Breaking Math Podcast
Episodes
P6: How Many Angles in a Circle? (Curvature; Euclidean Geometry)
28 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sofía and Gabriel discuss the question of "how many angles are there in a circle", and visit theorems from Euclid, as well as differential calculus.T...
56: More Sheep than You Can Count (Transfinite Cardinal Numbers)
24 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Look at all you phonies out there.You poseurs.All of you sheep. Counting 'til infinity. Counting sheep.*pff*What if I told you there were more there? ...
55: Order in the Court (Transfinite Ordinal Numbers)
14 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As a child, did you ever have a conversation that went as follows:"When I grow up, I want to have a million cats""Well I'm gonna have a billion billio...
54: Oodles (Large Numbers)
21 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
There are a lot of things in the universe, but no matter how you break them down, you will still have far fewer particles than even some of the smalle...
53: Big Brain Time (An Interview with Peter Zeidman from the UCL Institute of Neurology)
11 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Neuroscience is a topic that, in many ways, is in its infancy. The tools that are being used in this field are constantly being honed and reevaluated ...
52: Round (Circles and Spheres)
05 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Spheres and circles are simple objects. They are objects that are uniformly curved throughout in some way or another. They can also be defined as obje...
P5: All Your Base Are Belong to Us (Fractional Base Proof)
26 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Join Sofia and Gabriel on this problem episode where we explore "base 3-to-2" — a base system we explored on the last podcast — and how it relates...
51: Episode "-2,0,1" (Bases; Exotic Bases)
15 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A numerical base is a system of representing numbers using a sequence of symbols. However, like any mathematical concept, it can be extended and re-im...
50: Episode "101" (Bases)
31 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Numbering was originally done with tally marks: the number of tally marks indicated the number of items being counted, and they were grouped together ...
49: Thinking Machines II (Techniques in Artificial Intelligence)
26 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Machines have been used to simplify labor since time immemorial, and simplify thought in the last few hundred years. We are at a point now where we ha...
48: Thinking Machines (Philosophical Basis of Artificial Intelligence)
18 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Machines, during the lifetime of anyone who is listening to this, have advanced and revolutionized the way that we live our lives. Many listening to t...
P4: Go with the Flow (Conceptual Calculus: Related Rates of Change)
10 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Join Gabriel and Sofía as they delve into some introductory calculus concepts.[Featuring: Sofía Baca, Gabriel Hesch]Ways to support the show:Patreon...
47: Blast to the Past (Retrocausality)
29 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Time is something that everyone has an idea of, but is hard to describe. Roughly, the arrow of time is the same as the arrow of causality. However, wh...
P3: Radiativeforcenado (Radiative Forcing)
03 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Learn more about radiative forcing, the environment, and how global temperature changes with atmospheric absorption with this Problem Episode about yo...
46: Earth Irradiated (the Greenhouse Effect)
20 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Since time immemorial, blacksmiths have known that the hotter metal gets, the more it glows: it starts out red, then gets yellower, and then eventuall...
45: Climate Denialism and Cranky Uncles (Interview with John Cook of Skeptical Science)
10 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Climate change is an issue that has become frighteningly more relevant in recent years, and because of special interests, the field has become muddied...
44: Vestigial Math (Math That Is Not Used like It Used to Be)
03 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Mathematics, like any intellectual pursuit, is a constantly-evolving field; and, like any evolving field, there are both new beginnings and sudden une...
P2: Walk the Dog (Calculus: Chain Rule)
30 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Learn more about calculus, derivatives, and the chain rule with this Problem Episode about you walking your (perhaps fictional?) dog around a park.Thi...
43: Interview II with Author Ben Orlin (Change is the Only Constant: the Wisdom of Calculus in a Madcap World)
23 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Ben Orlin has been a guest on the show before. He got famous with a blog called 'Math With Bad Drawings", which is what it says on the tin: he teaches...
P1: Peano Addition
29 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
On this problem episode, join Sofía and guest Diane Baca to learn about what an early attempt to formalize the natural numbers has to say about wheth...
42: Maybe? (Probability and Statistics)
15 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Statistics is a field that is considered boring by a lot of people, including a huge amount of mathematicians. This may be because the history of stat...
41: Reality Is More Than Complex (Group Theory and Physics)
29 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Children who are being taught mathematics often balk at the idea of negative numbers, thinking them to be fictional entities, and often only learn lat...
