Matt Parker

The short answer is that I flipped a normal coin 10,000 times to see how many times it would land on its edge. I had a chance to do this a while back and so I spent three days on it; it also meant I could mention it in Humble Pi. I've just not had the time to sort through the results and get a video out. Blame my lack of time.

For the general public: that being bad at math is an immutable personal trait. I want people to realise that everyone finds math difficult to some extent and the people who are 'good to math' are just those who enjoy the fact it is difficult (or put in the effort for some other reason).

For people who are slightly interested in math: misconceptions about what is 'allowed' and what happen when you break those rules.

For example (and I'm going to paraphrase a lot here with non-rigorous language): taking the square root of a negative number is 'not allowed' but if you pretend you can you get i and this leads the magical world of complex numbers. Which is all great because assuming i leads to loads of rich and consistent results.

But then I get loads of people emailing me because they have found the secret of dividing by zero, which is 'not allowed', and it is always some variation on assuming it is and giving the result a name. Which is fine. But it then does not lead to anything interesting or consistent.

Math is a game where you can make up any rules you want. But if they don't give interesting results then we discard that idea.

For professional mathematicians: that sometimes it is ok to paraphrase a lot with non-rigorous language.

Yes indeed: they put a Harrier jet in the 1995 commercial for 7,000,000 Pepsi points as a zany joke… but extra points cost 10c each and the jet was worth over $20 million. Guy called John Leonard put $700,008.50 (inc postage and handling) in escrow and sent off his order.

In the resulting court case Pepsi had to prove it was a joke and not something a reasonable person would consider a serious offer. Pepsi did win “Leonard v. Pepsico, Inc.” and the ruling contains these gems:

• The teenager’s comment that flying a Harrier Jet to school ‘sure beats the bus’ evinces an improbably insouciant attitude toward the relative difficulty and danger of piloting a fighter plane in a residential area, as opposed to taking public transportation.

• No school would provide landing space for a student’s fighter jet, or condone the disruption the jet’s use would cause.

• In light of the Harrier Jet’s well-​­documented function in attacking and destroying surface and air targets, armed reconnaissance and air interdiction, and offensive and defensive anti-​­aircraft warfare, depiction of such a jet as a way to get to school in the morning is clearly not serious.