Why the World’s Best Mathematicians Are Hoarding Chalk

(upbeat music) - The legend around this chalk is that it's impossible to write a false theorem. - I assume the special ingredient was angel tears. - Mathematicians from all of the top schools very frequently use it. - It's a cult favorite. - As soon as I use it I was a convert. - The chalk is one of the best kept secrets in the math world. - It's the Rolls Royce of chalk. (gentle music) (chalk scratching) - Hagoromo is a brand of Japanese chalk. The way it flows on a board is a bit hard to describe in words. - It's really hard to get. You can only get it from Japan, you need a Japanese person to bring it back for you. - I discovered it when I went to visit the University of Tokyo and one of the professors there said to me, you know, we have better chalk than you do in the States and I said, oh go on, chalk is chalk. And so I tried it out, and I was surprised to find that he was right. - I tried it, and I thought it was phenomenal. It's the densest, it erases the cleanest, it leaves the nicest line. - If you use bad chalk often you have to press really hard for anyone to see what you're writing so using Hagoromo on a good board, it doesn't really feel like you're working hard to write. - When I'm teaching I get a feeling of energy, confidence, and the chalk absolutely helps. (chalk clacking) - Slowly the math world has become aware of this, and it became a bit of a fad in some circles. (upbeat music) - It was like maybe four years ago the word came out that the company was going out of business. I sort of jokingly referred to it as a chalk apocalypse. So I immediately started hoarding up as much as I could. - I ordered three boxes of Hagoromo and kept it in my office and used it very sparingly. - I should've bought more but I have friends that bought boxes and boxes and boxes of the stuff. They might very well be set for the rest of their career. - We've got like 1,500 sticks. That's a lot of days, four sticks a day. I think I'm gonna make it. - I have probably a 10-year supply still at home. - I calculated how many boxes would I need to last for 10 or 15 years. I didn't wanna become a chalk dealer, but I did like the idea that I could be the first stick is free chalk dealer on the block in my department. - I was probably selling it regularly to maybe eight to 10 colleagues. I would reach into my cupboard in my office and pull out another box and we'd do the deal in my office. Yeah, we all had a chalk fix. And we still do. (gentle music) - The original Hagoromo chalk is slowly disappearing. A few years ago, a Korean company bought their formulas and did the best job of faithfully reproducing it in Korea. - It was mixed emotions. I was happy to know that it would still be made. But I was a little disappointed that I was less clever than I thought I was. (gentle music) - In many ways mathematics is like craftsmanship, in some ways it's like artistry; in some ways it's like science. But there's a real high craft side to getting a beautiful lecture on a blackboard. Mathematicians admire this in each other and like to use the best tools for it. - There's incredible value to this but the value is in using it up, not hoarding it. (gentle music)

Channel: Great Big Story

Views: 28,957,967

Keywords: great big story, gbs, Japanese, Chalk, Chalk board, Math, Mathematics, Science, Professor, School, College, University, Rolls Royce, Black board, Hagoromo, Matheletes, Learning, Education, Math World, Colleges, Mathematics Professor, Classroom, hagoromo chalk, satisfying chalk, chalk asmr, chalk, chalk history, japanese chalk, chalk wars, asmr chalk, chalk art, chalk math, chalk on black board, chalkboard, math professor, mathematic class, maths class, best maths teacher

Id: PhNUjg9X4g8

Length: 3min 32sec (212 seconds)

Published: Thu May 02 2019