Series 3, Episode 5: Twelve Pentagons
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Another episode of the podcast that fears no detail, where Matt talks balls, Steve talks fiery rings and Helen sings a tortoise into space.
- 00:55 – Matt’s’s bit (pre-order “Love Triangle” here!)
- 19:30 – Steve’s bit
- 35:44 – Helen’s bit
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Corrections and clarifications:
- Jared, listening in New Hampshire, sent us this video of Poplar Fluff Fire.
And here’s a load of extra Unnecessary Detail from this episode:
- Images of the original UK brown street signs, and Impossiball from two different angles, and the spectacularly octagonal wedding cake are all below.
- If you want to watch the Festival of the Spoken Nerd show featuring Matt’s original football stadium street sign campaign, it’s over here.
- For all the latest updates, visit mathsballs.com and check out a new video landing on Matt’s YouTube channel this Thursday!
- John Paul’s Balls – aka 12 Pentagons – can be found here.
- Want to show your support in person? Purchase one of Matt’s exclusive campaign t-shirts here.
- Matt’s hosting a live Evening Of Unnecessary Detail in New York City in August – get tickets here!
- At some point, Steve will have (or already has) videos aplenty on popping hot chocolate bubbles, spinning fire in plastic half-doughnut channels, Mexican waves and more on his YouTube channel.
- Download “One Small Steppe” with lyrics from Helen’s Bandcamp Page – free or pay what you want!
- Brian Mackenwells can be found over here. He wrote the original poem that the space tortoise song is based on, and he writes other brilliant stuff too!
- Pictures of Helen’s daughter’s space animal scrapbook, a hexagonal tortoise shell and a breed of tortoise called the Geometric Tortoise are all below.
- Zond 5 wasn’t just about sending tortoises around the moon… they also took some pretty decent photos of Earth, and scared the hell out of NASA in the process. More about the mission here.
![](https://festivalofthespokennerd.com/wp-content/uploads/UK-Football-Stadium-Street-Sign-300x208.jpeg)
UK Football Stadium Street Sign
![](https://festivalofthespokennerd.com/wp-content/uploads/Impossiball-from-front-300x300.jpg)
The Impossiball! From the front…
![](https://festivalofthespokennerd.com/wp-content/uploads/Impossiball-from-side-300x300.jpg)
…and from the side…
![](https://festivalofthespokennerd.com/wp-content/uploads/Octagonal-Wedding-Cake.jpeg)
The octagonally tiled wedding cake in all its (un)mathematical glory
![](https://festivalofthespokennerd.com/wp-content/uploads/Space-Animal-Scrapbook-1024x695.jpg)
Space Animal Scrapbook (the Soviet tortoise is halfway down the right hand page)
Hexagonal tortoises? Check!
![](https://festivalofthespokennerd.com/wp-content/uploads/Geometric_tortoise_Psammobates_geometricus_2-300x200.jpg)
Even more geometric is the Geometric Tortoise, Psammobates geometricus.
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