions Boeing 787 instead of Boeing 767. He blames it on a slip of the plane! Thanks @kaapi_croissant.

And some Unnecessarily Detailed links:

• Planes carrying excess fuel are saving money but increasing environmental impact.
• Buy Matt’s best selling book full of mathematical mistakes –  including this refuelling story – is available now.
• Watch Matt demonstrate the Hot Cheese theory in 2019’s Royal Institution Christmas Lectures – with actual “hot cheese”.
• More about The Swiss Water Process™
• Square Mile Coffee Roasters visit a carbon dioxide (CO2) decaffeination plant.
• Steve finds a surprising sound in his (decaffeinated) coffee, as heard in Series 1 of our BBC Radio 4 show, Domestic Science.
• In Steve’s corner we have: “The Fantastically Strange Origin of Most Coal on Earth”
• And in Helen’s corner we have: “Such geobiological hypotheses sometimes persist based largely on the strength of their novelty, without sufficient predictive testing”.
• Helen singing the Sun Song – complete with costume and mirror ball – in our second comedy special Just For Graphs.
• Like free stuff? Get all the songs (with lyrics!) from this series as free downloads on Helen’s Bandcamp page.

And here’s a bonus photo our stage desk when we tour as Festival of the Spoken Nerd, featuring coffee by Aeropress and cross stitch by Katie Steckles:

A Podcast Of Unnecessary Detail is part of the Acast Creator Network. Thanks for listening!