What is 1 Kilogram Now? | Because Science Live
AdultsCultureData ScienceScience...How much is 1 Kilogram?
Mushroom Cloud Myth | Because Science Footnotes
AdultsData ScienceMathScienceKyle debunks the Fallout Vault Boy myth, responds to your comments, and more!
Can you solve the Leonardo da Vinci riddle?
AdultsCreativityMathYou've found Leonardo da Vinci's secret vault, secured by a series of combination locks. Fortunately, your treasure map has three codes: 1210, 3211000, and... hmm.
Can Math Explain How Animals Get Their Patterns?
AdultsData ScienceMathNature...How Alan Turing's Reaction-Diffusion Model Simulates Patterns in Nature.
What Is A Paradox?
AdultsMathPhilosophyLanguage...A paradox is a statement that, despite apparently sound reasoning from true premises, leads to an apparently self-contradictory or logically unacceptable conclusion.
The coin flip conundrum - Po-Shen Loh
AdultsHistoryMathProblem-SolvingWhen you flip a coin to make a decision, there's an equal chance of getting heads and tails.
Can you solve the dark coin riddle? - Lisa Winer
AdultsCreativityMathGamingYou heard the travelers' tales, you followed the maps, and now, you've finally located the dungeon containing a stash of ancient coins. The good news: the wizard who owns the castle has generously agreed to let you have the coins. The bad news: he's not quite as generous about letting you leave the dungeon ... unless you solve his puzzle. Can you solve it and get out alive? Lisa Winer shows how.
How to Figure Out the Day of the Week For Any Day Ever
AdultsHistoryMathCreativity...You might think that computers are the only things that run algorithms, but you're wrong. Here's a neat mental trick for calculating the day of the week for any day ever, developed by famous mathematician John H. Conway
A brief history of banned numbers - Alessandra King
AdultsHistoryMathCulture...They say the pen is mightier than the sword, and authorities have often agreed. From outlawed religious tracts and revolutionary manifestos to censored and burned books, we know the potential power of words to overturn the social order. But as strange as it may seem, some numbers have also been considered dangerous enough to ban. Alessandra King details the history behind illegal numbers.
Can you find the next number in this sequence? - Alex Gendler
AdultsCreativityMathScience...1, 11, 21, 1211, 111221. These are the first five elements of a number sequence. Can you figure out what comes next? Alex Gendler reveals the answer and explains how beyond just being a neat puzzle, this type of sequence has practical applications as well.
Check your intuition: The birthday problem - David Knuffke
AdultsMathSocietyEducationImagine a group of people. How big do you think the group would have to be before there's more than a 50% chance that two people in the group have the same birthday? The answer is ... probably lower than you think. David Knuffke explains how the birthday problem exposes our often-poor intuition when it comes to probability.
Can you solve the pirate riddle? - Alex Gendler
AdultsMathPsychologyProblem-Solving...It's a good day to be a pirate. Amaro and his four mateys - Bart, Charlotte, Daniel, and Eliza have struck gold - a chest with 100 coins. But now, they must divvy up the booty according to the pirate code - and pirate code is notoriously complicated. Can you help come up with the distribution that Amaro should propose to make sure he lives to tell the tale? Alex Gendler shows how.