A conversation about mathematics inspired by a low bridge sign. Presented by Katie Steckles and Peter Rowlett, with special guest Adam Townsend.
The plot discussed around 11 minutes and various other photos are available on Adam’s Height Hunt website (spoilers for the episode’s twists and turns!).
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A truly inspiring talk ;-)
This project — and Ben’s inspired follow-up — are my favourite-ever MathsJam talks. Genuinely ridiculous levels of commitment. Chapeau!
Delightful episode! There can’t be too many people who would dive in to the level of detail that Mr. Townsend did! We are thankful, though, that Newton wasn’t distracted by street signs during the London Plague .
I’m always intrigued by quirky rounding results when converting between units. In the U.S., for example, we use $98.6^\circ F$ as body temperature, suggesting quite a bit of unwarranted precision ($\pm 0.1^\circ F$?!?). I have wondered if this value is used because it has been converted from $37^\circ C$ which seems to have $\pm 1^\circ C$ degree. That is, the value is converted but not the implicit precision.
Finally, while I’ve talked about mirrors at right angles in my Geo classes, and I often bring people into my bathroom where I happen to have a pair, I’ve never heard the term “retroreflective”. There’s great fun there!
Thank you all!