Curated Video
Ridiculously Easy Problem That Stumps Mathematicians
Peter Winkler's excellent book "Mathematical Puzzles: A Connoisseur's Collection" states this easy problem is known to frustrate even great mathematicians. Can you figure it out? Cut The Knot...
Gresham College
The Greatest Mathematicians: Isaac Newton - Professor Raymond Flood
A short introduction to Professor Flood’s lecture on Isaac Newton. Though Newton’s work is of foundational importance, very little is said about the man himself. Professor Flood describe Newton as a “suspicious, neurotic and tortured...
Gresham College
The Quantum Mathematician - Professor Chris Budd OBE
Quantum science has been one of the most successful and useful theories ever invented. Indeed quantum technology was added as the ninth of the original eight great technologies. However, quantum mechanics is also, at the same time, one...
Curated Video
Only 18% Of Mathematicians Solved This Tricky Problem
This puzzle went viral in the discrete mathematics community because so many people got it wrong! You roll a fair dice until you get a 6. What is the expected number of rolls, including the roll of 6, conditioned on the event that all...
Curated Video
Mathematicians SOLVED The BEST Way To Play Memory/Concentration (Card Game)
The card game of memory (aka concentration) is a children's game to test visual recall. Strategically you can figure out the best move by doing probability calculations. This video explains the best possible way to play the game...
Curated Video
Why Mathematicians Love 69,720,375,229,712,477,164,533,808,935,312,303,556,800
The number N = 69,720,375,229,712,477,164,533,808,935,312,303,556,800 is special - it is the smallest number that has all numbers 1 to 100 as factors. The puzzle: what is the prime factorization of N? Watch the video for a solution....
Curated Video
Counter-Intuitive Probability Puzzle: Guessing Randomly On A Matching Test
You are given a list of 5 mathematicians and have to match each to the correct birth year. But since you were never taught about these mathematicians, you do not know any of the answers. So you decide to guess randomly by matching the 5...
Gresham College
Fermat's Theorems - Professor Raymond Flood
Gresham Professor of Geometry, Raymond Flood, begins his series 'Great Mathematicians, Great Mathematics' with Pierre de Fermat:http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/fermats-theorems The seventeenth century mathematician Pierre de...
Gresham College
The Most Beautiful Formula in Mathematics - Professor Raymond Flood
In this short introduction to Euler and his work, Professor Raymond Flood talks about Euler’s enormous contribution to mathematics. As well as being one of the most prolific mathematicians of all time, Euler is often regarded as one of...
Curated Video
The 3 Jug Riddle
You have a full 12 liter jug and empty 5 and 8 liter jugs. Can you measure exactly 6 liters? This problem dates to 1484 and was posed in the context of a milkman making a home delivery to a customer. The story goes this riddle so...
Curated Video
Can You Solve The Diluted Wine Puzzle?
A servant has a method to steal wine. He removes 3 cups from a barrel of wine and replaces it with 3 cups of water. The next day he wants more wine, so he does the same thing: he removes 3 cups from the same barrel (now with diluted...
Curated Video
Logic and Wonder: The Dual Worlds of Lewis Carroll
This video introduces us to Charles Dodgson, better known by his pen name, Lewis Carroll. We learn about Dodgson's personal history, including his physical ailments and his career as a professor of mathematics. The video underscores how...
Curated Video
The "Fibonacci" Sequence Was Actually Discovered In India 1000 Years Earlier
The sequence of numbers 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, etc was described by Fibonacci around 1200 AD. The Indian mathematician Pingala found the sequence at least 1,000 years before (probably 200 BC) while analyzing Sanskrit poetry. This video...
Curated Video
Can You Solve The Sand Mixing Riddle? (Homework For 10 Year Olds Singapore)
Thanks to Tim for sending this problem! The total amount of sand contained in Boxes A, B and C is 360 grams. First a mathematician pours 1/6 of the sand from Box A into Box B. After that, the mathematician pours 1/3 of the sand in Box B...
Curated Video
A 10 Year Old Discovered This (Sum 1 To 100 - Based On True Story)
It's the final play of the 1787 World Math Championships. The talented 10-year old Gauss faces a challenging question from his math teacher. Will the young student show up his teacher, or does he still have lessons to learn? I wanted to...
Curated Video
"UNSOLVABLE" Logic Puzzle: What Are Their Ages?
This is one of those brain teasers that sounds like it's impossible to solve but you can work through it (like the logic puzzle of Cheryl's birthday). A mathematician tells a census taker he has 3 children. The product of their ages is...
Curated Video
Emily Driscoll: How Many Licks to the Center of a Lollipop? | SciTech Now
Filmmaker and Science Friday producer Emily Driscoll explains the science behind her story about mathematicians’ quest to find out how many licks it takes to get to the center of a lollipop. Please LIKE & SUBSCRIBE if you enjoyed!...
Curated Video
Can You Solve These "Ghostly" Riddles?
This video includes 3 puzzles that ghosts are useful mathematically. Can you figure them out? Puzzle 1: A father left 17 goats to his three sons. His will promised 1/2 of the goats to the oldest son, 1/3 to the middle son, and 1/9 to the...
Curated Video
How time might have existed before the Big Bang
Marcus du Sautoy, mathematician and author of The Great Unknown, explained why we don't really know what happened before the Big Bang. He told Business Insider: "We’re really not too sure and in fact, that may be a question that doesn’t...
Numberphile
Collatz Conjecture in Color - Numberphile
The Great Courses Plus (free trial): http://ow.ly/RqOr309wT7v This video features Alex Bellos. More info and links in full description. Extra footage with Alex and coloring: https://youtu.be/w8nc8wbgXPU Or real-time video of the...
World Science Festival
Is math a kind of art?
Normally, when you think about math, the word "creativity" doesn't readily come to mind. Playing his best devil's advocate, Robert Krulwich challenges the panel to explain the "beauty" of a formula or the "elegance" of a proof. Is math a...
World Science Festival
Platonism vs. Formalism
Platonists believe that there is a universal truth underlying all of mathematics. Formalists believe all of mathematics can be defined by a set of predefined rules. Ever wonder about the deeper significance of these two critical...
Curated Video
The Media Got The Math WRONG - The Golden Ratio
15-year old Joseph Rosenfeld thought he spotted an error in the Boston Museum of Science. The exhibit Mathematica has a sign that says the golden ratio is (√5 - 1)/2. He remembered and checked online that the golden ratio is supposed to...
Curated Video
Oxford professor explains how an unsolved mystery of prime numbers makes the internet safer
Marcus du Sautoy, mathematician and author of The Great Unknown, explained how "the more we understand about primes, the more insecure our codes are on the internet." -------------------------------------------------- Follow BI UK on...