A Problem Squared - 054 = Sparkling Wines and Marking Lines

Episode Date: February 27, 2023

In this episode... Can a spoon keep open champagne fizzy? Are two minimalist rulers more effective than one 30cm ruler? There's some Any Other Bubbness.  And, you're cordially invited to the Royal Society! If you'd like to watch Matt on a very fast motorbike, have a look at this! You can find 'Rapid Motion Through Space: An Incomplete History of Speed' here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYDdHSXRQro&embeds_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fcosmicshambles.com%2F&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE&feature=emb_title&themeRefresh=1   We want YOU for the 2022 Zeeman presentation! Come cheer on Matt getting his award at Royal Academy in London on the 22nd of March: 'Can we get a DING!?' You can find details on how to attend that here: https://ima.org.uk/21241/ima-lms-christopher-zeeman-lecture-and-medal-presentation/   If you've got a problem or a solution, hit us up on our website aproblemsquared.com.   You can get your DING' t-shirts here https://a-problem-squared.teemill.com.   If you'd like to find out which Muppet YOU are, just speed ahead of Matt and Bec and find that out here: https://www.buzzfeed.com/jenlewis/which-muppet-are-you   And if you want want even more from A Problem Squared, find us on Twitter and Instagram.

Hello and welcome to APS. Problem Squared. Excellent. The podcast where we S-Y-P. Solve your problems. Solve your problems. Solve your problems. I was like, sew your pants. I mean, that's a problem we could be solving.

I need to clarify that Matt has decided to use acronyms that he has not run past me before this. Correct. Correct. So I'm doing a good job. That would make things less efficient. If I R, T, T, P, Y, F. Read the...

I've forgotten all the letters already. These things are not written down either, so Becca's got to memorize, ran them past you first. Anyway, I am MP. Matt Parker. Excellent. I wasn't sure if I was going to get my actual... Yeah, I was about to say, yeah.

And I'm joined by BH. Buckingham Hallas. That's the Buckingham Hallas. Becca. Becca. Oingham Halas. That's Buckingham Halas. Beckham. Beckham. OTE. On this episode, we'll be looking at whether spoons can keep

bubbles bubbly. I will be measuring some rulers. And there's some any other business. I didn't use the acronym. The one time. A-O-B. Any other business. I didn't use the acronym. Oh. The one time. A-O-B. Any other bubbles. I'm going to say that was deliberate.

Bec, how have you been? Good. We're back in the office. Yes. We're both back in the same country. Yeah. Not the same country we were in when we were last. Last time we were in the same country. Yeah. We're same country we were in when we were last. Last time we were in the same country.

Yeah. We're in the same different country. We're in the UK, baby. And we have producer Lauren in the room with us. It's been a while. She's smiled. She smiled. As a podcast producer, you'd think she'd understand the importance of sound on an audio medium.

I think she understands how wrong things can go if you've got a microphone in front of you. She's watching and learning. So yeah, other than the obvious joy of being here with us again. Yeah. And being one podcast recording away from a game of bar billiards. How are you doing? BB. Little BB.

I'm good. Actually, you might remember that I texted you when I was in Australia to say that I was seeing you getting a tattoo. Oh, you did? And I was going to get a triangle to represent a play button. I was your triangle consultant. Yep. And I wasn't sure whether to get an isosceles or an equilateral. A lot of choices in the triangle world.

So, yeah, you were saying how majority of play buttons are equilateral. But I was like, oh, I definitely remember them being isosceles yeah because what i did for you is i i looked at the emojis that have play buttons on in a bunch of different systems yeah to see how they're rendered to analyze the triangles yeah yeah so it's because i wanted something that denotes play and playfulness so i thought play button made sense but also the idea came to me when i was with uh two of my oldest school friends amy and elise and we're like oh it's a triangle that represents three of us as well it's nice all three of us got one yeah wow and we're all equal which is why it's an equal triangle yeah yeah good work long story short got a tattoo of an equilateral triangle i just liked the uh i like the fact that it's equal on all three sides.

There's something very pleasing about that. That's it? Oh, look at that. That's great. I'll take a photo. Nice equilateral triangle. Yeah, he did real well. It's a very fine line one.

But you can twist your wrist and make it scalene. I can make it. There you go. There's my sauce glaze now. That's great. Actually, speaking of tattoos and other related Midlife crisis things I will say that I've used the term I'm having a midlife crisis earlier

So I'm not offended by that But I am slightly offended that you've said that Without me saying it to you I was like she's not going to be offended by this No well I got a brand new pair of motorbike gloves Do you own a motorbike? I do not own a motorbike Are you planning on getting a motorbike?

I am not planning on getting a motorbike Why motorbike gloves? Because I went on the motorbike once Because I would have talked about it on the immediate podcast Yeah But I wasn't allowed to You have told me, and I think you may have mentioned it on I'm a Wizard Right, okay, because it's recently become

but now it's embargoed yes i'm allowed to talk about this now yes i went on a motorbike because it was filmed they put me on a motorbike and filmed me for a documentary um that was released quite recently it's called rapid motion through space it's like a history of speed made by our fine people at cosmic shambles as in the themic Shambles Network. As in the speed, not the drug. As in the velocity, yes. As in the change in distance over time. Although they explored many different interpretations of speed. Did they include the film?

