A Problem Squared

In this very special episode, live from Blue Dot Festival...   * How many astronauts does it take to change a light bulb?   * What is the most environmentally friendly way to launch an object into space?   * And APS are live for the first time at Blue Dot Festival!    A huge thank you all the contributors that helped make this episode happen;   To Professor Steven Lockley from Harvard. You can find more about his contributions to sleep in space here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0094576512001336   If you want to find out about Circadian Rhythms on Earth, have a listen to Episode 026: ‘Sliding on Snow and Skipping on Sleep’.   To Trent Burton from Cosmic Shambles who helped us get in touch with Tim Peak. You can listen to their incredible selection of podcasts here: https://cosmicshambles.com/podcasts/   And of course, to Sarah Bennetto for booking us! You can find her on Twitter here, she's very funny:  https://twitter.com/sarahbennetto?s=20&t=mf8AoKcmvUXVbHw2YQAoQA   As always, if you've got a problem or a solution, hit us up on aproblemsquared.com.   And if you want want even more from A Problem Squared (and who doesn't) find us on Twitter and Instagram.

1 Aug 202241min

In this episode...   * Can you guess 5 unique words with unique letters in Wordle?   * How do you get out of your head and into the scene in improv?   * And any other Cheesness.   Here's the dictionary text file Matt started with for his problem. It contains 370,000 words: https://github.com/dwyl/english-words   A huge thank you to everyone who helped with Bec's dinglett.   Alex Holland at the Free Association - this is where Bec did her improv course, and you can find details about that here: https://thefreeassociation.co.uk.   David Reed, his play Guy Fawkes will be showing at the York Theatre from October:https://www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/show/guy-fawkes/.   Also to Rachel Pariss, you can find her on 'The Latenight Mash' with Nish Kumar or here on Twitter: https://tinyurl.com/33emshys   And the brilliant Josie Lawrence. You can find more about her on twitter too: https://tinyurl.com/JosieLawrence   As always, if you've got a problem or a solution, hit us up on aproblemsquared.com.   And if you want want even more from A Problem Squared (and who doesn't) find us on Twitter and Instagram.

18 Jul 202255min

In this episode...   * When does a high five become a low five?   * What is the most efficient digital display?   * And, some any other beesness   Just 18 more sleeps until APS is LIVE at Bluedot - that's between 19:45 - 20:45 on Friday the 22nd July.   Please send in your Bluedot specific questions to the Problem Solving Page including the phrase 'Bluedot'.   You can do this on Twitter too, but it might get lost!   A big shout out to Mr Thing, just because they are fantastic. You can find them on Twitter: @wearemrthing or on their website here: https://www.wearething.co.uk/.   You can also see them at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Fest, and buy tickets for that here: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/mr-thing-show.   As always, if you've got a problem or a solution, hit us up on our website aproblemsquared.com.   And if you want want even more from A Problem Squared, find us on Twitter and Instagram.

4 Jul 202247min

In this episode:  Can you create an order from a numbered menu that is always comprehensible to the server? When someone is behind you as you open a door, what is the polite distance to wait for them?  And, the cards are on the table.  As always, if you've got a problem or a solution, hit us up on our website aproblemsquared.com.    Please send in your Blue Dot problems, and we may just solve it live on stage. Just post your problem with the tag 'Blue Dot' to aproblemsquared.com - Do it now!   If you want to come and see us at Blue Dot, you can catch us on Friday, and can buy tickets here: https://tinyurl.com/BlueDotTickets You can find more about Emma Haruka Iwao's record breaking Pi calculation here: https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/compute/calculating-100-trillion-digits-of-pi-on-google-cloud  And, of course, if you want want more from A Problem Squared, come find us on Twitter and Instagram.

20 Jun 202256min

In THIS episode...   * How long would it take us to eat the moon if it was made of cheese?   * If you shot and dropped a bullet at exactly the same time, they would hit the ground simultaneously?   * And Bec and Matt give thanks.   As always, if you've got a problem or a solution, hit us up on our website aproblemsquared.com. And if you want want even more from A Problem Squared, find us on Twitter and Instagram.

6 Jun 202241min

In this episode...   * How related are you to a Harbour seal?    * Bec gives some novel advice.    * Matt mends a mistake.    * And there's all sorts of AOB.    If you want to bid on the £5,000 t-shirt referenced in 006 of A Problem Squared, join us on the 26th of May, 2022! All proceeds go to Water Aid - links to come.    Bec's new book 'Now LiveScreaming' is out now! Go buy it!   You can find Yale's incredible evolutionary and ecological chat here: https://vertlife.org/ And just a little recap, seals are in the Mammalian order Carnivora. Humans are in the Mammalian order Primates - 82.1 millions years ago the 'magnorder' of Boreoeutheria split into Euarchontoglires (which later gave us Primates) and Laurasiatheria (which gave us Carnivora).   Bec also references ‘On Writing’ by Stephen King in her dinglett.

23 Mai 202244min

In this episode:   * Can you alter the smell of your farts based on what you eat?   * When does a computer become a supercomputer?   * And, Any AOB!   A huge thank you to Dr Jess Biesiekierski, you can find them at @jessbersa and @monashnutrition on Twitter, Dr Dr CK Yao, find them at @yao_ck on Twitter and of course, Gareth Turkington , @G_Turkington on Twitter, @gareth.turkington on Insta, who created, sung and recorded the fantastic “Fart Life”.   If you want to find out more about pop-off related research referenced by Dr Jess, Dr CK and Bec, please have a look at the papers below:   - Gas profiling study: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19490976.2018.1451280 - Protein fermentation: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26527169/ - Co-supplementation in IBS: https://bit.ly/3M1FnPo - Charcoal cushion study: htt<span data-off

9 Mai 202245min

On this episode...   * How many molehills would you need to make a mountain out of them?    * How do you find friends?   * Matt revisits some mistaken maths.    Don't forget to send in your Blue Dot Festival problems to us on the website below - we might just do it live! And, as always, if you've got a problem or a solution, hit us up on aproblemsquared.com.   And if you want want even more from A Problem Squared (who doesn't) find us on Twitter and Instagram.

25 Apr 202240min