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This programme contains some strong language | 0:00:03 | 0:00:10 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:00:24 | 0:00:29 | |
CHEERING | 0:00:29 | 0:00:31 | |
Hello! Welcome to QI | 0:00:31 | 0:00:35 | |
where, today, I'm sifting through an oubliette | 0:00:35 | 0:00:37 | |
of ologies, ographies and odoxies. | 0:00:37 | 0:00:40 | |
I'm joined on this ontological outing today by an ologist. | 0:00:40 | 0:00:44 | |
It's Bill Bailey. CHEERING | 0:00:44 | 0:00:48 | |
An ographer, it's Phill Jupitus. | 0:00:49 | 0:00:53 | |
CHEERING | 0:00:53 | 0:00:57 | |
An osopher, it's Claudia Winkleman. | 0:00:57 | 0:01:00 | |
CHEERING | 0:01:00 | 0:01:05 | |
And oggy, oggy, oggy. | 0:01:05 | 0:01:07 | |
AUDIENCE: Oi, oi, oi! | 0:01:07 | 0:01:09 | |
It's Alan Davies. | 0:01:09 | 0:01:10 | |
CHEERING | 0:01:10 | 0:01:14 | |
And the buzzers are, oh, so logical. | 0:01:16 | 0:01:18 | |
Bill goes... | 0:01:18 | 0:01:19 | |
# Oh, oh, oh, it's magic! # | 0:01:19 | 0:01:23 | |
-PHILL: -# You know... # | 0:01:23 | 0:01:25 | |
And Phill goes... | 0:01:25 | 0:01:27 | |
# Oh, Carol. # | 0:01:27 | 0:01:29 | |
You are a mover. | 0:01:29 | 0:01:31 | |
And Claudia goes... | 0:01:31 | 0:01:32 | |
# Oh, what a night. # | 0:01:32 | 0:01:35 | |
-This is good. -And Alan goes... | 0:01:35 | 0:01:37 | |
-"Oh, no!" -LAUGHTER | 0:01:37 | 0:01:42 | |
OK. Let us start with this. | 0:01:42 | 0:01:44 | |
How might the CIA win the Cold War with this? | 0:01:44 | 0:01:50 | |
OK, so I've got one for each of you. | 0:01:50 | 0:01:52 | |
-You should have one sitting there. -Yes, yes, yes. | 0:01:52 | 0:01:54 | |
It's like the old arcade game. | 0:01:54 | 0:01:56 | |
One of you presses the thing to try and fox the other, | 0:01:56 | 0:01:59 | |
that's it, and one of you has to grab. | 0:01:59 | 0:02:02 | |
That's it. Grab the thing. | 0:02:02 | 0:02:03 | |
Oh, Bill, very good. Have you got that? | 0:02:03 | 0:02:07 | |
CLATTERING | 0:02:07 | 0:02:10 | |
That's it. Harder, harder. | 0:02:10 | 0:02:12 | |
Oh! | 0:02:12 | 0:02:14 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:02:14 | 0:02:15 | |
-Are you regretting giving us these? -I am now. Yes. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:17 | |
It's not like Kazak lottery or something...? | 0:02:17 | 0:02:20 | |
No, it's not a lottery. What other bits of the game | 0:02:20 | 0:02:22 | |
might you use if it wasn't the balls for the lottery? | 0:02:22 | 0:02:24 | |
-The grabber. -The grabber, yes. | 0:02:24 | 0:02:26 | |
The CIA. What would they use it for? | 0:02:26 | 0:02:28 | |
-ALAN: -Torture. | 0:02:28 | 0:02:29 | |
Grabbing the balls of a spy. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:31 | |
-Oh! -Torture. Torture. | 0:02:31 | 0:02:33 | |
No, it's not that at all. | 0:02:33 | 0:02:35 | |
We're going to head to an "O" area. | 0:02:35 | 0:02:36 | |
-We're going to go to oceanography... -Oceanography. | 0:02:36 | 0:02:39 | |
..OK? And using... | 0:02:39 | 0:02:40 | |
Getting submarines. | 0:02:40 | 0:02:42 | |
Yes. | 0:02:42 | 0:02:43 | |
-Shut up! -Yes! Yes! | 0:02:43 | 0:02:44 | |
Absolutely right. LAUGHTER | 0:02:44 | 0:02:46 | |
Yes. That is absolutely right! | 0:02:46 | 0:02:48 | |
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:02:48 | 0:02:50 | |
The CIA used the biggest claw grab ever constructed | 0:02:51 | 0:02:55 | |
to get hold of a Soviet strategic ballistic missile submarine | 0:02:55 | 0:02:59 | |