They did not. What a waste. As part of the documentary, there were two things they wanted that were seemingly separate, but both fell on me. One was they wanted someone to talk about the mathematics of speed, like velocity and derivatives of location. And separately, they wanted to put someone on a very fast motorbike. So you've obviously got Formula One, which is very fast cars.

Yes. And then you've got MotoGP, which is very fast motorbikes. Or a game on Sega. Exactly. And actually, they made me play the most recent MotoGP game first on like a PlayStation or something. Fantastic. Before they put me on the actual bike. And how were you?

It did not help. No help whatsoever. So it's around Silverstone. So it's still around like the proper racetrack. And it's not just me on the bike by myself. No. It's one of the X race bikes. I think it's the 2012 Ducati bike, which they've altered to make the seat a little bit bigger.

And I want to stress, not a lot bigger. Just enough to fit two people on it. Wow. And they put two tiny handles in the fuel tank. Sounds safe. Yeah, exactly. What they do is they put a terrifying and small Italian man on the front. Wait, I'm going to say someone who can ride a motorbike.

I think that's implied. Or is it just they need to be small and italian top priorities that was on the motor gp right a third and then they put me on the back and i kind of hug the terrifying italian man by holding onto the um two little handles and then they do a lap, one lap. You only get one lap. And like when they said you get one lap, I was like, just one lap? All this effort for one lap? Two corners in. I was like, I'm good. Let me off now. That's fine.

That's enough. So I had my phone logging all my data as I went around the lap. I hit 72.25 meters per second, top velocity according to my phone. That is a lot of meters in a second. That is a lot of meters in a second. That's a lot of meters in a second. Think of something that's 72 and a quarter meters away and you're there a second later. Yep.

Oh, well, you know, if you're on a plane. Commonly referred to as 260 kilometers an hour. Or 160 miles an hour. That's a very. That's a spicy spot. So, and the only thing holding me on with these gloves, it's not like you're strapped in or anything. And your arms.

Yes, yeah, but they were very much the backup to the hands. So you just hold on to this thing. And you know your intrusive thoughts, you're going around, my brain's like, you can just let go. I hate that. And then my brain's like, you know what, if you get tired of holding on, same thing's going to happen. Like, if you let go, it very much felt like the before

in there's going to be some accident one day, and then the after where people are saying, can you believe we used to just put people on the back of MotoGP bikes and send them around? How on earth did that ever happen? Yeah, they'd be like, wait, hang on, that guy's just holding on? Yeah, you just get a random wait, hang on. That guy's just holding on?

Yeah, you just get a random person off the street and assume they can hold on for long enough. Is there a G-force, like a way of calculating the G-force of that speed? It was substantial. G-force would be like the cornering. The cornering is terrifying because the bike is basically sideways. Yeah, I was going to say. You're just looking at the road going, why I should not be this close to the road.

This is right next to my whole side. Everything I thought I knew about friction was a lie. There's no way. Physics. The bike defies physics. Ghosts were carrying you. That's how it works. Yeah, 100%.

Yeah. Yeah. Most ridiculous thing I've done in my life. But my problem for the listeners, I found an app that kind of dumped all the sensors, all the data into one big csv one big spreadsheet and the uh like the speed and the location is done every second which is why i can say i got to 72 and a quarter meters per second because i just went through the secondly data i really want to know the exact shape of the acceleration as i went around and i want to be able to do higher

derivatives because the rate of change of acceleration is jerk and the rate of change of jerk is snap. So I want to know, did I experience jerk? Yes. Was there any snap? Was there crackle or pop? Actual names of the other derivatives. But I'm not good enough at analyzing data from phone sensors

because it's complicated stuff. I just want to pause for a moment and say any new listeners, if you went, oh, you had me until that moment, I'm with you. I have no idea what Matt just asked, but I am aware that some of our listeners do. The people I'm talking to. They'll be the ones that provide the answers. I'm going to make a YouTube video about this. So I've got the 60 Hertz data from all the accelerometers, all the angles, the works,

but it's very hard to disentangle gravity from like just me moving on the bike. Yeah. Was your phone just like in your pocket? I strapped it to my leg. Yes. No pockets. So if anyone out there thinks they could help, I want to get all the phone data I've got and I want a detailed plot of my exact out of mind acceleration velocity something so I can then do all the other derivatives. So if you want to go to the problem posing page at a problem square dot com, select solution and let me know that you think you might be able to work with that data. Let me know.

And if you have no idea what Matt's talking about, just give yourself a little hug from me. It's okay. And that's us going like, yeah. Just hold on. We're here together. Just grip the handles, don't let go. Just hold on.

Our first problem this episode is from Sophie via a long, complicated podcast route that you'll explain in a moment. But the problem is, from Sophie, does dangling a spoon in the top of open champagne really keep it fizzy? And if so, why? Yeah. Why? Well, first of all, I'll explain where this problem comes from. Because normally they come from our problem posing page at problemsquared.com.

Yeah. Well, this is actually an outsourced problem from another podcast. Oh, we're taking overflow problems. That's right. Yeah. How many podcasts are in the problem solving space? Surprisingly, quite a lot. The PSS, they call it.

They do, don't they? Down at the Y. So I did Jordan Gray's podcast, Transplating with Jordan Gray, and Jordan answers a big and small problem from a guest. And then at the end of the episode, some listeners send in smaller problems or questions, I should say, to Jordan, and she and her guests try and solve them together. And this question came in. Jordan and her co-host on that episode, Tanya Moore, they were umming and ahhing about the answer to this question.

