A Problem Squared

🧦 Do you put your trousers or socks on first ?👖

🎲 How much would a standard pair of dice weigh if they were made up of just protons and neutrons? 🎲

🏉 And we have some Australian Ozzie Ballness that may or may not be in the right order.

Thank you to everyone who responded to our questionnaire about number and clothing ordering! All the results are in this episode.

What would happen if a tablespoonful of a neutron star was brought to Earth? https://www.astronomy.com/science/what-would-happen-if-tablespoonful-neutron-star-was-brought-to-earth/ 

Take a trip back in time to see Matt putting both his socks on simultaneously: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs7fg27Iiq8 

Do you have a problem for Bec and Matt to solve? Tell us about it: https://www.aproblemsquared.com/ 

Join us on Patreon for early releases and our monthly bonus podcast I’m A Wizard!

If you’re already on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on our pinned post!   

If you want to (we’re not forcing anyone) please do leave us a review, share the podcast with a friend, or give us a rating! Please do that. It really helps. 

Finally, if you want even more from A Problem Squared you can connect with us and other listeners on BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord.

#️⃣ How wrong can a sequence of numbers be?

👂 What maths-related diagrams that would look good as a pair of earrings?

☕ And we have some Any Other Baristaness 

Here is our dual-purpose Google Form - please answer our questions about number and clothing ordering! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1tTb398TTacxoqlqJHGonkldwDsqnnMN6V4fRagfPOEI/

Behold the weird balls! Here is Thomas Fernique’s Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/fernik_art/p/DcVerFCDiwr/ 

And head to our Instagram to see Matt looking really happy with a weird football and Bec looking really sad with a weird football.

Some visuals to inspire designs for duallery - Brown University: Dual Shapes: https://www.math.brown.edu/tbanchof/Beyond3d/chapter5/section03.html

Some pre-made mathematical earrings from Maths Gear: https://mathsgear.co.uk/collections/jewellery-etc  

Vanessa Schattman on the maths of cat’s cradle:

https://archive.bridgesmathart.org/2026/bridges2026-669.html#gsc.tab=0

Do you have a problem for Bec and Matt to solve? Tell us about it: https://www.aproblemsquared.com/ 

Matt has extended his tour - and he’s filming the show in London in October - all the dates, venues and tickets can be found here: http://standupmaths.com/shows 

Join us on Patreon for early releases and our monthly bonus podcast I’m A Wizard!

If you’re already on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on our pinned post!   

If you want to (we’re not forcing anyone) please do leave us a review, share the podcast with a friend, or give us a rating! Please do that. It really helps. 

Finally, if you want even more from A Problem Squared you can connect with us and other listeners on BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord.

📖 What comes after thrice?

☕ How can I increase my chances of winning a free coffee?

🎹 And we have some Any Other Beatness 

Thank you to everyone who sent in audio or visuals of the Thue-Morse pattern!

Here is Damien’s Thue-Morse Visualiser which is really fun to play with: https://damienkee.github.io/thue-morese_visualiser/ 

And here is the keyboard visualisation of Thue-Morse sonified by Seta Lyas: https://www.reddit.com/r/AProblemSquared/comments/1vl0m8s/140_thuemorse_sonified 

Head to our BlueSky/Twitter/Instagram to see the full run down of Bec’s post-thrice words.

Do you have a problem for Bec and Matt to solve? Tell us about it: https://www.aproblemsquared.com/ 

Matt has extended his tour - and he’s filming the show in London in October - all the dates, venues and tickets can be found here: http://standupmaths.com/shows 

Join us on Patreon for early releases and our monthly bonus podcast I’m A Wizard!

If you’re already on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on our pinned post!   

If you want to (we’re not forcing anyone) please do leave us a review, share the podcast with a friend, or give us a rating! Please do that. It really helps. 

Finally, if you want even more from A Problem Squared you can connect with us and other listeners on BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord.

📺 How long would it take to watch all of YouTube?

🪧 How can you make an interesting public display board without damaging the walls?

🏖️ And we have Any Other Beachness (it’s a bit windy and a bit crabby)

Head to our BlueSky/Twitter/Instagram to see Matt and Bec’s differing experiences of the solar eclipse.

