Calculating pi from coin flips (without randomness)

From Standup Mathematician. Happy Pi Day! The new value of pi is 3.2266. Pi-by-hand is happening – at some time in the future – at some location! Please opt-in for updates and tell us which places would work for you: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScprg57Bvv1jOfoMQwriHPegTnCjik2p9xrly0zQ84ANYMfEQ/viewform?usp=dialog Huge thanks to Jim Propp for discovering this amazing bit of maths. For more…

Calculating pi from coin flips (without randomness)

Why do all random graphs end up identical?

From Standup Mathematician. Jane Street’s Hong Kong internship is accepting applications now: https://jane-st.co/hkginternship26-SUM Oh look. Still time to sign up for a digital xmas card: https://www.patreon.com/standupmaths (cut off for 2025 is 31 Dec 2025) As well as calculating Pi on the Moon, I’ll be back on tour again in the new year: https://standupmaths.com/shows Follow Matt_2…

New shape discovered!

From Standup Mathematician. Print out your Nopert with the Bambu Lab X1C Combo https://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=46345&awinaffid=2412541 #bambulab #bambulabA1 #makerworld #bambustudio #bambulabp1s #bambulabX1c #bambulabs Check out Tom 7’s video which this video goes through: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH4MviUE0_s Tom7’s full set of printable 3D models for all Platonic, Archimedean and Catalan solids: https://makerworld.com/en/models/1617011-platonic-archimedean-and-catalan-solids#profileId-1706419 Here’s the paper announcing the Noperthedron: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.18475 My…

The fewest items of clothes to never repeat an outfit.

From Standup Mathematician. Go to https://displate.com/l/standup or use my code STANDUP to get the biggest discounts of the year: 1-2 Displates for 37% off, 3-4 Displates for 43% off & 5 Displates and more for 46% off! Valid on Textra but not on Limited Edition (they’re too limited). Check out the void where the original…

This random noise won an Oscar.

From Standup Mathematician. Check out Seb’s excellent deep-dive video over here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgTo5WRluy0 See my show in London on 1 December 2025: https://lwtheatres.co.uk/whats-on/matt-parker/ Other show details for the 2026 tour here: https://standupmaths.com/shows/ Yes, sign up to Patreon by the end of November 2025 to get your unique, random christmas card from me: http://patreon.com/standupmaths Or have been…

How many holes does this mug have?

From Standup Mathematician. Get your own Mug with a Hole: https://mathsgear.co.uk/products/extreme-utilities-puzzle-mug Thanks to Past James Grime for making the original video with Past Matt. https://www.youtube.com/singingbanana Here is the plan for the seven-colour mug design. It’s an image from my book Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimention. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ek7z0dt9qook7b46s3u6u/seven-colour-mug.jpg?rlkey=9bpbw3f0vuu3p3js7y8fqa720&dl=0 Huge thanks to Eugénie von…

Are these the luckiest dice rolls in TV history?

From Standup Mathematician. Get an exclusive 15% discount on Saily data plans! Use code standupmaths at checkout. Download Saily app or go to https://saily.com/standupmaths Listen to Matt talk more about The Snake with Bec on the A Problem Squared podcast! https://open.spotify.com/episode/6qW3yw3zrMuh0bLIzO2vEE?si=JshLx8nCQOCdCHkJkUB1vg If you are in the USA you can watch The Snake episode 10 on…

A century-old knot conjecture was wrong all along

From Standup Mathematician. Come see me on tour! https://standupmaths.com/shows/ Check out the paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2506.24088 Thanks so much to Mark Brittenham and Susan Hermiller at University of Nebraska at Lincoln for talking me through it. Huge thanks to my Patreon supporters. I can knot overstate my appreciation for them. https://www.patreon.com/standupmaths CORRECTIONS – None yet, let me…

We have statistical evidence that people are mildly psychic

From Standup Mathematician. Learn more about the Jane Street internships at https://jane-st.co/internship25-SUM Ben’s Zener Test: https://zenertest.bensparks.co.uk/ Huge thanks to Ben Sparks (and their brother Tim) for making the site, collecting the data and sharing the story with me. You can book Ben to give a maths talk in your school, university or magic society: https://www.bensparks.co.uk/…

Maths has finally discovered a self-righting tetrahedron!

From Standup Mathematician. Check out the amazing Bambu Lab printers: https://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=46345&awinaffid=2412541 Print some maths! https://makerworld.com/en/search/models?keyword=math Here are the STL files (and project files you can open in Bambu Studio) for the tetrahedrons in this video: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/jwva4zx6r4327lyg9zgy5/AKFZ5nUzo7QmD_mMhaD01uI?rlkey=9f41h2xsb7ybanjh1jibit8mz&dl=0 This is the Quanta Magazine article which broke the Monostable Tetrahedron news in June 2025. A New Pyramid-Like Shape…

Why 2025 is numerically the best year.

From Standup Mathematician. See if you have the skills to dissect this neural net: https://jane-st.co/SUM-MLpuzzle More on Jane Street machine learning careers here: https://janestreet.com/ml This is a complex video, so I’ll try to thank and link everyone in order! Original Numberphile video from 2015 by Brady Haran: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99stb2mzspI&ab_channel=Numberphile More on the Partridge Puzzle by Robert…