I said, oh, if this was a problem squared, we would use this as the perfect opportunity to drink a bunch of bubbly and do it as an experiment. would use this as the perfect opportunity to drink a bunch of get some booze yeah drink a bunch of bubbly and and do it as an experiment bubbly exactly this was great because you rang me up explained that and i was a bit shocked because not that long ago i was at a dinner with my wife and a bunch of her kind of colleagues her ast astro colleagues. That's what they're called. The ACs. Yeah, and that's them. And one of them mentioned this.

No one could go and do any research. It was just a bunch of discussion. And a lot of people saying, well, there's no mechanism. How on earth would that work? But there are other people saying that they're pretty convinced it works, even despite the lack of mechanism. So you rang me and I'm like, what a quinky drink. I'm ready to go.

You've set it up. I have. Yeah. Under your guidance. So what I've done, bought four bottles of sparkling wine. Yes. They're in the fridge in the downstairs kitchen in my office as we speak. And at 10 p.m. last night, I opened three of them and removed 200 milliliters of sparkling wine

from each that was correctly disposed of and one of them i just put back in the fridge just wide open not a care in the world another one i put a proper stopper on it like one of these clamping uh sparkling wine stops and the third one i put the spoon in it yeah the one of these clamping sparkling wine glasses. And the third one, I put the spoon in it. Yep. The back of the fridge. And I kept one unopened. So we've also got a- Optimal amount of, like that's brand new sparkling.

We've also got opened and resealed sparkling. And we've got the worst case scenario, just opened and left. Yes. Now there's three of us here. Yeah. We can try them. But the ultimate test would be if we don't know which one's which in advance. Yes. Now, there's three of us here. Yeah. We can try them. But the ultimate test would be if we don't know which one's which in advance. Yes.

Because everyone just has to rank them in order of bubbliness. That's true. I think that's what we're going to do. What I'm going to do is shuffle. We might even get some cards, make this proper random. Shuffle four cards, and I'm going to go downstairs, make sure the bottles are indistinguishable so they're all open the same, And then I'm going to put them in that random shuffled order and number them one to four. Right. I'm then going to bring them up and put them on the table here. I know which one's

which from one to four. And I'll write that down. So one is whatever, two is whatever. You're then going to shuffle A, B, C, and D. And then when I'm not looking, you're going to label them A, B, C, D, and remember the order. So you don't know which is what A label them A, B, C, D and remember the order. So you don't know which is what A is, what B is, what C is, what D is. But I also don't know because I don't know what order you put them on originally. Sure. So, okay. Anyway, I'm going to go get the booze and bring it up here. I love that this is my problem to solve, but you've just made that infinitely more confusing.

I'm just actioning your requests and i'm back okay so i'm looking at now four bottles labeled dcab and i don't know which is which and you don't know which is which and you don't know which is which nope so now we're going to rank them by most bubbly to least bubbly yep Yep. All right. Should we do 50 mil at a time just to save us? No. No. No deal. Yeah, we should.

Well, we are celebrating a million downloads. That's true. Yeah, that is another reason to do this. This is a scientific way of. We've got so many excuses for these drinks. Yeah. All right. Okay.

Oh, I'm first, am I? Oh, look at that one. What could that be? Pouring that. There were not a huge amount of bubbles coming out. And which one are you pouring? Which one's this one? There's letter D.

I've poured more than 100 mils. Okay. Everyone's pouring 111.3 grams. Lauren? Already, Lauren's glass has farmed. Way, way. It's got a head. Look at it go.

She's got a head on hers. Okay. Oh, D has not got a lot of sparkle going on. Yeah, that is not bubbly. That is not bubbly at all. What even is this? It's the finest sparkling wine 10 pounds can buy. Right.

I just poured myself a B, and there's more foam on it. I'm going to go for the A. Quite a lot of foam on the A. Lots of bubbles coming up from the bottom. I don't know if you were about to burp or what. The first one was so unbubbly. Oh, you just slammed it back. It all fizzed up in my throat.

You were caught unaware. but it all fizzed up in my throat. And my throat didn't know whether it was liquid or air. Do I breathe? Guys, we thought it was a drink, but it's gas. It just opened all the holes. I think I just, I think, oh, yeah, I've just mainlined that straight into my system now. For people who are wondering what's happening at home, Beck's doing that thing.

It looks like when you put something in your mouth that's too hot. Except it's a cross between that and gargling. It's very bubbly this one. So A is the one that you're thinking is bubble tan. Yeah, I'm now doing that. I am rinsing it like mouthwash to get rid of the bubbles so that I can swallow it. I can get a spittoon for you if you want to. Probably not a bad idea. A is brightly.

I assume other people have done this experiment. Yeah, there have been scientific dissertations on this. Oh, really? Scientists. Yeah, there was a Champagne researcher. Is it just a really good researcher? It's only researchers who grew up in it.

We all know everyone do the joke. Gerard Léger-Belair, who wrote a book called Uncorked, The Science of Champagne. They demonstrated the amount of carbon dioxide loss depends on the way the wine is poured into the glass. So pouring into a tilted glass retains more carbon dioxide than pouring into a vertical glass. Makes sense.

And using bubble imaging techniques. Bubble imaging techniques. Liger-Boller was able to track the flow of the bubbles in a glass. I'm reading this directly from a Guardian article. I should say this is very well worded and not my own reading. Gotcha. Yeah. This is by Jeff Scullery for The Conversation.

