Series 2, Episode 08: ON THE ONES AND TWOS
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In this episode, Steve explains why all the molecules in your body are right handed, Matt bigs up the strong law of small numbers and Helen grabs the mic to get on the ones and twos:
- 1:10 – Matt’s bit
- 18:19 – Steve’s bit
- 32:49 – Helen’s bit
- 40:25 – Song from Hello Numbers
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Corrections and clarifications:
- Every time Matt mentions the “Lagrange constant” please change it in your head to “Legendre constant” in your head. He was close, but not close enough! See below for more about both Legendre and Lagrange.
- The audio for this episode was updated on 1st June after some changes were made to the lyrics on the song recording. Everything else about the episode is the same.
And here’s a heap of Unnecessary Detail from this episode:
- Richard Guy’s Strong Law Of Small Numbers.
- And his Second Strong Law Of Small Numbers.
- The constant that was undefined, but later turned out to be exactly 1, which we kept calling the “Lagrange Constant” is in fact the “Legendre Constant“
- There is no such thing as the “Lagrange Constant” but Lagrange did plenty of other things .
- Enjoy David Acheson’s guitar-playing, book-writing and geometry-explaining in a single video.
- Watch Matt and Steve duke it out in this classic Numberphile video, Pi Vs Tau.
- The chemical structure of methane.
- What is chirality?
- Read this very interesting paper, sent to us by Martin on twitter, about the proportion of meth found in nasal decongestant: Chiral Analysis of Methamphetamine in Oral Fluid Samples: A Method to Distinguish Licit from Illicit Drug Use.
- All about the phrase “righty tighty, lefty loosey“
- See inside “Hello Numbers! What Can You Do?” on the publisher’s website
- More about Edmund Harriss‘ books, teaching and more.
- More about Houston Hughes‘ writing and performances.
- More about James Hughes‘ composing and arranging.
A Podcast Of Unnecessary Detail is part of the Acast Creator Network. Thanks for listening!