A Problem Squared

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Comedy
**A Problem Squared**

Matt Parker and Bec Hill present: A Problem Squared.

A podcast dedicated to solving problems of all kinds, such as, “What should I listen to right now?”. A Podcast Squared. First one’s free. You’re welcome.

Episodes released twokly on Mondays.

Latest Episodes:

086 = Emoji Editions and Birthday Billions Jun 03, 2024

Show notes

🙏 Is this emoji praying hands or a high five?

🍚 What's the best present for celebrating a billion seconds?

💼 For the first time we have Any Other Business WITH SPECIAL GUESTS!

If you want a collectable (and mistake-ridden) copy of ‘Love Triangle’, with a special, limited edition book cover designed by print-artist Paul Catherall. You'll get one free while stocks last. Head over to MathsGear! https://mathsgear.co.uk/products/love-triangle-by-matt-parker-signed

Here’s some background on the ‘Folded Hands’ emoji mentioned in Bec’s problem: https://blog.emojipedia.org/emojiology-folded-hands/

This is the pixelated 2001 Softbank version of the Folded Hands emoji: https://emojipedia.org/softbank/2001/folded-hands

Here’s the KDDI emoji from 2003, where someone is literally praying: https://emojipedia.org/au-kddi/type-d-1/folded-hands

You can find the ‘glowing’ folded hands emoji put out by Apple in 2008 here: https://emojipedia.org/apple/iphone-os-2.2/folded-hands

You can find some more variations of the folded hand emoji (including with faces) here: https://b1681952.smushcdn.com/1681952/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Early-Versions-Folded-Hands-Emojipedia-1.jpg?lossy=0&strip=1&webp=1

There were some fascinating early issues with Unicode (which made emojis universal), where ‘yellow hearts’ sent by iOS users would show up as ‘hairy hearts’ on Android phones. You can read about that here: https://web.archive.org/web/20140502051433/http://www.tuaw.com/2014/04/30/you-may-be-accidentally-sending-friends-a-hairy-heart-emoji/

You can find the Unicode emoji design guidelines here: https://unicode.org/reports/tr51/#Design_Guidelines

And if you want to find out whether you’ve already passed your 1 Billionth Second, you can do that here: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=10%5E9+seconds+in+years+and+days

If you want to find out whether you’ve already passed your 1 Billionth Second, you can do that here: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=10%5E9+seconds+in+years+and+days

As always, send your problems and solutions to our website: www.aproblemsquared.com. And, if you want more from A Problem Squared, you can also find us on Twitter, Instagram, Discord and on Patreon.

085 = Coin Collections and Pin Selections May 21, 2024

Show notes

🪙 How many coins would you need to sort through to collect all commemorative €2 coins in circulation?

📍How do you display enamel pins?!

💼 The Any Other Business briefcase is…mostly open.

Here’s the Coupon Collector’s problem video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BstloCx8KDk

You can see more on the “Number of banknotes/coins returned from circulation in Euro Area, Euro area (changing composition), Monthly” here: https://data.ecb.europa.eu/data/datasets/BKN/BKN.M.U2.RE10.C.20P0.AS.F.E

And, Wiki Sources: “2 euro commemorative coins” on good old Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_euro_commemorative_coins

As always, send your problems and solutions to our website: www.aproblemsquared.com.

And, if you want more from A Problem Squared, you can also find us on Twitter, Instagram, Discord and on Patreon.

084 = Indicators and In Da Cake-ers May 06, 2024

Show notes

In this episode...

🎂 Where did birthday cake come from?

🚗 How come my indicator is never in sync with other cars waiting to turn?

💼 And, as always, some business from the business briefcase.

Nina, here’s that recipe for Greek Honey Cake: https://www.food.com/recipe/greek-honey-cake-428671

And for more cake from around the world, look no further than this infographic: https://i.imgur.com/lhhotIE.png

Here’s the Ben Eater video referenced by Matt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRlSFm519Bo

And the fascinating paper about time perception and its illusions: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2866156/

Please do send us your problems and solutions to the website: www.aproblemsquared.com

If you want more from A Problem Squared, you can also find us on Twitter, Instagram, Discord and on Patreon.

083 = Sunbeams and Dog Dreams Apr 22, 2024

Show notes

🌒 What’s the best place to see the next solar eclipse?

💤 Do animals dream?

💼 The Any Other Business briefcase is…half open.

Send your problems and solutions to our website: www.aproblemsquared.com.

For a detailed look at the path of the 2026 eclipse, here’s the website referenced by Matt: https://eclipsophile.com/future-eclipses-2024-2028/

If you want to hear the full interview with David Pena Guzman about animal consciousness referenced by Bec, you can do that here: https://news.uchicago.edu/do-animals-dream-david-m-pena-guzman.

Videos of Sky potentially dreaming will be on social media. Tell us what you think? Do dogs dream?

And, if you want more from A Problem Squared, you can also find us on Twitter, Instagram, Discord and on Patreon.

An Emergency Broadcast to Solve an Emergency Problem. Apr 08, 2024

Show notes

🔔🚨This is an emergency broadcast🚨🔔

Unfortunately a bout of sudden food poisoning has got in the way of our latest recording session. Everyone's safe (now) but as you may have noticed, we're missing an episode.