Gotcha. The release of bubbles even depends on the inside surface of the glass. Yeah. Now, this is good because originally when we were going to do this test, it turned out you only had plastic champagne flutes. Yeah, to have a sufficient of the same type. Yeah. And I refused to let us use normal glasses.

You were like, I was like, no. Because we've got a real any glass goes attitude at home. So I actually drink the bulk of my sparkling wine from tumblers okay stop talking the mouthful of sparkling but this is interesting yep there was a study on champagne by michelle valade and colleagues it was published by the periodical Le Vendron Champenois in 1994. I'm so sorry to any French-speaking listeners as well. The work, titled Le Mythe de la Petite Colliere, The Myth of the Teaspoon, was designed to address the claim

that a teaspoon, preferably a silver one, could, according to my translation, defy all the laws of physics and possess some legendary efficiency to protect the bubbles from escaping from an open bottle. The researchers used three strategies to assess the impact of bubble conservation on the wine, the change in pressure, the loss of weight, and sensory analysis, which is what we're doing, the sensory analysis. Yeah, because what you really want to do is something that measures the pressure from

the residual gas. Weight's interesting, because I guess if there's dissolved carbon dioxide, there's slightly more mass in the drink. One is definitely not sparkly. The first one we tried. D, D is definitely. No, you're right. What's interesting is D is terrible, A is amazing,

and B and C are neck and neck. I don't know how people drink really bubbly champagne. I don't know. How do you bubbly champagne. I don't know. How do you do it? Do you just swallow it with all the bubbles in it? The trick is you take a shot of cava. And then you're drinking the air. No, no, no.

You drink the sparkling wine. You swallow the wine and you breathe the bubbles out your nose. You breathe the bubbles out your nose? No, it's a very straightforward process. you breathe the bubbles no he's a very straightforward process i had you until very straightforward process i was like wait have i been drinking this is this would make a great uh clickbait article is you've been drinking sparkling wine wrong so in the research done in that 1994 article the wines were open decanted leaving

500 millimeters in one set and 250 millimeters in second set. The wines were then stored at 12 with four methods to conserve the bubbles. Open bottle, silver teaspoon, stainless steel teaspoon. Oh. I guess just to see if there's a difference between that. Cork stopper, which uses a hermetic seal. And crown seal, a metal lid with crimped edges like you often see on a beer bottle.

So we did something very similar i did look up if the type of spoon makes a difference and at least in the uk and the sites i searched there was no mention of what metal because i did think maybe it's like silver or something so we're using a stainless steel spoon so if if the spoon works and we don't know why it still works but i can't i mean you could argue maybe there's some fluid dynamics reason why it changes the flow or disrupts or increases the turbulence of a slow moving fluid of gas coming out like Yeah. I could hand wave my- But then by that stage, the gas has already left. Well-

Because surely it's a pressure thing. When you put it away, you want to stop. Because when you put the stopper on, what you're doing is you're increasing the pressure in the gas above the liquid to the point where- The bubbles in the liquid stay there. Yeah, they stay there. Because the rate at which it comes out depends on the pressure of the gas above it. And technically, and this is me trying to just hand wave

a plausible explanation, if there's no spoon, there's a continuous smooth cylinder that gas can work its way up and out. Maybe the spoon introduces vortices that roll back down or disrupts the flow slightly such that it degasses at a slower rate compared to no spoon i mean i'm not convinced by that but having an object choking or interrupting a pipe with fluid moving through it does change the dynamics of the fluid flow yeah like if you were to put your thumb over the end of a hose. Yeah.

Or even the old school choke on a car was moving something in the centre of a pipe to change the flow rate. So obstructions in a pipe do change flow rate. But I feel like the flow is so slow it's not going to make a significant difference. Yeah. And then maybe the metal is like well because it conducts temperature better than the glass something about the transfer of heat

energy changes the movement of the gas or the and also if things are colder carbon dioxide is more soluble so potentially the spoon somehow alters the cooling or heating rate that changes the solubility. Again, I'm not convinced, but I can hand wave a terrible explanation. Yeah, I'm enjoying this. Yeah. Probably because I've had several glasses. But that doesn't hurt. Now, soluble, I would think that that means the bubbles break down more quickly.

No, soluble as in they don't become bubbles in the first place. So soluble means it's like as you heat water up, salt becomes more soluble. You can dissolve more salt or more sugar into hot water than you can cold water. Yep. With carbon dioxide, it's the other way around. If the water is colder, you can dissolve more carbon dioxide into it. Oh, so the bubbles go into it in the first place. Yeah, they stay in the liquid.

Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like if you were to freeze something with bubbles in it really fast, the bubbles would stay in it. I mean, correct result, wrong mechanism. I understand. Good, good, good. We are, you and I, Lauren, how do you feel?

Are we in agreeance that, good. We are, you and I, Lauren, how do you feel? Are we in agreeance that there are three that are, one is definitely not sparkly, the first one we tried. D, D is definitely. No, you're right. What's interesting is D is terrible, A is amazing, and B and C are neck and neck. Can you give me, without me looking, B and C and these,

and just remember which is which. Yep. I want to look at them side by side. Left has more bubbles, but that could be the glass and the nucleation points. I mean, the headline is, I would drink either one. So if the argument is, how do you keep it so you drink it the next day? Either of these is arguably sufficient. I would say left is slightly better okay just it's got more sparkle to it like there's more bubbles and left there that's definitely more carbonated okay okay so which is which b for bubbles i think

absolutely a is amazing b and c are, but B is better than C. Yeah, in bodilyness. Can't be there in alphabetical order. And D is the worst. And for the record, we have sub-double-blinded a bunch of head-to-heads. Yeah, so we've done B versus C. A versus B. I'm very confident in that.