39: Syntax Matters: Syntax... Matters? (Formal Grammar)
29 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We communicate every day through languages; not only human languages, but other things that could be classified as languages such as internet protocol...
38: The Great Stratagem Heist (Game Theory: Iterated Elimination of Dominated Strategies)
23 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Game theory is all about decision-making and how it is impacted by choice of strategy, and a strategy is a decision that is influenced not only by the...
37: The One Where They Parody Saw [audio fixed again] (Game Theory)
25 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Hello listeners. You don't know me, but I know you. I want to play a game. In your ears are two earbuds. Connected to the earbuds are a podcast playin...
36: The Most Boring Episode Ever. (Math Games)
23 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Math is a gravely serious topic which has been traditionally been done by stodgy people behind closed doors, and it cannot ever be taken lightly. Thos...
35: Please Be Discrete (Discrete Math)
05 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Centuries ago, there began something of a curiosity between mathematicians that didn't really amount to much but some interesting thoughts and cool ma...
34: An Interview with Mathbot.com's JW Weatherman
20 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we interview JW Weatherman of mathbot.com, and ask him about his product, why he made it, and what he plans on doing with it.--- This...
33: Interview with Math with Bad Drawings (Ben Orlin)
03 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
An interview with Ben Orlin, author of the book 'Math with Bad Drawings,' as well as the blog of the same name. The blog can be found at www.mat...
32X: Black Hole Heist (Comedy Sketch)
23 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The hosts of Breaking Math had too much time on their hands.--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/breakingmathpodcast/support
32: Gaze into the Abyss (Part Three; Black Holes)
23 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A lot of the information in this episode of Breaking Math depends on episodes 30 and 31 entitled "The Abyss" and "Into the Abyss" respectively. If you...
31: Into the Abyss (Part Two; Black Holes)
23 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Black holes are objects that seem exotic to us because they have properties that boggle our comparatively mild-mannered minds. These are objects that ...
30: The Abyss (Part One; Black Holes)
02 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The idea of something that is inescapable, at first glance, seems to violate our sense of freedom. This sense of freedom, for many, seems so intrinsic...
29: War
14 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In the United States, the fourth of July is celebrated as a national holiday, where the focus of that holiday is the war that had the end effect of en...
28: Bell's Infamous Theorem (Bell's Theorem)
19 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The history of physics as a natural science is filled with examples of when an experiment will demonstrate something or another, but what is often for...
27: Peer Pressure (Cellular Automata)
14 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The fabric of the natural world is an issue of no small contention: philosophers and truth-seekers universally debate about and study the nature of re...
26: Infinity Shades of Grey (Paradox)
26 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A paradox is characterized either by a logical problem that does not have a single dominant expert solution, or by a set of logical steps that seem to...
25: Pandemic Panic (Epidemiology)
13 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The spectre of disease causes untold mayhem, anguish, and desolation. The extent to which this spectre has yielded its power, however, has been massiv...
24: Language and Entropy (Information Theory in Language)
07 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Information theory was founded in 1948 by Claude Shannon, and is a way of both qualitatively and quantitatively describing the limits and processes in...
23: Don't Touch My Circles! (Geometry)
15 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In the study of mathematics, there are many abstractions that we deal with. For example, we deal with the notion of a real number with infinitesimal g...
22: Incomplet (Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid: Chapter IV Discussion)
23 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Gödel, Escher, Bach is a book about everything from formal logic to the intricacies underlying the mechanisms of reasoning. For that reason, we've de...
21: Einstein's Biggest Idea (General Relativity)
04 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Some see the world of thought divided into two types of ideas: evolutionary and revolutionary ideas. However, the truth can be more nuanced than that;...
20: Rational (Ratios)
18 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
From MC²’s statement of mass energy equivalence and Newton’s theory of gravitation to the sex ratio of bees and the golden ratio, our world is ch...
19: Tune of the Hickory Stick (Beginning to Intermediate Math Education)
07 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The art of mathematics has proven, over the millennia, to be a practical as well as beautiful pursuit. This has required us to use results from math i...
18: Frequency (Fourier and Related Analyses)
11 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Duration and proximity are, as demonstrated by Fourier and later Einstein and Heisenberg, very closely related properties. These properties are relate...
