0:00:28 > 0:00:31CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:00:31 > 0:00:36Go-oo-oo-ood evening, good evening, good evening
0:00:36 > 0:00:39and welcome to QI.
0:00:39 > 0:00:44Tonight, as Plato said, "Let no-one untrained in geometry enter here,"
0:00:44 > 0:00:46for our theme is geometry.
0:00:46 > 0:00:51And sitting around our conic section tonight, we have the shapely Johnny Vegas.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53APPLAUSE
0:00:56 > 0:00:59The curvaceous Rob Brydon.
0:00:59 > 0:01:01APPLAUSE
0:01:04 > 0:01:06The hyperbolic David Mitchell.
0:01:06 > 0:01:08APPLAUSE
0:01:09 > 0:01:14And a square peg in a round hole, Alan Davies.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17APPLAUSE
0:01:19 > 0:01:24So let's hear your geometrical buzzers. Rob goes...
0:01:24 > 0:01:27# Bermuda Triangle
0:01:27 > 0:01:29# It makes people disappear... #
0:01:29 > 0:01:31And Johnny goes...
0:01:31 > 0:01:36# You're so square Baby, I don't care... #
0:01:36 > 0:01:38David goes...
0:01:38 > 0:01:42# Like a circle in a spiral Like a wheel within a wheel... #
0:01:42 > 0:01:44And Alan goes...
0:01:44 > 0:01:50# The wheels on the bus go round and round, all day long... #
0:01:51 > 0:01:57I thought we'd begin tonight with some fashion tips. Johnny, you're looking very svelte.
0:01:57 > 0:01:59What's your secret?
0:01:59 > 0:02:01Well, it's a tidy neck.
0:02:01 > 0:02:07- A tidy neck?- Yeah, and a button hole just left casual enough,
0:02:07 > 0:02:13so if a lady should approach you, she's going, "There's room for change, but not too much."
0:02:13 > 0:02:15Oh, that's the secret...
0:02:15 > 0:02:19Two buttons down, part slag, part hero.
0:02:19 > 0:02:24Anyone have any thoughts as to why he might be looking or might not be looking svelte?
0:02:24 > 0:02:27Is it to do with the direction of his stripes?
0:02:27 > 0:02:31It is to do with the direction of his stripes.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35It is, look at the picture there. It's accentuating my breasts.
0:02:37 > 0:02:44- On the left, that's Alexander Armstrong.- It does look a bit like him.- It does.- Extraordinary.
0:02:44 > 0:02:50They make fat people wear stripes and you can tell how old they are. It's like cutting a tree in half.
0:02:50 > 0:02:56- It's supposed to be that vertical stripes may you look slimmer, but they don't.- You're right.
0:02:56 > 0:02:58- That's the point.- Absolutely right.
0:02:58 > 0:03:02People should wear the... the horizontal ones
0:03:02 > 0:03:04that Johnny is sporting.
0:03:04 > 0:03:10It's very interesting because almost everybody thinks that vertical stripes make people look slimmer.
0:03:10 > 0:03:16In prisons, sometimes women have asked for vertical, rather than horizontal stripes,
0:03:16 > 0:03:19so that they look leaner, or they think they do,
0:03:19 > 0:03:24but research from a man called Dr Peter Thompson of York University
0:03:24 > 0:03:29has found that the large majority think the one in the vertical stripe is larger
0:03:29 > 0:03:32than the one in the horizontal stripe when they are the same size.
0:03:32 > 0:03:38It's a bit like when you're hot. The best way to cool down is not by drinking a cold drink.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42- Rob Brydon.- By going into an air-conditioned building.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45And then having a cold drink.
0:03:45 > 0:03:50Surely, this shows, actually, that it makes no difference at all
0:03:50 > 0:03:56because we're determining whether wearing vertical or horizontal stripes makes you look thinner
0:03:56 > 0:04:00and you can't tell by looking. You have to do research.
0:04:00 > 0:04:05The difference is so slight that you have to do research with hundreds and hundreds of people.
0:04:05 > 0:04:10Basically, people look as fat or thin as they are.
0:04:10 > 0:04:12- You are...- I beg to differ.
0:04:14 > 0:04:21I have a friend who's quite short and he likes to wear vertical stripes because they make him look taller.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25Only when he's not standing next to anyone.
0:04:25 > 0:04:29It's not going to make him look taller than a taller man.
0:04:29 > 0:04:35It's all relative. He'll just say, "There's a normal-sized man next to an enormous man!"
0:04:35 > 0:04:40"Oh, he's taken his striped shirt off. It's a tiny man next to a normal man."
0:04:40 > 0:04:43I've missed your angry logic, David, I have to say.
0:04:43 > 0:04:49It just alternates, doesn't it? For ages, you think vertical stripes make people look thinner.
0:04:49 > 0:04:55Then you say, "She's wearing vertical stripes, so she must be fatter than she looks."
0:04:55 > 0:04:58So suddenly, horizontal stripes start making you look thin.
0:04:58 > 0:05:03"She must be thin, otherwise she'd never dare wear horizontal stripes."
0:05:03 > 0:05:08Then they go, "No, horizontal stripes make you look thinner." "Oh, she must be fat."
0:05:08 > 0:05:11APPLAUSE
0:05:11 > 0:05:16So these are the things that go through your mind when you see someone wearing stripes?
0:05:16 > 0:05:23What happens when you see someone with polka dots and you're going, "She must be nine mile long"?
0:05:23 > 0:05:29Contrary to popular belief, horizontal stripes are more slimming than vertical ones.
0:05:29 > 0:05:34While we're admiring fine lines... David, you may know this cos you're bright.
0:05:34 > 0:05:36Not that you others aren't.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39I'll feel terrible if I don't!
0:05:39 > 0:05:43Why do columns around the Parthenon look straight?
0:05:43 > 0:05:45Because they are.
0:05:45 > 0:05:51- You see, I don't think I know this and I think I'm going to say something embarrassing.- Go on.
0:05:51 > 0:05:54It gets wider, so that it looks straight.
0:05:54 > 0:06:00It's further away at the top, so to stop it looking like it's tapering, they made it wider.
0:06:00 > 0:06:04This was the theory for a long time. It's a thing called entasis.
0:06:04 > 0:06:09If a column is exactly straight, from a distance it looks as if it bows inwards.
0:06:09 > 0:06:15The secret is to make it bow slightly outwards, so from a distance, it looks straight.
0:06:15 > 0:06:18But it turns out this isn't what they did after all.