Yeah. Honestly, I thought there would be a clear A. I thought there would be a very clear most sparkling. Yeah. I thought there would be two neck and necks at the bottom. Yeah. And then another one that's almost as sparkling as the best one. Yeah, me too.

And that's not what's happened. No. There's a clear best one. Mm-hmm. B and C are neck and neck. So whatever we did for B and C is roughly equivalent, but B is slightly better than C. And whatever we did for bottle D is just terrible.

Yeah. Shall we find out which is which? Yeah. Now I think we're all in agreeance that A is probably the one that was just opened. Absolute agreement. A is just opened. B is probably the one with the stopper the official

but it's so close to c yeah but yeah but we all did agree i think we think b is probably the closest yeah c i guess had the teaspoon in it i mean because arguably being opened having 200 mils out and resealed there's just more gas yeah which is more volume to pressurize. Yeah. So it's not going to be as good as A. No. I agree with B. What I can't get my head around is either the spoon or open being so close to stopper. Yeah, and we think that D is the one that had nothing in it.

D is terrible. Whatever was D, the worst. Yeah. I mean, what a twist would it be if that was the one with teaspoon if it turns out it makes it i don't know yeah it either turns out that the spoon somehow makes it worse yeah or it makes it better which uh terrifies me yeah oh my goodness okay so here's what's gonna happen you. You're going to say that... Let's do A first. You say which number A is and I'll tell you which bottle that was. Okay.

Okay. You ready? Yeah. A was number four. Number four was the brand new bottle. Yeah. We called it. Yeah, we called it. We called it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. B? B. Was number three. No. Yeah. That's the spoon. B. Was number three. No. Yeah. That's the spoon. No.

What? What? No. No. Oh, no. What was C? What was C? C was number two.

That's the stopper. At least D being number one fits. Number one was open. Nothing. No. That's outrageous. The spoon works. The spoon was neck and neck, if not better than putting the stopper on it.

I feel like that can't. No, that can better than putting the stopper on it. I feel like that can't. No, that can't be right. Did I do it right? I mean, how could I have done it wrong? Have you got the photo? Yeah. Show us the photo.

D, C, B. Yeah. Yeah. Well. That blows my mind. Listener. And we were sober when we did that bit. I'm genuinely stunned.

Now, the only thing is, is that we only had it like that overnight. You put it in the fridge about 10 or 12. So I put them in 10 p.m. I got all the bottles. I opened three of them simultaneously at 10 p.m. I poured 200 ml out of each of them. Yeah. And then I put a spoon in one I put a stopper on another one

I did nothing to the third Put them all in the same fridge 10pm You sent me a photo Then 20 and a half hours later I went downstairs I opened the new one Took the spoon out

Took the stopper off Made sure that the foil looked similar enough I couldn't tell the difference, brought them up. But I suspect that say you had a bottle and you were keeping it up more than 24 hours over several nights. I think you would then notice the difference between the stopper and the teaspoon. But it was so stark. The difference between open with no spoon and spoon was already super distinct. Yeah. Like I'm willing to suggest that maybe the one that had the teaspoon just happened to be more bubbly.

Yeah. Now, the following things are possible because we've only done it once. Maybe not all bottles of Cremon de whatever's are born equal. Yeah. And just depending on how much sugars in each one when it bottle ferments or whatever they do. Yeah. The carbonation starting could be different. We then had to bring them from my house to the office.

Yeah. We put them all in a cool box, carried them down very carefully. Even the sealed one was in the same cool box for completeness. Yeah. down very carefully or in the same, even the sealed one was in the same cool box for completeness. Yeah. Maybe the position in the cool box changed. And I carried them real careful, but maybe I accidentally agitated one

corner of the cool box more than another. Yeah. Or maybe. Unlikely. Just maybe. The spoon did something. This is proof of an assimilation. This is proof run assimilation. This is the worst.

In the programming, there's a glitch. Okay. So now two things have to happen now. Number one, people have to try their own experiments at home and let us know what happens. If you do the experiment at home, go to the problem posing page at ourproblemsquared.com, the drop-down menu, pick solution, because what is sparkling wine if not a solution? And then give us the results of your experiment.

Ah, so annoying. I'm both excited. Yeah. Because that's a result that contradicts my hypothesis. Yeah, I don't understand how the spoon made a difference between the flat one. But, and it could be a quirk, it could be just a random fluctuation in the data, but that definitely requires further investigation.

Wow. So unfortunately, we can't ding this. Ah, because we didn't do the ding. We dinged the glasses. We got the sound effect. We've never been so well equipped to ding something. We we didn't do the ding. We dinged the glasses. We got the sound effect. We've never been so well equipped to ding something. We were like, that sounds great. We can use that when we ding this problem.

And it ended up being surprisingly. But I'll tell you what. I'm drowning my sorrows. We're just going to have to use that sound effect elsewhere in the episode. Matt. Yep. Have you got a little dinglet problem for me? Oh, I do.

