On the Children in Need special episode of Qi one of the topics covered was Bertrand Russell‘s work on Principia Mathematica and particularly the proof that 1+1=2. Although a lot of the discussion was frivolous, it did contain some nice comments (the proof described as “an extraordinary achievment” and Russell described as “a remarkable man” and “one of the greatest and most towering intellectual heroes you could ever worship” by Stephen Fry, who I have heard people refer to in similar terms himself). And it contained this wonderful rant from David Mitchell, on the subject of proving 1+1=2:

It’s a bit late, the 20th C., to prove that, I’d say. You’ve got quite a lot riding, by the 20th C., on 1+1 being 2. There’s quite a lot of engineering happening, quite a complex international economy. If you find out that it doesn’t equal two, what do we do? Just burn everything because God knows, anything could fall on our heads, money – you might as well eat it, forget civilisation!

You can view this episode temporarily on the BBC iPlayer (I’d recommend the whole show but if it’s not to your tastes the maths bit starts about 23 minutes in). And you can make a donation to Children in Need here if you didn’t get a chance yet. Happily, they Pudsey himself travelled to Nottingham Railway Station on Friday morning so I was able to throw some change in his bucket. I was on my way to London so he needn’t have bothered, really, he could have met me at St. Pancras.