We've now got a new date in the diary but the podcast won't be back for two weeks - sorry about that everyone!

SO in this episode, A Problem Squared presents...

🧙‍♀️ The first EVER episode of bonus podcast I'm A Wizard.

🪄A latter and very silly episode of I'm A Wizard.

We HOPE this is a good solution to our emergency problem, but only you, the listener, can give us that ding.

And if you'd like to hear more from the Wizards, you can join up on Patreon and give as little or as much as you like.

Thanks everyone!

082 = What Is Lint and Zero Hints Mar 25, 2024

Show notes

In this episode...

🧺 What is lint?

👌 When does zero count?

💼 And, as always, some business from the business briefcase.

Please do send us your problems and solutions to the website: www.aproblemsquared.com.

Bec’s got loads of gigs coming up! If you wanna go see her check out dates on her website: https://www.bechillcomedian.com/tour-gigs.

Matt’s also got an Evening of Unnecessary Detail every two weeks at the Cockpit Theatre in Marylebone, London.

There’s going to be a mathssive (get it) Evening of Unnecessary Detail Extravaganza show at the Bristol Beacon on the 12th March.Find details for those here: https://festivalofthespokennerd.com/tickets/.

If you want more from A Problem Squared, you can also find us on Twitter, Instagram, Discord and on Patreon.

081 = Pi Prize and Square Stairs Mar 11, 2024

Show notes

In this episode…

🥧 Can Pi ever repeat itself?

🪜 Is it impossible for cube-based stairs to be identical?

📈 And some Business of an Any Other Nature.

If you want to see the biggest hand calculation in HISTORY, you can! Just head over to Matt’s YouTube channel on the 14th of March: https://www.youtube.com/@standupmaths

An Evening of Unnecessary Detail is BACK IN NEW YORK! On the 14th of April, at The Bell House in Brooklyn from 7:30pm!

You can get tickets for that here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/matt-parker-an-evening-of-unnecessary-detail-tickets-847453715877?aff=oddtdtcreator

Ever wanted to know the answer to whether ALL Japanese snacks scale with the packaging imagery? Well now you can, on Bec’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-roi6FdISY&ab_channel=BecHill

GO SEE BEC! She’s playing in Reading and Louth in April. You can find the dates for that, here: https://www.bechillcomedian.com/tour-gigs

YOU CAN PRE-ORDER MATT’S NEW BOOK ‘Love Triangle’ NOW!

For a signed, but full priced copy with a special dust jacket follow this link: https://mathsgear.co.uk/products/love-triangle-by-matt-parker-signed

Or for 21% off your pre-order, follow this link to Waterstones: https://tinyurl.com/2fdjnwwz

As always, please send your problems and solutions to the Problem Solving Page, here: www.aproblemsquared.com.

If you want more from A Problem Squared, you can also find us on Twitter, Instagram, Discord and on Patreon.

080 = Naming Clichés and Squaring Birthdays Feb 26, 2024

Show notes

In this episode…

🍼 What’s the best method for naming a human child?

🎊 How do you turn 45^2=2025 into a birthday celebration?

📜 AYE-YOOO-BEEEE.

Please do send us your problems and solutions to the website: www.aproblemsquared.com

Bec’s got loads of gigs coming up! If you wanna go see her check out dates on her website: https://www.bechillcomedian.com/tour-gigs

Matt’s also got an Evening of Unnecessary Detail every two weeks at the Cockpit Theatre in Marylebone, London.

There’s going to be a mathssive (get it) Evening of Unnecessary Detail Extravaganza show at the Bristol Beacon on the 12th March.

Find details for those here: https://festivalofthespokennerd.com/tickets/

If you want more from A Problem Squared, you can also find us on Twitter, Instagram, Discord and on Patreon.

079 = Driving Clockwise and Evolving Dragonflies Feb 12, 2024

Show notes

In this episode…

⤵ Is it faster to drive around Australia in an anticlockwise direction on the inside lane?

🐉 What were dragonflies called before there were dragons?

💼 Business of an ‘Any Other’ nature.

New segment: Things Matt Needs Help With. If you can help with ANY of Matt’s ideas, get in touch!

If you’d like to see Matt’s diagrams and GP MOTO plot, head on over to Twitter or Patreon!

The podcast has officially HIT 2 MILLION! Tell us how you think we should celebrate.

As always you can send your problems and your solutions into the Problem Posing Page: www.aproblemsquared.com.

If you want more from A Problem Squared, you can also find us on Twitter, Instagram, Discord and of course, on Patreon.

078 = Spinal Taps and Star Maps Jan 29, 2024

Show notes

In this episode…

🇺🇸 A LAT of LA chat.

⭐️ If you visited each star on the Hollywood Walk of fame in alphabetical order, how far would you have to travel?

📜 And some sort of Any Other Businesses.

Send us your problems and your solutions to the Problem Posing Page: www.aproblemsquared.com

If you want more from A Problem Squared, you can also find us on Twitter, Instagram, Discord and of course, on Patreon.

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