My dinglet's still working, but we'll give it. Okay, from the top. No, no, keep that. No, we're not keeping that in. Keep it, keep it, keep it. Anyway, okay. So I just wanted to do some market research. I've actually got a problem you can help me with.

I've been working on a product, and I thought I'd show it to you. It's in early prototype stage. Yep. And you can give me some feedback. Okay. So here I've got a standard ruler. Yes. It's awful. Like it's just busy. There's a lot going on. Yeah. 30 centimeters, but they're all marked and there's notches everywhere. Yeah. I thought, wouldn't it be nice if you have a minimalist ruler experience? Here's the replacement to your 30-centimeter ruler. And you just saw me run around and make these. After the sparkling wine tasting, it's a single 18-centimeter ruler. Okay.

And a single 12-centimeter ruler. So here you are. Okay, thank you. That's my new product. Thank you. It And a single 12 centimeter ruler. So here you are. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. It's a minimalist pair of rulers. With these rulers, you've only marked. Yep.

Zero to 12. I'm guessing that's centimeters. Yep. And then you've got four and 10. Yes. There's only two notches. So that whole card is 12 centimeters long. Yeah.

But I've just labeled it in case we forget. Yeah, sure. And there are now two notches in the middle whole card is 12 centimeters long. Yeah. But I've just labeled it in case we forget. Yeah, sure. And there are now two notches in the middle, one at four and one at 10. So if you gave me the smaller one, it would just say four and 10. Yeah. And I just have to know that, I mean, everyone knows that the beginning is zero. The beginning is zero. I wrote it on for completeness.

But I just need to know that this is a 12 centimeter ruler. It's a 12 centimeter ruler. But 12 isn't written on there. No, all I've labeled is- Four and 10. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then on this other one. Yep.

18 centimeter ruler. This is an 18 centimeter ruler. Yep. The only thing that's on there is 17. Isn't that great? A single notch. How pleasing and minimalist is that ruler? I don't like it.

Why not? It makes life hard. What do you mean? Those two rulers can measure every distance between 1 and 30. Okay. So if you want to measure 1, you've got the end of the 18 centimeters because you mark 17. Sure.

Yep. Okay. Yep. Yep. Okay. If you want to measure 2. Between 10 and 12. Yeah, exactly.

And 3. So I need two rulers for this. I can't use one ruler. Correct. want to measure two. Between 10 and 12. Yeah, exactly. And three. So I need two rulers for this. I can't use one ruler. Correct. No, two rulers. I mean, you've already doubled the amount of rulers that I need. Yeah, but now they stack. So the whole thing's only 18 centimeters long.

Oh, so I can fit into a small pencil case. I mean, I do have a 15 centimeter ruler that fits in a small pencil case. Yeah, but you can't measure up to 30, can you? If I have two of them, yes. Yeah, but there's so many notches. That's true. I'm trying to get away from the notches. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I want a notch-free experience. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure. So if I want three. Yep. Then you're going to make me add. Yeah, the one and the two. It gives you three.

Oh my gosh. Yep. What do you want? I want four. Zero to four There you go Easy Too easy

It's right there Yeah Five Is Oh my gosh Is it four to ten Take away the Seventeen to eighteen

Nah Yeah yeah yeah The four and the one So seventeen to eighteen Gives you the one And you put it next to the four Yeah Yeah

And six Six is at least four to ten Easy Yeah I don't mind that one And then seven You just put the one On either end of the six And six. Six is at least four to ten. Easy. Yeah. I don't mind that one. And then seven, you just put the one on either end of the six. Yeah.

And they're all there. They're all every single one. Now, sometimes you have to go down. So if you want, let's say, 16, you come one back in from 17, which you can do. Yeah. And every single one, you can line the rulers up in such a way that you can measure everything. So instead of this.

Matt, why bother? Why not just have a one centimetre ruler? Because then you'd have to have 30 of them. You need 30 of them to measure something at once. Yeah, but you can fit it into your pocket. You can put it in a bag. You're basically carrying dice. Oh, let me just line up my 30 tiny, tiny ruler.

I'm sorry, that's so much worse than this. There's only two. You can't lose one. Do you know what? I want a 30 centimeter ruler that folds up accordion style. Okay. Now, folding rulers exist. Like a standard ruler that just folds in half.

Yeah. That's a thing. No, I want one that folds down to one centimeter. Okay, right. That's a different product. You cannot have three notches. Like you're measuring 10 times. There's 10 times more intervals you can measure

than there are notches on those two rulers. Let it be known that I want there to be a Twitter poll when this episode comes out. That's a great product. I want to know whether people were more likely to want your two differently sized, inconveniently notched, or conveniently notched is the way you say it. They're so slick.

Rulers. Yep. Or a 30 centimeter ruler that folds up to one centimeter. It's a real thick ruler. Well, it depends what you made it with. That's a good point. Okay. I would do that on the condition that you make your prototype out of cardboard.

Well, I can do it right now. Exactly. And we'll do side-by-side photos. Okay. And people can decide which is the superior modern ruler innovation. Fantastic. Deal. ruler innovation. Fantastic.

Deal. It's time for AO, AOBB. Don't look at me like that. Any other business. Yeah, any other AOB business. Any other bubbles. Oh, you got some bubness for us. So have

people responded to our bubble v. nubble survey? In episode 052, Piping Hot Baths and Predicting with Graphs, we were talking about whether bubbles make a difference to bath heat. Temperature of a bath, yeah. Is it like a blanket on the bath? Yeah. So the first thing we asked was whether people's coffee preferences meet the amount of bubbles that they have in the bath.