0:06:18 > 0:06:26- It's Alan's first answer which is they look straight cos they are straight.- That's not a question!
0:06:26 > 0:06:29Why does this man look thin? Because he is!
0:06:32 > 0:06:36That... That has taken me on a whole circle!
0:06:36 > 0:06:42A train of thought going, "The reason they look straight is because they are."
0:06:42 > 0:06:44This is why I struggled at school!
0:06:44 > 0:06:48- It's the Q of QI... - If a train travels at 40mph
0:06:48 > 0:06:53and leaves at 9 o'clock and arrives in Glasgow at 12 o'clock, how did it get there?
0:06:53 > 0:06:55And you're going, "Cos it did!"
0:06:55 > 0:06:58LAUGHTER
0:06:58 > 0:07:02- It's sort of that.- It's not sort of that. It's very confusing!
0:07:02 > 0:07:07It's the Q of QI. It is going round in a circle, but with a twiddly bit at the end.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10Why does that look straight?
0:07:10 > 0:07:13Because it's not.
0:07:13 > 0:07:18That would have been a question. Why does that look straight?
0:07:18 > 0:07:20Because it is!
0:07:20 > 0:07:22Sometimes...
0:07:22 > 0:07:24Because it is!
0:07:25 > 0:07:29- Sometimes things look... - It's straight!
0:07:29 > 0:07:34- Please don't be unhappy, Johnny.- I'm not. I'm just confused at the start!
0:07:34 > 0:07:39Let me un-confuse you because the same man who discovered...
0:07:39 > 0:07:42- I try!- You do, Johnny.
0:07:42 > 0:07:48No, seriously, listen. The same man... Do you remember what his name was, who discovered that hoops...?
0:07:48 > 0:07:55- Peter Thompson.- He also discovered that the straight lines on the Parthenon...- He's good with lines.
0:07:55 > 0:08:00- ..are straight because they're straight? - He is here tonight in the studio.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04Where are you, Peter? He's wearing a straight moustache.
0:08:04 > 0:08:09- Hello, Peter Thompson.- Hello.- You've upset Johnny, but what's your point?
0:08:09 > 0:08:14He's looking fantastically slim tonight because he's wearing horizontal stripes. It is true...
0:08:14 > 0:08:17I'll still have a heart attack.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21- They won't stop that.- Thanks to the stripes, I'll be in denial.
0:08:21 > 0:08:25DAVID: What do you have to wear to look not dead when you are?
0:08:25 > 0:08:28Why am I looking so good?
0:08:28 > 0:08:33You look good because you're wearing horizontal stripes. They make you look taller.
0:08:33 > 0:08:38Vertical stripes will make you look wider, certainly.
0:08:38 > 0:08:44- Which is against what everybody believes?- Yes, but someone has to do the science to show what is true.
0:08:44 > 0:08:49If you're really fat, it won't make a lot of difference because the effect's not that big.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52LAUGHTER
0:08:52 > 0:08:55You may have aroused the beast within Johnny.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58I give you my theory!
0:08:58 > 0:09:02Peter Thompson, thank you very much indeed. Dr Thompson, everybody!
0:09:02 > 0:09:06- APPLAUSE - Excellent. There you are.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14Who was it, though, that first saw some pillars that looked straight
0:09:14 > 0:09:20and thought that must be because they bulge, rather than that they're just straight?
0:09:20 > 0:09:24I think it does exist, this entasis, but not on the Parthenon.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27There are other places where it does happen,
0:09:27 > 0:09:30where from the right distance, they look straight.
0:09:30 > 0:09:35Other people believe they may be bowed for structural reasons, that it helps them stand up more.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39Are you good on Greek Doric and other such columns?
0:09:39 > 0:09:41I'm amazing, don't get me started.
0:09:41 > 0:09:45Would you like to see some Greek columns and identify them for me?
0:09:45 > 0:09:50- Those are the three classic orders. - I have these in a book in my loo and I've forgotten to memorise them.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53Any thoughts? Anyone know?
0:09:53 > 0:09:58The right-hand one they've got slightly wrong, haven't they? It's slightly too far to the right.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02That's the way they hold up. That's the Corinthian order, the most decorated.
0:10:02 > 0:10:07It starts on the left with the Doric and then the middle is Ionic.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10There's one thing that's really missing, one thing that's so common.
0:10:10 > 0:10:12The rest of the building.
0:10:12 > 0:10:14LAUGHTER
0:10:14 > 0:10:17Arches. They had so much, the Greeks, but never an arch.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20So they didn't have a vault or dome.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23- So nothing round in Greek architecture.- No arches at all?- No.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27- It's all segmental and...- The Romans must have found that hilarious
0:10:27 > 0:10:29when they invaded.
0:10:29 > 0:10:31What, you say your husband's a builder?
0:10:31 > 0:10:35When's he home, cos I've got some notes for him.
0:10:35 > 0:10:37- What do the words mean?- Doric?- Yeah.
0:10:37 > 0:10:41It's a part of Greece and Ionia was in the Ionian Sea.
0:10:41 > 0:10:47- Corinth - Gulf of Corinth.- They're regions?- Yeah, named after regions. - For an extra point, Stephen,
0:10:47 > 0:10:52what makes these different to Christopher Wren's columns at the Guildhall in Windsor?
0:10:52 > 0:10:56- Let me turn the tables on you. - No, no, no...
0:10:56 > 0:11:01There are fables about how his columns don't reach the ceiling.
0:11:01 > 0:11:04It's also said of his library at Trinity in Cambridge,
0:11:04 > 0:11:06that they insisted on extra columns,
0:11:06 > 0:11:10and the guides always tell you this, so it probably is true, and he said
0:11:10 > 0:11:13it doesn't need them, but they said it would fall down.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17So he put in extra columns, but left a gap about that thick.
0:11:17 > 0:11:23This is what the guide at Windsor told me, to prove he could do it.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26But my point is, if you'll let me get it out,
0:11:26 > 0:11:29is that these DO touch the ceiling.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33You're right, they do. Beautifully put and points for you at once.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37Surely, even with Christopher Wren's buildings, some of the columns must...
0:11:37 > 0:11:41No, you're thinking of David Copperfield.
0:11:41 > 0:11:43Floating floors.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46He was a great architect, but didn't invent the hover ceiling.
0:11:46 > 0:11:51That was David Blaine, they just hovered like that.
0:11:51 > 0:11:54- APPLAUSE - Very true.
