🔥 How many quickfire problems is it possible to solve in a single episode of A Problem Squared? 

🧑‍💼 Why is Matt dressed like a maths teacher?

🃏And we will deal out some Any Other Business

If you’d like to ask Matt and Bec anything for our special 2^7 episode go to the Problem Posing Page at aproblemsquared.com - select ‘Problem’ and start your message with AMA!

A chicken slapping machine - click to view at your own risk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68L6JA_CnmU

Here’s where you’ll find the video of Matt in 374 different outfits (and the 375th outfit is on our socials)

https://www.youtube.com/@standupmaths/videos 

From AOB here’s Chris’ working…

https://chrisboettner.github.io/blog/posts/2025-10-28-card_game_blog.html

…and here’s Dede’s working…

https://github.com/dedebenui/cardgame 

See Matt on tour!

http://standupmaths.com/shows 

Specifically, see Matt in London on Monday 1st December!

https://lwtheatres.co.uk/whats-on/matt-parker/ 

Or if you would like to see Bec in Brighton on Monday 1st December, tickets are here:

https://www.komedia.co.uk/shows/john-luke-roberts-geoffrey-chaucers-mediaeval-christmas-festivitye/

Here’s how to get involved with Matt’s Moon Pi Kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/standupmaths 

And here’s how to volunteer for Calculate Pi By Hand with Matt: https://forms.gle/w44THpNJ3jWUPqHy6

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.

🗓️ Does bi-weekly mean every two weeks or twice a week?

🧊 What is the name of the line between two opposing corners of a cube?

🕑 And daylight will be saved with some Any Other Brightness.

For more on Rupert and Nopert Shapes:

Euler Brick: https://mathworld.wolfram.com/EulerBrick.html

Tom7 - Rupert's Snub Cube and other Math Holes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH4MviUE0_s

Tom7’s Print files for Platonic, Archimedean and Catalan Solids: https://makerworld.com/en/models/1617011-platonic-archimedean-and-catalan-solids#profileId-1706419

Follow Dr Ben Whittle, The Excellent Etymologist, on Instagram! @schnebwhittle

Joey Parrish and his Sega Slides https://github.com/joeyparrish/sega-slides

See Matt on tour! http://standupmaths.com/shows 

Specifically, see Matt in London on Monday 1st December! https://lwtheatres.co.uk/whats-on/matt-parker/ 

Or if you would like to see Bec in Brighton on Monday 1st December, tickets are here: https://www.komedia.co.uk/shows/john-luke-roberts-geoffrey-chaucers-mediaeval-christmas-festivitye/

Here’s how to get involved with Matt’s Moon Pi Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/standupmaths 

And here’s how to volunteer for Calculate Pi By Hand with Matt: https://forms.gle/w44THpNJ3jWUPqHy6

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 are the odds of actually winning Morgan’s very specific, very fun card game?

🤯 Are people more gullible now? And what are the best ways to persuade someone they are wrong?

👻 And, appropriate to the season, there will be some Any Other Boooooooooooooosness

If you have some ingenious suggestions of what Matt can do in lunar gravity, head to www.aproblemsquared.com and submit your idea as a ‘Solution’

Head to our socials to see Matt’s graph plot and stats on the odds of winning the card game, as well as Bec’s beautifully laid out existence proof of the 52 Card Game!

Some further reading on The Gullibility Problem:

Why are people so gullible? https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20160323-why-are-people-so-incredibly-gullible

Research paper on political extremism: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797612464058

Nobel Disease: https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Nobel_disease

And some tetrahedron-shaped packaging - or TetraPaks, if you will:

TetraPak: https://www.tetrapak.com/solutions/packaging/packages 

SunnyBoys: https://australianfoodtimeline.com.au/2016-goodbye-sunnyboy/ 

See Matt on tour! http://standupmaths.com/shows 

And if you want to see Matt in London on Monday 1st December, tickets are here: https://lwtheatres.co.uk/whats-on/matt-parker/

Or if you want to see Bec in Brighton on Monday 1st December, tickets are here: https://www.komedia.co.uk/shows/john-luke-roberts-geoffrey-chaucers-mediaeval-christmas-festivitye/

Here’s how to get involved with Matt’s Moon Pi Kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/standupmaths 

And here’s how to volunteer for Calculate Pi By Hand with Matt: https://forms.gle/w44THpNJ3jWUPqHy6

If you’re 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.

🍌 Is there a more consistent system of measuring things (and is it ‘Banana For Scale’)?

🌋 Why and how do hexagons occur in nature?

🔔 And there will be a whole Bec of Any Other Becness

Head to our socials to see Matt and Bec playing The Metre Game, lots of bananas for scale, and Matt sporting some very fetching headwear.

Some further reading on the origins of ‘Banana For Scale’:

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/banana-for-scale 

Some further reading on hexagons in basalt:

European Geoscience Union article:

https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/ts/2023/05/26/features-from-the-field-columnar-basalts-and-why-hexagons-are-natures-favourite-shape/

Physical Review Letters: 

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.154301

See Matt on tour!

http://standupmaths.com/shows 

Here’s how to get involved with Matt’s Moon Pi Kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/standupmaths 

And here’s how to volunteer for Calculate Pi By Hand with Matt:

https://forms.gle/w44THpNJ3jWUPqHy6

If you’re 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 are the odds of rolling snake eyes? (And does it make for good TV?)

🤹How long does it take to learn to juggle with seven balls?