This had nothing to do with the experiment, but it was a question. It was the first time ever we went off on a tangent. Yeah. And decided to answer a different problem. We got a couple of answers that I thought were worthy of reading out. Matthew said, my coffee drink, espresso. My bubble preference, none, never. Matches.

Matches. My bathing podcast preference, a problem squared. Ah. So thanks, Matthew. Hope you're having a lovely bath right now. If Matthew drinks espresso in the bath, that would close the whole loop on that one. Yeah, and they would get incredibly dehydrated. Small price to pay for.

We also had Michael, a fellow Aussie, who said they were listening to the discussion this morning before work. I'm assuming on the way to work and not in the bath. Their preference is a nice hot cappuccino. And in a bath, they want as many bubbles as possible. The more bubbles, the better. And they also agreed that bubble beards make an appearance in every bubble bath they've ever had. That's very funny.

Thanks, Michael. I agree. And we also had one here from an anonymous person they have provided zero information about themselves their bubble preferences getting out and i think the reason is they said i know you said for people who don't like baths or coffee not to bother with the poll we did however i do not care for bubble baths and i don't drink coffee so i think this is the kind of correlation that you're looking for and would fit your poll results is a valid point they're the null case in both

situations yeah we also did run a survey for people to confirm if their preferences align and we had like we had about 49 people say yes yeah we don't know what we should have asked if people didn't but actually do you know to be it does say, because you do get these analytics on Twitter, it did say that it was out of 1,123. It is hard to know if those views were just people scrolling past it. We did not think that survey through. No, we didn't. We're sorry.

That was bad science. Now, I did also put out a call for help, much like your call for help at the beginning of this episode. And I said if anyone, especially in a colder climate, could do the experiment. They have a bath. The bath experiment, not the coffee. They do one without bubbles. One with. One with. Measure the temperature outside, inside, before and after. Zero people have done this experiment. I have absolutely no results

to go from. Thanks for nothing, guys. It's like a million of you. Come on. I mean, we've had people tell us they like baths. Oh, yeah. Thanks. But did they bother doing the experiment?

No. You went to the trouble of writing. Look, I don't want to shame anyone who's written in. You went to the trouble of writing in. People aren't listening to this podcast to do the work themselves. That's fair. Do you know what? That's fair. And now I'm back in a colder climate so i could arguably i can do the experiment now i went into the bbc the other day the bubble bath because the bubble bath convention exactly

exactly you know the one and at the bubble bath convention uh i was in to talk uh on more or less the bbc radio for oh yes both program and podcasts about statistics and i pop up occasionally to chat in this case i was talking about a spreadsheet mistake that had been made but when i walk in the host tim harford the first words out of tim's mouth oh i was just listening to you talk about repeating baths and i was like what just out of nowhere he's like oh no sorry yeah because i mean he does a bunch of he he has got an amazing um podcast called cautionary tales he does all the stuff for the bbc he's like oh yeah of course because he's used to you know you record a lot of things

and i totally forgotten repeating baths was part of that the bubble bath chat yeah but the reason why this becomes more relevant is tim very kindly mentioned a problem squared in the program it's nice to know that tim knows about my bathing experiences yes you know when i was leaving i don't think tim will mind me saying this as well because we were i know tim really well and we're heading out uh the bbc you're gonna kind of get escorted back out of the building and he volunteered well you do i do i do i've stolen a lot of stuff so on the way out uh used to be the bbbbc got a lot of bees so anyway on the way out uh tim walks me out he's like i and he's like oh because he's like i almost said say hi to back for

me he's like because i feel like i know back but i don't know back so i was gonna say tim feels like he knows you and says say hi oh thanks i'm sure you feel like i know too yeah because you listen to his podcast so yeah anyway you're both you've got a what's the like the symmetric version of a parasocial relationship what's the what now there's a parasocial relationship. What's the what now? There's a parasocial relationship, which is where you watch someone in media or YouTube or social media and you develop a relationship with them. Yeah. But they don't have a clue who you are. But you've got complementary parasocial relationships. Do you know what?

That is the next Netflix rom-com, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. We should write that. Yeah. Anyway, back to write that. We should, yeah. Anyway, back to baths. Anyway, yeah. No one helped me with that, but I did get some interesting information from Ken with a double N.

They say, fun fact, in Japan, it's very common to have electronically controlled baths which fill automatically. You select the temperature and water level you want and click a button. They also come with covers so you can keep the heat in while it fills up. Like a pool. You can also time the filling if you're so inclined. On the flip side, they tend to be quite small baths. I thought you were going to say on the flip side it empties. Yeah, there you go.

Wow. Anyway, bath chat. Good, great, great. Any other bathness? Yeah. Back on any other business. We've mentioned this before. I'm going to say it right now.

This is an award winning podcast. What? Well, we've won awards. Have we? Not the podcast. We have. Oh, as in you and I have individually won awards. Yeah.

We've individually won awards. Yeah. And we do the podcast. If we combine them. Therefore, it's an award winning podcast. Yeah. All right. I'll take that.