0:11:54 > 0:11:58I've seen so many people who've bought Council homes and put these up.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02- Yeah, these columns.- I've passed them every day and never questioned.
0:12:02 > 0:12:06- No.- The different styles and nuances.- Yeah.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09And there's a name for every single part.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12What about the two lions on the gate post?
0:12:12 > 0:12:15- Do you have lions on your gate post? - Geoff and Marge.
0:12:16 > 0:12:19That answer was quick enough for me to believe you do.
0:12:19 > 0:12:23Very pleasing. Well, there you are.
0:12:23 > 0:12:26The columns on the Parthenon look straight because they are straight.
0:12:26 > 0:12:31Now look at these two shapes. They have names, right?
0:12:31 > 0:12:36- Kerpow!- Well, one is the kiki and the other is the bouba.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39- Tell me which is which. - Bouba's on the right, clearly.
0:12:39 > 0:12:43- Would you agree with that? - Kiki's the spiky one.
0:12:43 > 0:12:49- Would you agree?- I would say kiki is the splodgy one and bouba is the spiky one.- The other way round?
0:12:49 > 0:12:52What would you say, Johnny? I hate to think!
0:12:53 > 0:12:57I would say they should go back to their dating agency.
0:12:57 > 0:12:59LAUGHTER
0:12:59 > 0:13:03- And ask for a refund.- Shall we ask the audience what they think?
0:13:03 > 0:13:07If you think kiki is the one on the left, put your hand up.
0:13:07 > 0:13:09That's a huge majority.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12Who thinks kiki may be the one on the right?
0:13:12 > 0:13:17- There's a few of you going along with Rob.- Are you all Welsh?
0:13:17 > 0:13:19There is no right or wrong answer.
0:13:19 > 0:13:21Wolfgang Kohler was a, was a...
0:13:21 > 0:13:25- A pirate! - That's the word I was after(!)
0:13:25 > 0:13:27Arr-arr-arr-arr!
0:13:28 > 0:13:30APPLAUSE
0:13:30 > 0:13:32I was...
0:13:32 > 0:13:39I wanted to say "psychologist". I looked at you and all I could think of was "psychiatrist".
0:13:39 > 0:13:42I don't know if it's the same in other languages,
0:13:42 > 0:13:45but in English, point sounds pointy, blob sounds blobby.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48The point is it's true in all languages.
0:13:48 > 0:13:55That "kiki" sound to anybody, whatever their culture, they would think that was the spiky one.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59- Crack and blob.- And the bouba thing, they would think of as blobby.
0:13:59 > 0:14:05- Is it a form of onomatopoeia?- It is a form of "honour", as you say, "matter", as you point out, "peer".
0:14:05 > 0:14:11Well done. That's exactly what I would say. It seems to go deep within us, whatever our cultures.
0:14:11 > 0:14:17In other languages, for example, in Huambisa, which is a South American language,
0:14:17 > 0:14:2398% of people who didn't speak Huambisa, when seeing the words "chunchuikit" and "mauts",
0:14:23 > 0:14:29thought that if one was a fish and one was a bird, "chunchuikit" would be a bird and "mauts" a fish.
0:14:29 > 0:14:33- Flap-flap-flap.- Yeah, there is a deep onomatopoeia within...
0:14:33 > 0:14:36And yet the Welsh word for "carrot" is "moron".
0:14:36 > 0:14:39- LAUGHTER - Is it?
0:14:39 > 0:14:41There we go again, bucking the trend.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44If "moron" was going to be a word for a food,
0:14:44 > 0:14:49I'd say it would be for something more like a mousse or a pate.
0:14:49 > 0:14:51A potato. I would say a baked potato.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55- They're quite blunt - carrots. - Yes, but...
0:14:55 > 0:15:00"Moron" is the Greek for "blunt", which is why it means "obtuse, blunt-witted".
0:15:00 > 0:15:04"Oxy" is "sharp", "moron" is "blunt", hence oxymoron being a...
0:15:04 > 0:15:10Carrot is right for carrot because it's crunchy. "Carrot", when you bite it, "carrot"...
0:15:10 > 0:15:16Moron, there's nothing "moronny". Unless you're being inappropriate with your carrot and going...
0:15:16 > 0:15:18What about onion rings?
0:15:20 > 0:15:27- More-ish.- Exactly.- Yeah, moreish, rather than moron.- What rule do they come under? Onion rings?
0:15:27 > 0:15:32Let's not... It's not that every single word in every language is onomatopoeic.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35- They often are, though. - They often are, yes.
0:15:35 > 0:15:37- Desk!- Yeah...- Desk!
0:15:39 > 0:15:42Tin, tin, tin, tin.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45Boo-oo-oo-ook.
0:15:45 > 0:15:47Pen!
0:15:47 > 0:15:51This is how you teach a chimp to speak.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54Well, then, pay attention. Paper!
0:15:54 > 0:15:57APPLAUSE
0:15:58 > 0:16:01Very mean and most unjustified.
0:16:01 > 0:16:06And mother and father in a lot of languages, "mother" is the "ma-ma" towards you
0:16:06 > 0:16:10and "father" is the "ba" and "da" away from you.
0:16:10 > 0:16:16- Speaking as a father, can I say that my parenting doesn't consist of that? - No, it's the baby doing that.
0:16:16 > 0:16:22- The mother is towards me and the father is over there. He's "da", he's there.- But what if he's here?
0:16:22 > 0:16:26- Yeah, all right, but mostly... - Don't get cross with me!
0:16:26 > 0:16:32He's asked you some absolutely ludicrous things and you've sat there going, "Oh, your northern charm!"
0:16:32 > 0:16:37I give you one query and you look at me like I'm an arse!
0:16:37 > 0:16:41- I can't answer...- You've done this before on this show!
0:16:41 > 0:16:45From now on, you're my friend and my pet, Rob. I'm very sorry.
0:16:45 > 0:16:50Maybe I think you can take it more and that Johnny's a little more vulnerable.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54He's got big, soft, sad eyes. Look, you see?
0:16:54 > 0:16:56- My eyes are soft!- That's true.
0:16:56 > 0:17:01No, your eyes are keen. Mine are soft, yours are keen.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05- Mine are not keen.- You're looking for a weakness, whereas I...
0:17:05 > 0:17:10- I just... - Johnny has the eyes of trust. You have the eyes of prostitution.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13LAUGHTER
0:17:13 > 0:17:15Whoa!
0:17:15 > 0:17:19I thought I was watching the Mr Men behind Alan's head!