17: Navier Stoked (Vector Calculus and Navier-Stokes Equations)
05 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
From our first breath of the day to brushing our teeth to washing our faces to our first sip of coffee, and even in the waters of the rivers we have b...
BFNB2: Thought for Food (Discussion about Learning)
19 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Sponsored by www.brilliant.org/breakingmath, where you can take courses in calculus, computer science, chemistry, and other STEM subjects. All online;...
BFNB1: Food for Thought (Discussion about Learning)
16 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
This is the first group podcast for the podcasting network ___forNon___ (pronounced "Blank for Non-Blank"), a podcasting network which strives to pres...
Minisode 0.6: Four Problems
18 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Jonathan and Gabriel discuss four challenging problems.--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor....
15: Consciousness
30 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
What does it mean to be a good person? What does it mean to make a mistake? These are questions which we are not going to attempt to answer, but they ...
Minisode 0.5: ___forNon___
20 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Jonathan and Gabriel discuss ___forNon___ (blank for non-blank); a podcasting collective they've recently joined. Check out more at blankfornonblank.c...
14: Artificial Thought (Neural Networks)
11 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Go to www.brilliant.org/breakingmathpodcast to learn neural networks, everyday physics, computer science fundamentals, the joy of problem solving, and...
13: Math and Prison Riots (Interview with Frank Salas)
27 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Frank Salas is an statistical exception, but far from an irreplicable result. Busted on the streets of Albuquerque for selling crack cocaine at 17, an...
12: Math Factory (Algorithms)
13 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In a universe where everything is representable by information, what does it mean to interact with that world? When you follow a series of steps to ac...
11: A Culture of Hacking (Hacker Culture)
31 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The culture of mathematics is a strange topic. It is almost as important to the history of mathematics as the theorems that have come from it, yet it ...
10: Cryptomath (Cryptography)
16 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Language and communication is a huge part of what it means to be a person, and a large part of this importance is the ability to direct the flow of th...
9: Humanity 2.0 (Transhumanism)
02 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Humanity, since its inception, has been nebulously defined. Every technological advancement has changed what it means to be a person, and every person...
Minisode 0.4: Comin' Up Next
01 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Jonathan and Gabriel talk about the next four episodes coming down the pike, including Humanity 2.0, which debuts Tuesday, April 2nd 2017.--- This epi...
Minisode 0.3: Lights, Camera, Action!
20 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Jonathan and Gabriel discuss their recent news debut! You can find what they're talking about at news.unm.edu--- This episode is sponsored by · Ancho...
8: Evolution and Engineering (Genetic Algorithms)
18 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Computation is a nascent science, and as such, looks towards the other sciences for inspiration. Whether it be physics, as in simulated annealing, or,...
Minisode 0.2: What's Up, Bangalore?
10 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Jonathan and Gabriel discuss everything Bangalore, evolutionary algorithmic, and more!--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to m...
7: QED? Prove it. (Proofs)
04 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Proofs are sometimes seen as an exercise in tedium, other times as a pure form of beauty, and often as both. But from time immemorial, people have bee...
Minisode 0.1: Hypercubes and Other Stranger Things
01 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
We are proud to announce that we have recorded our very first minisode! In addition, we are introducing a new blog which can be found at www.breakingm...
6: Word (Linguistics)
21 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Mathematics has a lot in common with language. Both have been used since the dawn of time to shape and define our world, both have sets of rules which...
5: Language of the Universe (Relationship Between Physics and Math)
07 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
1948. A flash, followed by an explosion. Made possible by months of mathematical computation, the splitting of the atom was hailed as a triumph of bot...
4: Digital Evolution (Digital Computing)
21 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
We live in an era of unprecedented change, and the tip of the spear of this era of change is currently the digital revolution. In fact, in the last de...
3: TMI (Information Theory)
07 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
“ABABABABABABABAB”. How much information was that? You may say “sixteen letters worth”, but is that the true answer? You could describe what y...
2: Wreaking Chaos (Chaos Theory)
07 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The void has always intrigued mankind; the concept of no concept defies the laws of human reasoning to such a degree that we have no choice but to pur...
1: Forbidden Formulas (Elitism in Math)
07 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
From Pythagoras to Einstein, from the banks of the Nile to the streamlined curves of the Large Hadron Collider, math has shown itself again and again ...