🛌 And there’s some Any Other Bed’n’Boardness

Head to our socials to see Matt and Bec in action, rolling dice and juggling balls!

To find out more about our juggling expert Darryl J Carrington, head to his insta: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPTqhTwDEeb/?igsh=MXdyMDJvNGhma2ZtNg==

And here’s Colin Wright’s video about Sideswap: “Juggling by Numbers - Numberphile” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dwgusHjA0Y

Here are Jasper’s links (in Dutch and in English) about the Belgian family and their children’s themed names

https://vrtnws.be/p.NvjDVZw5w  (Dutch)  

https://www.reddit.com/r/tragedeigh/comments/17h7ka6/gwenny_32_is_pregnant_of_a_twelfth_child_a/ (English) 

And here are the visualised shuffles of the card question in Episode 113

Tom - https://tehtommeh.github.io/riffle-me-this/

Bernhard - https://www.bernhard-werner.de/assets/cindy/applets/card_weave.html

Shaun - https://svermaak.github.io/VisualiseCardShuffle/

See Matt on tour!

http://standupmaths.com/shows 

Here’s how to get involved with Matt’s Moon Pi Kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/standupmaths 

And here’s how to volunteer for Calculate Pi By Hand with Matt: https://forms.gle/w44THpNJ3jWUPqHy6

If you’re 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.

Unfortunately, Matt has been ill and lost his voice so we were unable to record the episode that should be coming out this week.

To make up for it, we are releasing an episode of the usually-Patreon-only I Am A Wizard for you to listen to. It's the one from April this year and features a magical offer from our listener who is, apparently, a wizard - USBinPRL. But we begin with a message from Bec, who can still speak.

If you want more wizarding silliness then join our Patreon at patreon.com/aproblemsquared - you'll get access to all the past episodes of I Am A Wizard, a new wizard episode every month, and early access to all episodes of A Problem Squared!

Normal Service will be resumed in Two Weeks!

👁️ How do you remember things if you can’t visualisethem in your mind’s eye?

🍭 What’s the best shape for a freeze pop?

🪣 And there’s some Any Other Beachness

Head to our socials to see freeze pop pics, Matt(not that one)’s tooth and the AOB gifts!

Here’s a link to the University of Exeter’s The Eye’s Mind project: https://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/eyesmind/ 

And here’s a selection of freeze pops and anti-prisms…

https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/del-monte-quality-pineapple-freeze-pop-8-x-62ml

https://www.vimto.co.uk/vimto-range/product/vimto-pyramids/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_antiprism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disphenoid

 See Matt on tour! http://standupmaths.com/shows/

Here’s how to get involved with Matt’s Moon Pi Kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/standupmaths 

 And here’s how to volunteer for Calculate Pi By Hand with Matt: https://forms.gle/w44THpNJ3jWUPqHy6

If you’re 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 optimum strategy to win The Price Is Right?

🦷 Why have Tim’s baby teeth fallen apart?

🛠️ And there’s some Any Other Billy Bookcase Business

Head to our socials to play along with The Price Is Right and to see a video of Ikea Wars!

Here are the GIANT LETTERS sent in by Phillip:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/yZaofcfNPaF5HyX17

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillside_letters

If you’re in Edinburgh for the Fringe, get tickets to see Bec here:

https://tickets.gildedballoon.co.uk/event/14:5884/

And get tickets see to Matt here:

https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/getting-triggy-it-matt-parker-does-maths

Here’s how to get involved with Matt’s Moon Pi Kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/standupmaths 

And here’s how to volunteer for Calculate Pi By Hand with Matt:

https://forms.gle/w44THpNJ3jWUPqHy6

If you’re 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 “female equivalent” of phallic?

What’s the font size of the Hollywood sign?

🦈 And we’re always open for AOBusiness

Thanks to our excellent experts appearing in voicenote form - Dr Ben Whittle, Chella Quint OBE, and Linus Boman.

Daan’s paper in the American Journal of Archaeology which cites this very podcast: doi.org/10.1086/735650 

The world’s largest enlarged letter: https://www.pleasedonotbend.co.uk/categories/world-record

If you’re heading to the Edinburgh Fringe, you can get tickets to see Bec here: https://tickets.gildedballoon.co.uk/event/14:5884/

And you can get tickets see to Matt here: https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/getting-triggy-it-matt-parker-does-maths

Here’s how to get involved with Matt’s Moon Pi Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/standupmaths 

And here’s how to volunteer for Calculate Pi By Hand with Matt: https://forms.gle/w44THpNJ3jWUPqHy6

If you’re 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 deal with cards?

🫕 What is the perfect ratio of chips to dips?

🍔 And there’s some Any Other B-B-Q-B-ness

Head to our socials to see the card shuffle and patterns, Bec’s starstruck selfie, and our chips ‘n’ dips experiment!

For all your homemade snacking needs:

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/tortillas

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/homemade-tortilla-chips-guacamole-charred-tomato-salsa

It’s 5 o’chop Somewhere! (Really excellent work from Eve)

https://www.instagram.com/p/DKZSlCGIdCZ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== 

And some info about Aphantasia as mentioned by Keith…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia

And synaesthesia…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

If you’re heading to the Edinburgh Fringe, you can get tickets to see Bec here:

https://tickets.gildedballoon.co.uk/event/14:5884/

And you can get tickets see to Matt here:

https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/getting-triggy-it-matt-parker-does-maths

Here’s how to get involved with Matt’s Moon Pi Kickstarter

https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/standupmaths 

If you’re 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.