0:17:19 > 0:17:22I'm giving them different names.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25What names have you given them?
0:17:25 > 0:17:27Mr Frost and Gonorrhea.
0:17:27 > 0:17:29LAUGHTER
0:17:29 > 0:17:35- He does look like Mr Frost, actually.- Whoa!- Yeah, but he doesn't look like Gonorrhea, but I...
0:17:35 > 0:17:39I've never seen Mr Gonorrhea in the series with Arthur Lowe's voice.
0:17:39 > 0:17:41It looks like a humpbacked duck.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45- I don't know. I like the bright colours.- Yes, yes.
0:17:45 > 0:17:50I like my eyes and the fact that you leave me alone when I go quiet.
0:17:50 > 0:17:55Well done, everybody there, tarts and chimpanzees and all.
0:17:55 > 0:18:00After that display of topological trickery, perhaps we should get back to our books.
0:18:00 > 0:18:05Can you tell me what the most successful textbook of all time is?
0:18:05 > 0:18:09Is it the one that teaches you what LOL means and LMAO?
0:18:09 > 0:18:11- It probably is now.- Yeah.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14No, what's our theme for the day?
0:18:14 > 0:18:17- Geometry.- It's the...- Logarithms.
0:18:17 > 0:18:20- Not logarithms.- No, not logarithms!
0:18:20 > 0:18:23LAUGHTER
0:18:23 > 0:18:27- Oh!- Do you want my eyes? He might listen to you.
0:18:27 > 0:18:29Stephen, is it logarithms?
0:18:29 > 0:18:32No, but it's a jolly good guess.
0:18:32 > 0:18:37- Some ancient geometrical textbook written probably by a Greek. - Kites For Beginners!
0:18:37 > 0:18:40- Euclid.- Euclid is the right answer, David Mitchell.
0:18:40 > 0:18:44Euclid, Euclid's Stoicheia, Euclid's Elements.
0:18:44 > 0:18:48The propositions of Euclid are all about planes and conical sections
0:18:48 > 0:18:52and all the forms of the circle and the square,
0:18:52 > 0:18:57the provable facts of geometry that are the basis of everything, the physics that came afterwards.
0:18:57 > 0:19:03So he turned up and said, "This is why all the buildings have been falling down."
0:19:03 > 0:19:06Engineering obviously owed a huge amount to it.
0:19:06 > 0:19:12Many mathematicians believe his book is perhaps the most beautiful of all the mathematical books.
0:19:12 > 0:19:19We're looking at one of the earliest editions. What does it say there? "The most" something "philosopher".
0:19:19 > 0:19:22- I'm brilliant with Latin. - No, it's written in English.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25LAUGHTER
0:19:26 > 0:19:29APPLAUSE
0:19:29 > 0:19:34But the names... You're right, the names are written in Greek there.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37Yeah, and that's what threw me.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41Queen Elizabeth I's court magician, John Dee. Have you heard of him?
0:19:41 > 0:19:45- Hmm.- He was an extraordinary man who worked as a spy.
0:19:45 > 0:19:49- Can you tell me the cipher he used as a spy?- Invisible ink?
0:19:49 > 0:19:52No, he had a particular cipher, his call sign.
0:19:52 > 0:19:57And a writer many, many years later, who was extremely learned in the ways of the world,
0:19:57 > 0:20:01despite being thought of just as a thriller writer, used it...
0:20:01 > 0:20:04- Ian Fleming.- Yes.- 007.
0:20:04 > 0:20:09- Exactly. It was John Dee's call sign.- I sense points. - Yes, you will have seven points.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13- Seven points!- I could give you 700, written backwards. That's too much.
0:20:13 > 0:20:16I'm not going to speak again!
0:20:16 > 0:20:21He was also one of the people responsible for bringing Euclid to the attention of the world.
0:20:21 > 0:20:25Although he was known as a magician, he was all kinds of different things.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29- Was he an astrologer as well? - Absolutely right, yeah.
0:20:29 > 0:20:34Interestingly, or quite interestingly, which is all we're after, it was a pop-up book,
0:20:34 > 0:20:38Euclid, when John Dee produced it. Little pop-up geometric shapes.
0:20:38 > 0:20:43Pop-up books were for adults way back then.
0:20:43 > 0:20:48The thing is with pop-up books, when you read normal books, you end up putting them in front of you
0:20:48 > 0:20:51and kicking them from behind cos you think they're lazy.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54LAUGHTER
0:20:54 > 0:21:00- ALAN: Oh, come on, do something! - Come on, what's going to happen?
0:21:00 > 0:21:06And then, as a 19-year-old, you explain the difference between an illustration and a pop-up.
0:21:06 > 0:21:08That difference is? For points?
0:21:08 > 0:21:14If you kick the book hard enough, you break the spine and it's hard to take it to a second-hand bookshop.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18- Most of the pages fall out.- They would.- You could do a pop-down book.
0:21:18 > 0:21:23- That'd be like a good murder weapon. - Hold a pop-up book upside down.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26That'd be really bad if you're paranoid.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29If you open a book and every time you open a page, it goes...
0:21:32 > 0:21:34And what happenned to the giant?
0:21:34 > 0:21:35Ssh!
0:21:35 > 0:21:38Oh, now, um...
0:21:38 > 0:21:43Euclid's Elements has been a mathematical bestseller for over 22 centuries.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46Let's get our noses out of our text books and into our tuck boxes.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49What do you call a left-handed lemon?
0:21:49 > 0:21:52A potato.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55No, but you're thinking along the right lines.
0:21:55 > 0:21:58We're talking about molecules and their arrangement.
0:21:58 > 0:22:04- You mean the opposite to a lemon? - Exactly. The mirror image of it's molecular arrangement.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07- An orange.- Is the right answer! There's a lemon, obviously.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10- Seven points?- There's an orange. Seven points!
0:22:10 > 0:22:13You know I'm good at catching.
0:22:13 > 0:22:14You can stop a roll.
0:22:14 > 0:22:16No, you can't.
0:22:16 > 0:22:18LAUGHTER
0:22:18 > 0:22:19There's a lemon for you.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22Who else wants one? Well done.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25Have a lemon. There you are.
0:22:25 > 0:22:27I'm all right, Stephen. LAUGHTER
0:22:30 > 0:22:32Do they make scissors for both?
0:22:32 > 0:22:34LAUGHTER
0:22:34 > 0:22:35Or just...
0:22:36 > 0:22:37Does...