Here’s Count Binface and Matt the Count Binface Count Agent getting papped in Clacton: https://tinyurl.com/2h7apka7 

And here's Matt's Stand-Up Maths video - Can Count Binface win? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zn1pGRgEoo

If you like the sound of David Elms Describes A Room, you can find out more here: ⁠https://www.davidelmsdescribesaroom.com/⁠ 

Here are the places to go for a deep dive into YouTube Stats:

https://tubestats.org/ 

Counting YouTube Videos via Random Prefix Sampling: https://dl.acm.org/doi/epdf/10.1145/2068816.2068851 

A Transparent, Replicable, and Large-Scale Census of YouTube Channels and their Subscriber Counts Over Time https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.06999 

Do you have a problem for Bec and Matt to solve? Tell us about it: https://www.aproblemsquared.com/ 

Matt has extended his tour - and he’s filming the show in London in October - all the dates, venues and tickets can be found here: http://standupmaths.com/shows 

Join us on Patreon for early releases and our monthly bonus podcast I’m A Wizard!

If you’re already on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on our pinned post!   

If you want to (we’re not forcing anyone) please do leave us a review, share the podcast with a friend, or give us a rating! Please do that. It really helps. 

Finally, if you want even more from A Problem Squared you can connect with us and other listeners on BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord.

👬 How do you know if a work-friend is a real-friend?

⭕ What would happen if Pi was 4?

😴 And we have Any Other Boring-Stories…

Head to our BlueSky/Twitter/Instagram to see Bec’s selfies with The Stars of Space (real and fictional), and the cute-faced Rivian Car.

Why not try Hyperbolic Crochet?!

https://startcrochet.com/ultimate-beginners-guide-to-hyperbolic-crochet/

Why not try a checked 25x25 grid crossword from Sweden?!

https://fatherben.se/wordpress/digitalt-korsord-i-sydsvenskan/ 

Robert Llewelyn’s YouTube channel - Everything Electric CARS 

If you’re at the Edinburgh Fringe and would like to see Bec’s Work In Progress show, tickets are available here: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/bec-hill-s-work-in-progress 

Matt has extended his tour - and he’s filming the show in London in October - all the dates, venues and tickets can be found here: http://standupmaths.com/shows 

Want to pose a problem for Bec and Matt to solve? Head over to https://www.aproblemsquared.com/ 

Join us on Patreon for early releases and our monthly bonus podcast I’m A Wizard!

If you’re already on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on our pinned post!   

If you want to (we’re not forcing anyone) please do leave us a review, share the podcast with a friend, or give us a rating! Please do that. It really helps. 

Finally, if you want even more from A Problem Squared you can connect with us and other listeners on BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord.

⚽ What’s the fairest way to pick teams?

🤖 How do you discourage colleagues from using AI to write everything?

🚗 And this road trip is jeopardised by playing ‘Accelerator or Break?’

Thanks to all of you who sent in answers to “what are you doing while you’re listening to A Problem Squared?” - we go through as many as we possibly can in this episode!

Here is kram1032’s post on Maths Stack Exchange that helped Matt with his problem solving:

https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/2078609/whats-the-fairest-turn-sequence-for-n-players 

Here’s more info on Open Sauce: https://www.opensauce.com/

And here’s a kind stranger’s Insta reel of the Ratatouille robot: https://www.instagram.com/reels/DbGwSh4vHQq/ 

And here’s more info on UKIE: https://ukie.org.uk/ 

And the stream of Bec hosting the event: https://www.youtube.com/live/4lw_ypXroa4 

Head to our BlueSky/Twitter/Instagram to see the U-Haul-Truck-Camera photo of Matt. 

If you’re at the Edinburgh Fringe and would like to see Bec’s Work In Progress show, tickets are available here: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/bec-hill-s-work-in-progress 

Matt has extended his tour - and he’s filming the show in London in October - all the dates, venues and tickets can be found here: http://standupmaths.com/shows 

Want to pose a problem for Bec and Matt to solve? Head over to https://www.aproblemsquared.com/ 

Join us on Patreon for early releases and our monthly bonus podcast I’m A Wizard!

If you’re already on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on our pinned post!   

If you want to (we’re not forcing anyone) please do leave us a review, share the podcast with a friend, or give us a rating! Please do that. It really helps. 

Finally, if you want even more from A Problem Squared you can connect with us and other listeners on BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord.

There's no new episode of A Problem Squared this week - sorry everyone - but we will be back with your scheduled Episode 140 on MONDAY 10TH AUGUST 2026, and our normal twokly service will be resumed from MONDAY 17TH AUGUST 2026.

We're delaying one episode by one week due to general busyness and time-zone clashes but rest assured you will be getting your full quota of August episodes of A Problem Squared.

Thank you for your patience!

🎺 What would standard instruments sound like if they were played under water?

🎯 What would be the average score of one randomly thrown dart?

