A Numbers Game: Mathspiracies

EPISODE 139 | A Numbers Game: Mathspiracies

Guest: Gary Arndt, writer and host of the Everything Everywhere Daily podcast

We aren't really very good with numbers, so naturally we've come up with a lot of wacky ideas about them. Gary Arndt talks about numbers of all sorts, like why Pi is stupid, why prime numbers are cool, why the Fibonacci sequence isn't all that, when math leads to murder and much more.

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SECTIONS

1. 02:25 - Numeracy rates, gambling is (usually) a sucker's bet, numerology, the Bible Code, p-hacking, Equidistant Letter Sequencing (ELS)
2. 13:09 - The Hidden Hand of Mathematics, the Ultraviolet Catastrophe and the birth of quantum physics, the Fibonacci sequence and the Golden Ratio
3. 20:05 - Pi, tau, the Cult of Pythagoras, irrational numbers, transcendental numbers, squaring the circle, Alex Jones and math, the real number of the Beast
4. 28:51 - Why people believe conspiracy theories
5. 30:13 - Angel numbers, the "meanings" of numbers
6. 33:43 - Numbers stations
7. 37:25 - Prime numbers, Prime Target TV series, trapdoor functions in cryptography, Al-Khwarizmi, double entry bookkeeping, the idea of zero, zero and null are different
8. 43:20 - Base-10, base-12, base-60, and our timekeeping and calendar systems

• Music by Fanette Ronjat

More Info

• Everything Everywhere Daily podcast
• The Bible Code book review in Notices of the AMS
• The Significance of The Number Forty-Two (42) by By Rabbi Dr. Hillel ben David (Greg Killian)
• Magic Apologetics: Equidistant Letter Sequencing in the Christian Research Journal
• Assassinations Foretold in Moby Dick!
• THE UNREASONABLE EFFECTIVENSS OF MATHEMATICS IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES by Eugene Wigner
• The Ultraviolet Catastrophe and the Creation of Quantum Mechanics episode of Everything Everywhere Daily
• What is the Fibonacci sequence? on LiveScience
• Fibonacci Sequence on Math Is Fun
• Composing Balanced Images: The Golden Ratio on ProGrade Digital
• Everything You Need to Know About Pi episode of Everything Everywhere Daily
• Why Tau Should Replace Pi episode of Everything Everywhere Daily
• The Cult of Pythagoras episode of Everything Everywhere Daily
• Irrational Numbers episode of Everything Everywhere Daily
• Squaring the Circle episode of Everything Everywhere Daily
• e: Euler’s Number episode of Everything Everywhere Daily
• Pi Is Encoded in the Patterns of Life
• Alex Jones and 666 video
• A Guide to Angel Numbers and What They Mean
• Numerology Numbers 1-9: Exploring the single digit numbers in Numerology on Numerology.com
• Numbers Stations episode of Everything Everywhere Daily
• Number Stations on Priyom.org
• Number Station Recordings - Creepy radio broadcasts from unknown origins (video with over 4 hours of recordings)
• All About Cryptography episode of Everything Everywhere Daily
• Prime Numbers episode of Everything Everywhere Daily
• Prime Target TV series on IMDb
• Zero, My Hero episode of Everything Everywhere Daily
• Zero and NULL values 
• What is the Base-10 Number System?
• Base 12: An Introduction
• Babylonian Mathematics and the Base 60 System

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