0:22:37 > 0:22:41APPLAUSE
0:22:41 > 0:22:44Does a lemon cut out boys and girls together in a piece of paper
0:22:44 > 0:22:47and the orange is going, "I'm rubbish at this!"?
0:22:47 > 0:22:49"Cos I'm left-handed"?
0:22:49 > 0:22:52Yeah, it just looks like a bunch of oranges falling over.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55It's along those lines, Johnny, yes.
0:22:55 > 0:23:00the arrangement of the aroma molecules is exactly the same, except a mirror-image.
0:23:00 > 0:23:04The result is as different a smell as the smell of a lemon to an orange.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07If you smell an orange from the wrong direction, it smells like a lemon?
0:23:07 > 0:23:11It doesn't quite work like that because this particular quality - chirality -
0:23:11 > 0:23:14is present in our nose molecules, too.
0:23:14 > 0:23:18It hooks onto them and we recognise them in the same way.
0:23:18 > 0:23:22So the molecules, as it were, dock with other molecules?
0:23:22 > 0:23:25They kind of do. It's all very chemical, obviously.
0:23:25 > 0:23:30It's interesting because all these chemicals that are discovered to be right-handed and left-handed -
0:23:30 > 0:23:33like glucose! Only right-handed glucose can be metabolised by the body.
0:23:33 > 0:23:37And so natural glucose in sugar, for example, is all right-handed
0:23:37 > 0:23:42and all the left-handed ones are the diet ones - sucrose and that sort of thing -
0:23:42 > 0:23:45which aren't metabolised - you can eat as much as you like without gaining weight
0:23:45 > 0:23:50because they don't get metabolised by the body. So there are useful sides to this handedness.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53You've got to go in and ask for right-handed fruit?
0:23:53 > 0:23:54LAUGHTER
0:23:54 > 0:23:56Are you left- or right-handed?
0:23:56 > 0:24:04I'm right handed, but my friend thinks he's right-handed but his wife thinks his handwriting's
0:24:04 > 0:24:08- so bad because he's left-handed and lives in denial.- Oh!
0:24:08 > 0:24:12Any left-handers? Are you all right-handed? Do you know the proportion
0:24:12 > 0:24:17- of right-handed people around the world, as opposed to left-handed people?- Nine out of ten.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20It's a little less, they think it's between 70 and 90.
0:24:20 > 0:24:23- It'll be far less when the war comes.- The what?
0:24:23 > 0:24:26- The Morecambes?- The war comes.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29- What's a Warcombe?- The left-handed and the right-handed.- Warcombe?
0:24:29 > 0:24:33- No, when the war...- Oh, when the war comes! I'm sorry.
0:24:33 > 0:24:35LAUGHTER
0:24:35 > 0:24:41- I'm so sorry.- Morecambe?! - I thought it was a family called the Warcombes!
0:24:41 > 0:24:46Surely one day, the right-handed will rise up and crush the left-handed.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50- They may do.- Yeah, cos there's no way I'm feasting on that.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52Fair point. I think.
0:24:52 > 0:24:54But yeah...
0:24:54 > 0:24:59So, yes. Is there a prevailing theory as to why right-handedness is the most common?
0:24:59 > 0:25:03Isn't it sides of the brain? Different sides do different things,
0:25:03 > 0:25:05you look off to the right when you're making up a lie,
0:25:05 > 0:25:08you look to the left if you're recalling something real.
0:25:08 > 0:25:13I would imagine it's to do with that and how straight the columns are within your brain.
0:25:13 > 0:25:17And whether or not they actually touch the roof of your head.
0:25:17 > 0:25:21The molecules that make oranges smell orangey and lemons smell lemony
0:25:21 > 0:25:27are the same, just mirror images, so a left-handed lemon, in a sense, is an orange.
0:25:27 > 0:25:31- How many cricket pitches are there in Kansas?- One big one!
0:25:31 > 0:25:38Well, certainly it's a big square shape, but not a cricket pitch shape, Kansas.
0:25:38 > 0:25:44- It's to do with the measurement of corn, it's... It's nothing like that? - No, you're on the right lines.
0:25:44 > 0:25:50Americans, how do they measure? Do they use the metric system, or a version of our imperial system?
0:25:50 > 0:25:55- They use yards and feet and miles and things like that.- And the length of a cricket pitch, which is...?
0:25:55 > 0:25:58- 22 yards.- 22 yards, and it's called a chain.
0:25:58 > 0:26:05- OK.- And when America was being measured out, they used these ancient English measurements.
0:26:05 > 0:26:08A chain is 22 yards, there are ten chains to a...?
0:26:09 > 0:26:11A word that's still used in sport.
0:26:11 > 0:26:17- Furlong?- A furlong! Brilliant. More points! Seven points! 80 chains to a...?
0:26:17 > 0:26:22- Mile.- Mile.- Mile, yes. We're doing very well here! And an acre is ten square chains.
0:26:23 > 0:26:28That's where an acre is derived. And this man, Gunter, Gunter's chain -
0:26:28 > 0:26:33he actually had a chain that he used, like that, to measure out the land.
0:26:33 > 0:26:39So the whole of the northern Midwestern states were initially into blocks of 24 miles by 24.
0:26:39 > 0:26:44Within that, sub-divided into 20 chains by 20 chains, known as forties, cos that would be 40 acres.
0:26:44 > 0:26:48You may remember in The Grapes Of Wrath, that the farmstead is the smallest type
0:26:48 > 0:26:51of farm, which is known as a forty.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54- I know a thing about the forty... - Yes?- ..the 40 acres.
0:26:54 > 0:27:00- Yeah.- Did they not, when they had the emancipation of the slaves, were they not each entitled to a forty?
0:27:00 > 0:27:05- That was indeed right.- And a mule. Which is why Spike Lee called his company 40 Acres and a Mule.
0:27:05 > 0:27:10- That's the thing I know about the forty.- Seven points again! It's like the seven times table.
0:27:10 > 0:27:14APPLAUSE
0:27:15 > 0:27:21- And is the country still divided by the Willie Nelson Line? - Yes, you can see them there.
0:27:21 > 0:27:26Because Kansas, which is one of the most rectangular of any of the states, almost perfectly so,
0:27:26 > 0:27:29you can actually calculate how many it is.
0:27:29 > 0:27:37And it's 3,474,386,388 cricket pitches would fit in. Apparently.
0:27:37 > 0:27:41- That's quite different to the answer I had in mind.- Is it? Well, you can save it
0:27:41 > 0:27:44by telling me, what's the capital of Kansas?