Yeah. It works for me. And I won an award back in 2020 wow when we had just started this podcast yeah so you know it's still officially the podcast award i think that's what got me over the line yeah yeah so every two years a bunch of math societies get together and hand out something called the zeeman medal which is like the uk prize for mass communication oh and it may not surprise you that's pretty cool yeah guy here locked that in in 2020 oh wow you kept that quiet i feel like that's something you would have mentioned every time we saw each other and this is the first time oh it's because they haven't given me the physical medal if i had that i'd be wearing it around my

neck rubbing it in your face it's a good thing they haven't given it to you. Well, they finally. Oh, no. The pandemic is over, apparently. So there's been another winner. So I was like, why don't we wait for the next winner? Because every two years, 2022 was coming up. Yep. Because originally, like, do you want like an online ceremony? No.

And I was like, that's like the opposite of a prize. Yeah. I was like, let's just wait. We'll wait. The pandemic will be over one day. We'll have the ceremony there. And then I said, I don't mind sharing it with the next winner. The next winner was Simon Singh in 2022, a mass author and broadcaster.

And Simon's like, why don't we have a joint award? I'm like, I've been saying that for two years now. And so they finally organized our joint award. Lovely. And I thought I'd like to invite the listeners of A Problem Squared to the award ceremony. When and where? It's on the 22nd of March. Okay this down everyone get your pens out 22nd of march 2023 just in case you're listening to this like you're in march 2024 and you're like oh there's a link we'll put that in the show notes

is it the royal society oh which is very fancy great uh they've got a bust of my wife so you can play find to realize what you were saying find a bust of my wife. So you can play find. It took me a second to realize what you were saying. Find the bust of my wife. Bust of my wife. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's how they describe it on the tours. Also, a bust of your wife does sound like it's her chest. Yeah.

It's that or I say they got my wife's bust. Torso? Torso. I don't know if that's any better. It is a torso. It is a bust, isn't it? It's also got a head. Yeah.

Yeah. They've got the upper half of my wife minus arms. Slightly bigger than life size. That's so cool. On display. Yeah. Does she have to get the cast and everything for it then? Yeah, she had to go sit for it.

Does she have to do a whole head? I don't like Dipper and Plaster of Paris. No, because I've had my head cast. You have. And they had to cover my entire head in plaster. She sits down and an artist looks at her. Oh, okay. She does several sittings over several days

and the artist makes a sculpture based on my wife. It's good. It's a good sculpture. It's terracotta. It's really nice. So anyway, that's Distraction. It's good. It's a good sculpture. It's terracotta. It's really nice. So anyway, that's Distraction. That's also at the Royal Society. So it's a real two for one.

And Lucy will be there as well. We'll make her stand next to it. She'll hate that immensely. Yeah, great. Yeah. So it's on the 22nd of March in the evening in London. We'll have a link to the website. So it's free to attend, free drinks.

I'm there. I do a talk. Simon Singleton does a talk. You're going to be there. Producer Lauren's going to be free drinks i'm gonna talk something else to talk you're gonna be there producer lauren's gonna be there you can meet the whole gang and it's free to attend but you have to email an rsvp and check there are still seats available ah so uh then you can email in email katherine and say i'd like to come along and they'll let you know if their tickets still available put you on the list and yeah, yeah, in my acceptance speech, I'll name a problem squared. Okay.

And I want everyone who's there from problem squared to say ding. Oh, my gosh, yes. At once. Okay. I'll be like, only problem squared's in. And they'll be like, ding. It's real embarrassing when it's just Lauren and I dinging. Yeah.

In fact, I'll have a word with Lauren and it might just be you. So, no, come along. Don't let Beck be there on her own. Don't let me ding I dinging. Yeah. In fact, I have a word with Lauren. It might just be you. So, no, come along. Don't let Beck be there on her own. Don't let me ding on my own. Yeah. No one likes a lone dinger. Exactly. Thank you very much for listening to A Problem Squared.

And a huge thank you to our Patreon supporters who fund this whole endeavor and all the tax-deductible booze that we use for important science purposes. and all the tax-deductible booze that we use for important science purposes. Now, we like to choose three of our Patreon supporters at random to thank at the end of each episode, which this episode includes... Justin Begley. Julian Freeman. Gavin Saxby. Thank you so much to them and all the other Patreon supporters they represent.

This has been the podcast APS. I've been MP, joined by BH and our producer, LAC. Lauren Armstrong Carter. See you next time. Bye. Becca, I've got a question for you. Go on. I've just looked at the question.

The question is, what are you wearing? And the options are. Do you know what? It would have been creepier if we weren't in the same room I know I know I was like I went oh that's creepy but it could be worse in a really horrible way

oh what are you wearing what are you wearing what are you wearing or say it like a paparazzi but if you're wearing that what are you wearing and I'm wearing this who's wearing the bus

okay so let's just change clothes one day we should are you wearing a frown lipstick you've got nine options here jeans nothing glasses what a reveal i know a mustache a suit a cool hat a t-shirt do you know what i'm not wearing any of those things are you sad that you're not wearing any of those things do you know what no no i could run as a frown we could have got away with that i'm gonna go with t-shirt deal and for any new listeners uh you basically matt is trying to decipher which muppet we are by asking one question per episode we're gonna get there all right all right cool two down

when we get to the end we can post the link so any listeners can compare what muppet they are compared to us oh the link's already in the show notes oh get involved everyone oh i don't want to get ahead of us though well they can start guessing who they think we are they can work out what muppet we are yeah we'll find out in like 10 episodes