Stand-up comedy routine about bad science

I make comedy shows about science with Helen Annie and Matt Parker as festival of the spoken nerd and most recent show is out now on DVD the others like to do their music and maths things but I like to stick to actual science to celebrate the release of the DVD I'm sharing a section of the show here on YouTube where I help win an argument using temperature outside an aeroplane so you you might be able to sympathize with this I often get emails from friends and family asking me to fix something that isn't working do you get that I'm just like no I I don't know why you can't print you know more important I don't care you know and but sometimes I get emails that I quite like maybe it's a science question instead of a question about a floating printer I got a question recently was someone saying can you help me to win an argument yeah this is amazing this is what the question I've been waiting for he was he was reading a book with his daughter it was a kids book that he got as a gift from his in-laws it was a science book full of facts and one of the facts was that the temperature outside an aeroplane is six times colder than the temperature inside a freezer and okay Wow and the way you're supposed to read this book I think is you're supposed to go in your brain what my friend did was get into an argument with his in-laws he thought that this statement was like ambiguous or hard to interpret or meaningless or something like that there's a problem with it and but he couldn't articulate it because his in-laws were just like look inside a freezer is cold outside an airplane is six times colder than that all right can we just have dinner yes I agree with my friend I think he's right I think there's a problem with this statement so I said I'll help you out and because you said look I can't articulate I've just got this sense that there's a problem I can't articulate it so can you help me to explain it to these people so I spoke to him on the phone I was trying to explain what was going on with this statement I wasn't it wasn't really getting across so I said I tell you I'll come round but actually let me know when your in-laws are next coming round and now come round then and so they invite me around for dinner which you might think it's awkward given that my main purpose for being there was to prove some people wrong but it's alright because I put a PowerPoint presentation together and I can show it to you now this is it so I said look what first of all the big problem with this statement let's get that out of the way is that we're all outside an aeroplane now and it's not that hard in fact my freezer is outside an aeroplane so that's also some aeroplanes have freezers on them I said ok but let's be generous and assume that the statement means that the temperature immediately outside an aeroplane at cruising altitude in the middle of the day in temperate climates is six times colder than the temperature inside a freezer so let's write that down formally the temperature outside an aeroplane is six times colder than the temperature inside a freezer it's a very simple statement it's similar to a statement like Alice is six times taller than Bob or Callum is six times shorter than Debbie really simple statements that are easy to interpret are they well let's have a look at let's have a look at the Alice and Bob statement suppose bob is half a meter tall how tall is Alice 3 meters yeah everyoneís because like 6 times means x 6 so if Bob is half a meter tall Alice is 3 meters tall that's how tall alice is right right what about Callum and Debbie suppose Debbie is a meter tall how tall is Callum well we already know this six times means multiple by six so that a meter multiplied by six is six meters so Calum is six meters shorter than Debbie all right that's how tall - you see just because a statement is simple doesn't mean it has a simple interpretation it's a nonsense statement right so the question is is the statement about the temperature outside an aeroplane and Alice and Bob Hope's statement or a Calum and Debbie type statement well let's look at it on the Kelvin scale so on the Kelvin scale you have zero it's similar to two height you have zero but you can't go below that for height and Kelvin so it's put that on that line there if the temperature inside a freezer is like the height of Debbie then the temperature outside an aeroplane is six times colder than that and it's down there so that can't happen right that's nonsensical you can't do that you can't have a temperature below zap solute zero there's nothing colder than that so my friend is right because then the inlaws said no no that's not what the statement means the statement means that the temperature outside an aeroplane is 1/6 of the temperature inside a freezer and I said well I mean if that's not ambiguous I don't know what is but let's just assume that it means that so what you're saying is the temperature outside an aeroplane is 1/6 of the temperature inside a freezer does that work in practice well the temperature inside a freezer is minus 18 degrees centigrade that's the recommended temperature inside a freezer so that's 255 Kelvin meaning that the temperature outside an airplane must be 1/6 of that tuna 55 divided by 6 42 Kelvin the temperature at which oxygen solidifies maybe that's how planes fly notice my clever use of humor there it's a rhetorical device and and they said no no it's not the Kelvin scale it's the centigrade scale Steve's in trouble now it's new and I had some slides let's have a look at the centigrade scale yeah the centigrade scale is interesting because on the centigrade scale the temperature inside a freezer is below zero and the temperature outside an aeroplane is even more below zero maybe it's six times more below zero maybe it is an Alice and Bob type statement so long as colder means further below zero so let's find out if it works the temperature inside a freezer is minus 18 degrees centigrade the temperature outside an aeroplane I look this up cruising altitude temperate climate some another day - 55 degrees centigrade so is minus 55 6 times minus 18 now no no it's no 3.06 grease actually is a pretty decent approximation to PI if you wanted to use it scientists believe that was the original definition it's not the centigrade scale it's the Fahrenheit scale god the clutching at straws now get on the Fahrenheit scale the temperature outside an aeroplane is minus 67 degrees Fahrenheit the temperature inside a freezer the recommended temperature is zero so the temperature outside an aeroplane is infinitely colder but that's a better fact isn't it this should have put that in the book that's amazing because I mean all of this is nonsense no this is because this is all assuming that coldness starts at zero on whichever scaled you're using and coldest doesn't start at zero degrees Fahrenheit and start at zero degrees centigrade it's already cold by then isn't it but then it got me thinking maybe the authors of the book have been really clever what they've done is they've chosen the temperature at which they feel that coldness starts and then they've noticed that the temperature inside a freezer is below there and that the temperature outside an aeroplane is more below it than that and that it's six times more below it it's the great thing because we've got all the numbers we can work out the temperature at which the authors of the book believe that coldness starts here's the equations right but if you take the temperature which colder starts going to the officers book and subtract the temperature inside a freezer and then do the same to the temperature outside now playing these two numbers are related in this simple way one is six times the other according to the author so let's substitute in the valleys we have minus 55 and minus 18 become plus 55 and plus 18 we can simplify the equation five multiplied by the temperatures corner starts is minus 53 degrees centigrade divide both sides by five the temperature at which Kotler starts according to the authors of the book is minus ten points finally right my friend is right and then this is the point where the non nerds out no did them know her too right because the in-laws said to me no look up the authors of the book so I did and they're Canadian to watch the rest of the show grab a copy of the DVD or you can download it from all the usual places link in the description oh and you can also get the show on floppy disk because Helen thinks she's hilarious to watch some more of the show for free head over to Matt's channel where he's also put a section online to celebrate the release of the DVD I'm sharing a section of the show here on YouTube where I help edit live footage using projections outside of a sphere so do watch my video and if you can afford it would love it if you could buy the show the download costs justjust on high pounds or even less if you're a patreon supporter [Music]

Channel: Steve Mould

Views: 338,253

Rating: 4.8981423 out of 5

Keywords: Comedy, Festival Of The Spoken Nerd, DVD, fotsn, live, Matt Parker

Id: C91gKuxutTU

Length: 10min 56sec (656 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 06 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/joentje292]

What if I turn my freezer off?

[u/derekantrican]

That's always been my thought. You can say "today is 10 degrees warmer than yesterday" but you can't say "today is twice as warm as yesterday"

[u/Letartean]

Does someone know the source of that "fact"? As a teacher, I wish I could show that statement to my students to explain relative and absolute measures. Thanks for your help!