0:27:44 > 0:27:50- Arkansas.- No, that's another state! I need the name of the...
0:27:50 > 0:27:51Kansas City?
0:27:51 > 0:27:53Oh, it's not, oh!
0:27:53 > 0:27:56- All those sevens! - I've lost all my points!
0:27:56 > 0:27:59Squirreled all your sevens away. It's Topeka.
0:27:59 > 0:28:03- Topeka, Kansas?- I've never even heard of Topeka.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06- Topeka Mockingbird? - Topeka Mockingbird!
0:28:06 > 0:28:08GURGLING CHUCKLE
0:28:10 > 0:28:16Little gurgle! But actually, in terms of real cricket pitches for playing cricket on,
0:28:16 > 0:28:20seven that we can find in Kansas. Which is more than you might expect.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23Not in a state of that size, that's hardly any!
0:28:23 > 0:28:27- Well, for America...- They've got room for more than 3 billion more!
0:28:27 > 0:28:31They've got room for more, but... Is that you or Mike Gatting?
0:28:32 > 0:28:38Of course, if you're talking about that area, Elvis would be one of the most famous citizens.
0:28:38 > 0:28:40Now, where was Elvis born? Does anybody know? Tupelo.
0:28:40 > 0:28:42Tupelo, Mississippi, yeah.
0:28:42 > 0:28:46Of course, then moved to Memphis, in a different state, Tennessee.
0:28:46 > 0:28:51And that was where he became very, very famous and started off in 1955
0:28:51 > 0:28:54with "That's All Right, Mama", which was the Sun Records label
0:28:54 > 0:29:00at that point, in Memphis. Then he signed with RCA Victor Records in New York.
0:29:00 > 0:29:04With them, he did "Heartbreak Hotel". Right the way through the movie years...
0:29:04 > 0:29:06He turned his back on Sam Phillips, that was...
0:29:06 > 0:29:10Well, no, because Sam came to his opening night in Vegas in '69,
0:29:10 > 0:29:12and Elvis can be heard saying, "Sam, this one's for you."
0:29:12 > 0:29:16I think Sam, with the greatest respect, is more my area than yours,
0:29:16 > 0:29:20which is not something I ever thought I'd get a chance to say.
0:29:20 > 0:29:25He then went on, until his untimely death in 1977.
0:29:25 > 0:29:28I hadn't said anything for a while.
0:29:28 > 0:29:30- LAUGHTER - The date of his death?
0:29:30 > 0:29:32August 16th, 1977.
0:29:32 > 0:29:34APPLAUSE
0:29:34 > 0:29:37It's like Radio 2 in the middle of the night!
0:29:39 > 0:29:43He has come out with such bilge!
0:29:43 > 0:29:46And you sit there like we're in Rain Man, loving it!
0:29:47 > 0:29:50I come out with something factual,
0:29:50 > 0:29:54and there are a lot of Elvis fans out there who will be loving that.
0:29:54 > 0:29:59Why are they all catching? Why is nobody playing in the middle? Did no-one explain cricket for them?
0:29:59 > 0:30:02They are, but they're behind that bloke.
0:30:04 > 0:30:07- So he was waiting to go in? - Nothing to see!
0:30:07 > 0:30:13Anyway, after that bombshell... And I do love you, Rob, I want you to know that. I really, really do.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16Yeah, but don't say it while you're reading something else.
0:30:16 > 0:30:21- I've got it written down. - That's what my dad always did on my birthday -
0:30:21 > 0:30:24"Of course I love you, I'm reading it here, it's what your mother wrote."
0:30:24 > 0:30:29Tell me the oldest international sporting fixture on Earth.
0:30:29 > 0:30:32- England v Australia at cricket. - No. It is cricket, though.
0:30:32 > 0:30:36- England v Scotland at cricket.- No, it's America v Canada at cricket.
0:30:36 > 0:30:39We'll take a bird's-eye view now.
0:30:39 > 0:30:44What's the best place to go to look into the future?
0:30:44 > 0:30:48- A sci-fi convention. - A sci-fi convention?- Yeah.
0:30:48 > 0:30:52Right, OK. Maybe.
0:30:52 > 0:30:58- When you see the stars and the sun, that's old light. - That's looking into the past.
0:30:58 > 0:31:04- Do you have to go past that? - You look backwards because history teaches us the future.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09Because from history, we learn patterns.
0:31:09 > 0:31:11And as Dr Phil says time and time again,
0:31:11 > 0:31:16the greatest indicator of future behaviour is past behaviour.
0:31:16 > 0:31:21- When are you going to realise he's not interested?- I'm so...
0:31:21 > 0:31:23LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:31:24 > 0:31:29- Tell him you're interested.- I'm very interested. A very good answer.
0:31:29 > 0:31:32Unlike when you speak, he's not frightened.
0:31:34 > 0:31:39Just to return briefly... Just to pull the reins in a little,
0:31:39 > 0:31:42there is a place where physically you can look into the future.
0:31:42 > 0:31:47- You're not literally looking into the future.- Is it by the International Date Line?
0:31:47 > 0:31:53- Exactly.- Does it have the magic hill where you're going up, even though you're...
0:31:53 > 0:31:59- No, it's not that. No, this is literally the date line. - You see, that was stupid!
0:31:59 > 0:32:05- It wasn't stupid.- I knew that was wrong and he went, "Of course not, Johnny." He just doesn't like you.
0:32:05 > 0:32:08- This divides...- Thanks, Stephen. - That's fine.
0:32:08 > 0:32:16So if you're on... Looking at it, we'd say the left-hand side of that red line, right?
0:32:16 > 0:32:19In time, it's ahead of the right-hand side,
0:32:19 > 0:32:24so if you were to fly from Los Angeles in America to Sydney, Australia,
0:32:24 > 0:32:27you would lose a day, as I did a few months ago.
0:32:27 > 0:32:30If I stood perfectly on that line...
0:32:30 > 0:32:33- You'd drown.- Let's just say...
0:32:33 > 0:32:36LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:32:36 > 0:32:39Unless you stood on the very spot.
0:32:39 > 0:32:42If I stood on that line and there's an accident,
0:32:42 > 0:32:47could I jump over the line and stop yourself from doing it?
0:32:47 > 0:32:50- LAUGHTER - Aside...
0:32:50 > 0:32:54You could warn yourself. You could wave back and...
0:32:54 > 0:33:00- You're thinking of Michael J Fox. - Can you jump back and stop yourself making mistakes?