📂 And there’s some Any Other Business.AOB.zip

On THIS episode of A Problem Squared we’re joined by a special guest! The musical (and regularly quite wet) musical maestro Steve Pretty tells us all about playing music underwater - illustrated with some very bubbly examples. You can hear more from Steve on his podcast Origin Of The Pieces: https://www.originofthepieces.com/ and hear more from Steve playing shells here: https://www.shellectronica.com/ 

This is the episode of Steve Pretty’s Origin of the Pieces with Richard Sabin, whale expert and lead curator of mammals at the Natural History Museum, who shares sonic insights from the deep. https://www.originofthepieces.com/episodes/episode-31-earwax-echoes-and-entropy

To find out more about Aquasonic, the ethereal underwater quintet, head here: https://www.betweenmusic.dk/aquasonic 

Here is the full Hermeto Pascoal video in all its glory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZbfNtDCHdM 

And here’s the video of a hydraulophone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgU0OZkGhGI 

World Darts Federation Playing and Tournament Rules for all the specifications used in Matt’s working out: https://dartswdf.com/storage/uploads/fb05b306-c92c-4f08-b512-affb092a1b3d/2018-02-28_WDF_Playing_and_Tournament_Rules_rev20.pdf 

The fabulously detailed Data Genetics blog post on where to aim on a dart board to maximise point-scoring - A Geek Plays Darts: http://www.datagenetics.com/blog/january12012/index.html 

Here’s more about the (excellent) book that Bec shouted out: Gemma Correll - Anxietyland https://www.gemmacorrell.com/ 

If you’d like to see Bec’s Work In Progress shows, her upcoming gigs can be found here: https://www.bechillcomedian.com/tour-gigs

Matt has extended his tour - and he’s filming the show in London in October - all the dates, venues and tickets can be found here:

http://standupmaths.com/shows 

Join us on Patreon for early releases and our monthly bonus podcast I’m A Wizard!

If you’re already on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on our pinned post!  

If you want to (we’re not forcing anyone) please do leave us a review, share the podcast with a friend, or give us a rating! Please do that. It really helps. 

Finally, if you want even more from A Problem Squared you can connect with us and other listeners on BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord.

📝 What is the perfect arrangement of black squares in a crossword?

🚣 Does weight on an aqueduct increase as a boat goes over it?

🛟 And there’s some Any Other Boardness (not ‘boredness’)

Head to our BlueSky/Twitter/Instagram to see some crossword arrangements and some cross-bridge arrangements.

Michael Keith’s Crossword research paper: http://www.gathering4gardner.org/g4g16gift/KeithMichael-GiftExchange-CrosswordGrids-G4G16.pdf 

Michael Keith’s Pilish book, Not A Wake: https://www.cadaeic.net/notawake.htm 

If you’d like to see Bec’s Work In Progress shows, her upcoming gigs can be found here: https://www.bechillcomedian.com/tour-gigs

Matt is bringing An Evening of Unnecessary Detail to New York! The Bell House, Brooklyn on Sunday 12th July. Tickets can be found here:

https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/300064B84CCCF567

And Matt has extended his tour - and he’s filming the show in London in October - all the dates, venues and tickets can be found here:

http://standupmaths.com/shows 

Join us on Patreon for early releases and our monthly bonus podcast I’m A Wizard!

If you’re already on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on our pinned post!  

If you want to (we’re not forcing anyone) please do leave us a review, share the podcast with a friend, or give us a rating! Please do that. It really helps. 

Finally, if you want even more from A Problem Squared you can connect with us and other listeners on BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord.

👂Why do some people hate the sound of whispering?

💡 How much does an electron cost?

😎 And there’s some Any Other Bozoness

On THIS episode of A Problem Squared - which comes with our special No Whisper Guarantee - we’re joined by a special guest! The clinical psychologist Dr Jane Gregory tells us all about Misophonia. You can find out about her fantastic (and very helpful) book Sounds Like Misophonia, and you can sign up to her research mailing list here: https://soundslikemisophonia.com/ 

And here is Ava’s EPIC Spreadsheet - A Problem Squared Episode Catalogue: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nXmEH9BrCr6hEBBhHkfuciPEKimDgZjrwhi2oeyErog/edit?usp=sharing

If you’d like to see Bec’s Work In Progress shows, her upcoming gigs can be found here: https://www.bechillcomedian.com/tour-gigs

Matt is bringing An Evening of Unnecessary Detail to New York! The Bell House, Brooklyn on Sunday 12th July. Tickets can be found here:

https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/300064B84CCCF567

And Matt has extended his tour - and he’s filming the show in London in October - all the dates, venues and tickets can be found here: http://standupmaths.com/shows 

Join us on Patreon for early releases and our monthly bonus podcast I’m A Wizard!

If you’re already on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on our pinned post!  

If you want to (we’re not forcing anyone) please do leave us a review, share the podcast with a friend, or give us a rating! Please do that. It really helps. 

Finally, if you want even more from A Problem Squared you can connect with us and other listeners on BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord.