Numberphile's First T-Shirt

A bit of background to Numberphile's first T-Shirt.

It features the first two "Brady Numbers" - 2308 and 4261.

I chose these numbers randomly at the request of Matt Parker. (see at 2'10" into video)

Matt wanted to demonstrate the Fibonnacci Sequence's link to the "Golden Ratio" is not unique.

Starting with ANY two numbers and applying the same process will also tend towards the ratio.

Following the video, the idea of Brady Numbers and a Brady Sequence captured the imagination of a few people.

It even made it onto the brilliant OEIS archive of sequences!

I have dug out the original brown paper from that video to make the new T-Shirt.

The numbers were scanned from Matt's original writing to make the design.

You can buy a T-Shirt at this link (for $23.08 of course). It should take you to the cheapest shipping option.

Or use this link for American fans and this link for Europe/International.

James Cuffey and M26

The latest Deep Sky Videos instalment is a great example of why I love the series.

One of the project's main goals is making a video about every video in the Messier Catalog - 110 objects in space listed by comet hunter Charles Messier.

We are meandering through the catalog in no particular order, making other space-related videos along the way.

The latest video deals with a seemingly innocuous open cluster of stars that Messier listed at number 26.

M26 (also known as NGC 6694 in the New General Catalog) is pretty uninteresting.

Or at least as uninteresting as you can get for a collection of hundreds of stars in deep space!

Professor Mike Merrifield, an astronomer at the University of Nottingham, tasked himself with finding something to say about M26.

Exploring the literature, he found a paper from 1940 by an astronomer called James Cuffey.

Cuffey retired in 1976 and died in 1999.

Yet his 1940 paper - which is quite readable for an academic paper (!) - explored a strange ring in M26.

What caused the absence (or apparent absence) of stars?

Now the conclusions are not, well, conclusive. But it added much to our knowledge of the cluster.

But for me it was great fun to be raking over the old research, 75 years after it was published.

And it was exciting to have a brief connection with a scientist from the past, sharing his fascination and exploration of a distant object in space that will outlive us both. 

Calculating Pi

Watch four different ways to calculate Pi with Numberphile.

Starting with the most recent video, Holly Krieger uses the Mandelbrot Set.

Matt Parker uses meat pies!

Tony Padilla uses matches (instead of needles).

Ed Copeland uses bouncing balls.

Want more Pi videos? We have you covered.

Face to Face

The latest Objectivity video deals with two "death masks" stored at the Royal Society.

They are casts of the faces of two great men in the fields of maths, astronomy and physics.

Isaac Newton died in 1727 and James Jeans in 1946.

Newton's death mask is well-known - in fact I've filmed it before.

Newton's face was cast at time when such things were common.

For example, they were useful tools for sculptors making posthumous statues.

The James Jeans mask is unusual because it is more modern.

Its creation was discussed between Jeans' wife, Susi, and family friend Joy Adamson.

The pair were present when Jeans died and wanted to capture the "spiritual radiance" of his face.

The mask spent many years in the Jeans home, but has now been entrusted to the Royal Society.

You can read more about it on the society blog.

Alkali Metals Underwater

A recent series of three videos in which Neil's strange "Test Tube Torturer" was used to break open ampoules of Alkali Metals.

We used Sodium, Potassium and Caesium.

For more alkali metal action - including more water reactions - see this playlist.

Official T-Shirts of Official Things

UPDATE (28 September): T-Shirt designs have been slightly amended to move the logo higher on the chest. We'll also be extending the sale deadline to October 5 to accommodate people who only learn of the shirts in episode 48. Sorry to anyone inconvenienced.

Despite CGP Grey's initial resistance, The Hello Internet Podcast now has an official bird and official rice rat.

I think it is entirely possible that we're the first podcast to appoint an official rice rat.

For a full explanation, listen to episode 47 (discussion from 1h33min onwards).

The chosen rice rat is the now extinct Jamaican Rice Rat.

And, controversially, our official bird is the Reunion Swamphen (not the African Penguin).

To mark the occasion, why not snap up one of these commemorative official T-shirts. Wear it with pride and tweet Grey a picture of it!

Various colours and designs available to suit your taste and gender. 

RICE RAT

SWAMPHEN

More discussion of the t-shirt here at the start of episode 48.

Postcard Recipients

Some pictures from Numberphile fans who received our "89" postcard.

It's a limited edition of 89, but there are still a few left.

They deliberately come through the normal post without an envelope, so get all sorts of nice stamps and cancellation marks! 

@dan_lapsley was happy to get 55 - a palindrome!

@PAShanky was pleased to get 42

Simon in Switzerland

@minhtuvn

Lance in San Diego

@mathslinks may frame this one

@misiaq_com

@mast_zh

Here's the video which the postcard is from...