0:33:00 > 0:33:06- You can't literally do that, but... - You lost a day flying, so it was two days later...
0:33:06 > 0:33:09I went on the 18th of December and I arrived on the 20th.
0:33:09 > 0:33:15- Having only lived one day?- Yeah. - You were only a day older, yet the world was two days older.
0:33:15 > 0:33:17Part of the world was two days older.
0:33:17 > 0:33:23If you did that every day, you'd live twice the number of days of most humans
0:33:23 > 0:33:28and would appear, despite only having lived, say, 80 years, to have lived for 160.
0:33:28 > 0:33:33- Yes.- "Amazing, a 160-year-old man! What did he achieve?" "Nothing. He had a lot of airline fuel."
0:33:33 > 0:33:36Would you struggle to hold down a job?
0:33:36 > 0:33:41- Yes.- Yeah.- Yes, you would. - In terms of a pension?
0:33:41 > 0:33:46You could maybe do it if you lived on the Diomede Islands. They're at the very top.
0:33:46 > 0:33:51- What's that area of water between Russia and...?- Bering Strait. - Exactly. We can zoom in there.
0:33:51 > 0:33:58There's the International Date Line and Big Diomede and Small Diomede, the greater and the lesser Diomedes.
0:33:58 > 0:34:03If you were stood with your child and he had a pet rabbit and it died,
0:34:03 > 0:34:07could you jump over that time line with the rabbit...
0:34:07 > 0:34:12- It would come back to life, still be ill and die. - ..and jump back with it?
0:34:12 > 0:34:16I'm going to ask you what your opinion is. What do you think?
0:34:16 > 0:34:19I think, me personally, but I'm selfish,
0:34:19 > 0:34:25- what I would do, I'd get a jet ski and stay on the line and go round the world.- Right.
0:34:25 > 0:34:31- Yes.- And stay at my perfect weight and this age for the rest of my life.
0:34:31 > 0:34:34I would go round the world continually following that line,
0:34:34 > 0:34:37shouting advice and being mistaken for God.
0:34:37 > 0:34:40- LAUGHTER - And if...
0:34:40 > 0:34:44if you followed the line all the way over the pole, where would you end up?
0:34:44 > 0:34:46So the line doesn't go all the way round?
0:34:46 > 0:34:52- Yes, it does. The other side of the pole...- He'd end up in Greenwich, eventually.- The Greenwich Meridian.
0:34:52 > 0:34:55Is it mean time where people go, "He's not God, he's Satan"?
0:34:55 > 0:35:00- The point is, the line is arbitrary. - "Fill yer boots!" - We decided to draw a line.
0:35:00 > 0:35:03Somewhere, we had to divide the world up,
0:35:03 > 0:35:09- for maps and for navigation... - How did we do that? - We decided that...
0:35:09 > 0:35:12- We didn't!- Yes, we did, literally, Britain, we did.- But we didn't!
0:35:12 > 0:35:15No, our culture did, some hundred years ago.
0:35:15 > 0:35:20- We nominated Greenwich to be the line...- So why can't...- When we discovered the Earth was round
0:35:20 > 0:35:23and discovered how these things would best be parcelled out,
0:35:23 > 0:35:28we said, let's have a meridian line, about which the rest will go, and we put it through Greenwich,
0:35:28 > 0:35:33- where the Naval colleges were.- So, a line is straight cos it's straight, but I can't be God on a jet ski?
0:35:33 > 0:35:36That's about right. That seems to be the sum of it.
0:35:36 > 0:35:40I wouldn't be surprised if my parents came in and had a word with you
0:35:40 > 0:35:46and asked if Johnny could be taken to another class because they feel Rob isn't learning.
0:35:46 > 0:35:48APPLAUSE
0:35:50 > 0:35:54That's exceptionally well expressed.
0:35:54 > 0:35:59Hang on. The International Date Line is wiggly. The Greenwich Meridian isn't.
0:35:59 > 0:36:02It passes round territories and island groups.
0:36:02 > 0:36:06So two houses on the same street aren't on two different days?
0:36:06 > 0:36:10It tries to avoid going through land. The closest it gets is there.
0:36:10 > 0:36:16- Does Small Diomede look at Big Diomede and watch people get older faster?- Yeah, exactly.
0:36:16 > 0:36:21If you're standing on Big Diomede, you are looking at the past.
0:36:21 > 0:36:24If you stand on Little one...
0:36:24 > 0:36:28It's Friday and you're on Big Diomede, you see them on Thursday.
0:36:28 > 0:36:32- And you're already drunk.- Yeah. - And they're hungover!
0:36:32 > 0:36:35- Are you ready to move on?- Yes.
0:36:35 > 0:36:39- So the best place to see into tomorrow...- I'm tired of being odd.
0:36:39 > 0:36:43Oh, bless! The best place to see into tomorrow is the Diomede Islands
0:36:43 > 0:36:46on opposite sides of the International Date Line.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49Where does the extra square in this diagram come from?
0:36:49 > 0:36:55Those two are the same size and made up of elements of the same size.
0:36:55 > 0:36:58There's a white square there, a bit's missing.
0:36:58 > 0:37:03- Oh, yeah.- How can that be? - Because some of the triangles...
0:37:03 > 0:37:06Have a look at it actually happening.
0:37:06 > 0:37:10That one goes there, that one goes there, that goes there...
0:37:10 > 0:37:12Like so, like so, like so.
0:37:13 > 0:37:18- So now there's more space in there? - Yeah. That can't be possible, can it?
0:37:18 > 0:37:20Yet my eyes tell me it is.
0:37:20 > 0:37:24It's not even longer. It's the same, isn't it?
0:37:24 > 0:37:26- Yeah.- Um...
0:37:26 > 0:37:30- It is a cheat.- That's witchcraft! - It is rather.
0:37:30 > 0:37:34Funnily enough, it was a magician who discovered this.
0:37:34 > 0:37:41- It's five blocks high, the same number of blocks long by the look of it.- It's a very small, subtle cheat.
0:37:41 > 0:37:46The hypotenuse in the top one and the bottom one seem to be the same, but they are curved.
0:37:46 > 0:37:51The red triangle has a ratio of 5 to 2, the blue triangle has a ratio of 8 to 3,
0:37:51 > 0:37:54so the two triangles are not similar.
0:37:54 > 0:38:00- It's going like that and like that? - One has a slightly dipped line, the other has a slightly "up" line.
0:38:00 > 0:38:04The eye assumes they're straight and is puzzled by that gap.
0:38:04 > 0:38:08- We thought you'd like that. It's quite interesting.- I quite like it.
0:38:08 > 0:38:11It's Curry's Paradox. It's simply a trick.
0:38:11 > 0:38:16The gap appears because the hypotenuse is imperceptibly bent.
0:38:16 > 0:38:21- All of which brings... - Curry's Paradox?- Yeah. - Should you buy the insurance?
0:38:21 > 0:38:24LAUGHTER
0:38:24 > 0:38:29- Or just risk it? - All of which brings us squarely up against General Ignorance,
0:38:29 > 0:38:34so fingers on buzzers. What's the best place to punch a shark?
0:38:34 > 0:38:36In a pub.
0:38:38 > 0:38:44In a pub after loads of pork scratchings when he's really dehydrated
0:38:44 > 0:38:51and then you look really hard and people who aren't sharks go, "Don't want to mess with him!"
0:38:51 > 0:38:53- In the eye.- In the eye is right.
0:38:53 > 0:39:00A lot of people think the nose. They may be confusing it with dogs, but the eye is the best place.
0:39:00 > 0:39:06The eye or the gill. More people in the world are bitten by New Yorkers every year than they are by sharks.
0:39:06 > 0:39:09Not in the water, though!
0:39:09 > 0:39:14- You have to take into account the relative seriousness of that event.- Well, no, actually.
0:39:14 > 0:39:1981% of victims attacked and bitten by sharks suffered minor injuries.
0:39:19 > 0:39:23How many New Yorkers a year bite someone's leg off?
0:39:23 > 0:39:27I don't know, but they may cause rabies and other hideous diseases.
0:39:27 > 0:39:33- Oh, well...- Certainly more people are killed in America by lavatory accidents than sharks.
0:39:33 > 0:39:38What saddens me is 120 million sharks every year are killed by us human beings.
0:39:38 > 0:39:43- For their fins.- Just for their bloody fins!- Just for what?- Fins. - Shark fin soup.
0:39:43 > 0:39:48The rest of their body is thrown in the water. A shark fin is tasteless as well.
0:39:48 > 0:39:52- Chicken stock is added to it to give it flavour.- But I hate sharks.
0:39:52 > 0:39:56They're beautiful animals. They don't harm anybody.
0:39:56 > 0:39:57Because you find them ugly?
0:39:57 > 0:40:01I think they're scary. They're incredibly scary.
0:40:01 > 0:40:05Every cell in my body, when I see that, says, "It is the enemy!"
0:40:05 > 0:40:10They've got far more reason to be scared of a human than a human has of a shark.
0:40:10 > 0:40:15- Most mammals see human beings in the same way. - Look at the miracle of their teeth!
0:40:15 > 0:40:19That's extraordinary. They have rows of teeth. Their teeth go backwards.
0:40:19 > 0:40:23They bite, they fall out and the next one literally comes forward.
0:40:23 > 0:40:27They've got a conveyor belt of rows of teeth.
0:40:27 > 0:40:33More impressive than that, Stephen, is how she's managed to do her lipstick under water.
0:40:33 > 0:40:35It is rather. Very pretty.
0:40:35 > 0:40:40Your talk of razor-sharp teeth on a conveyor belt is making them sound quite sweet(!)
0:40:42 > 0:40:49A shark's nose is a shade too close to its mouth to go jabbing around there, so go for the gills or eyes.
0:40:49 > 0:40:51How many legs does an octopus have?
0:40:51 > 0:40:54- Oh, I mean...- Ahh!- Ahh!
0:40:54 > 0:40:58- The clue is in "octo".- Does it vary depending on the breed?- Two.
0:40:58 > 0:41:02- Two legs is the right answer. - I saw one in panto.
0:41:02 > 0:41:05APPLAUSE
0:41:05 > 0:41:10That's to say, when octopuses move around on the bottom of the ocean,
0:41:10 > 0:41:14they use two of their tentacles for ambulatory gait
0:41:14 > 0:41:20and the other four they use for holding food, so they could be said to have two legs and six arms.
0:41:20 > 0:41:24How much of the moon can you see from the Ea-arth?
0:41:24 > 0:41:26LAUGHTER
0:41:28 > 0:41:30Well...
0:41:31 > 0:41:33You can see one side of it.
0:41:33 > 0:41:39Yes. There is this strange thing called libration which is like vibration beginning with an L.
0:41:39 > 0:41:43It's a thing that was noted by quite a few of the early astronomers.
0:41:43 > 0:41:50Can I say... Sorry, Stephen, but if that's an acceptable way of defining a word...
0:41:50 > 0:41:55- What?- "Libration - it's like vibration, but beginning with an L."
0:41:55 > 0:42:01- Just so you could picture it in your heads. Is that bad?- I was with you already with "libration".
0:42:01 > 0:42:04I thought you might have heard it as "libation".
0:42:04 > 0:42:10- What does it mean?- I was about to tell you, then somebody came and said...- It wasn't me!
0:42:10 > 0:42:13I'll tell you. You get this jiggling effect.
0:42:13 > 0:42:18- Basically, you can see about 59% of the surface of the moon from Earth. - At one time?
0:42:18 > 0:42:22Obviously, when it's a new moon or whatever, it's a lot less,
0:42:22 > 0:42:26but you can see 59% of the surface, rather than just 50.
0:42:26 > 0:42:30And that cosmic wobble brings us to the end of another QI show.
0:42:30 > 0:42:34It's time to check the form and see what scores we're dealing with.
0:42:34 > 0:42:38It's absolutely fascinating. It couldn't be "fascinating-er"!
0:42:38 > 0:42:43We have a tie, would you believe it, for third place -
0:42:43 > 0:42:46Rob and Johnny on plus two!
0:42:46 > 0:42:49APPLAUSE
0:42:51 > 0:42:56Well, in second place, of course, with four points,
0:42:56 > 0:42:58is David Mitchell!
0:42:58 > 0:43:01APPLAUSE
0:43:01 > 0:43:07- I've got a feeling this is divisible by seven - 21 points for Alan Davies!- Thank you.
0:43:07 > 0:43:09CHEERING
0:43:15 > 0:43:18And that's all from this geometrical edition of QI,
0:43:18 > 0:43:19so it's good night
0:43:19 > 0:43:22from Johnny, Rob, David, Alan and me. Good night.
0:43:22 > 0:43:25APPLAUSE
0:43:38 > 0:43:42Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:43:42 > 0:43:45Email subtitling@bbc.co.uk