which had sunk in the Pacific. | 0:02:59 | 0:03:01 | |
So, 1968, they began Project Azorian | 0:03:01 | 0:03:04 | |
and the aim was to recover the Soviet sub K-129 | 0:03:04 | 0:03:08 | |
and they got a ship called the Hughes Glomar Explorer | 0:03:08 | 0:03:11 | |
and, from the outside, it looked just like any other ship - | 0:03:11 | 0:03:13 | |
but, in the middle, | 0:03:13 | 0:03:15 | |
the major portion of the hull could be opened up underwater | 0:03:15 | 0:03:18 | |
to reveal a vast... ALAN CACKLES | 0:03:18 | 0:03:20 | |
-Oh, my God. -It really is like a movie. | 0:03:20 | 0:03:22 | |
-Look at that. -Wow. -To reveal a vast internal... | 0:03:22 | 0:03:25 | |
They called it a moon pool. | 0:03:25 | 0:03:26 | |
Does the boat not sink at that point? | 0:03:26 | 0:03:28 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:03:28 | 0:03:30 | |
Apparently not. They put down the largest... | 0:03:30 | 0:03:32 | |
Exactly like you've got in the game. | 0:03:32 | 0:03:34 | |
The largest grabbing claw... | 0:03:34 | 0:03:35 | |
-Like one of these? -Yep. Nicknamed Clementine. | 0:03:35 | 0:03:38 | |
And they put it right over the wreck, | 0:03:38 | 0:03:39 | |
but what always happens in these arcade games | 0:03:39 | 0:03:41 | |
-when you grab something? -There's no grip. | 0:03:41 | 0:03:43 | |
Then it's immediately released | 0:03:43 | 0:03:44 | |
-and you get the bunny you didn't want. -Yes. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:46 | |
That is exactly what happened. | 0:03:46 | 0:03:48 | |
-They got a bunny? -Well... | 0:03:48 | 0:03:49 | |
an underwater rabbit. | 0:03:49 | 0:03:51 | |
"Oh, thank God! | 0:03:51 | 0:03:53 | |
"I thought no-one was going to come!" | 0:03:53 | 0:03:55 | |
I thought you were going to say that nobody on the boat had any change. | 0:03:55 | 0:03:59 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:03:59 | 0:04:01 | |
-"Oh!" -No, halfway up, they dropped it. | 0:04:01 | 0:04:04 | |
Two thirds of it actually broke away, | 0:04:04 | 0:04:05 | |
so they did manage to get a third of it, | 0:04:05 | 0:04:07 | |
which, fortunately, had two nuclear torpedoes on it. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:09 | |
Oh! They nearly dropped those, then. | 0:04:09 | 0:04:12 | |
-That would have been... -That would have been bad. Yeah. | 0:04:12 | 0:04:14 | |
-Where was this, then? -In the North Pacific. | 0:04:14 | 0:04:16 | |
Wait a minute, is this true? | 0:04:16 | 0:04:17 | |
Yes, it's absolutely true, happened in 1968. Yes. | 0:04:17 | 0:04:19 | |
This is an amazing show. | 0:04:19 | 0:04:21 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:04:21 | 0:04:23 | |
And then there was another experiment | 0:04:23 | 0:04:24 | |
where they had both nuclear silos | 0:04:24 | 0:04:26 | |
and they kept popping... | 0:04:26 | 0:04:28 | |
They didn't know which missile the silo was going to come out of, | 0:04:28 | 0:04:31 | |
so they got a giant hammer and they just tried to... | 0:04:31 | 0:04:33 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:04:33 | 0:04:35 | |
Tried to whack it, | 0:04:35 | 0:04:38 | |
and it was called the Whack-A-Nuke. | 0:04:38 | 0:04:39 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:04:39 | 0:04:42 | |
Talking about amusement arcades, | 0:04:42 | 0:04:43 | |
the claw machines, in March 2017, | 0:04:43 | 0:04:45 | |
a three-year-old Irish boy called Jamie Bracken-Murphy, | 0:04:45 | 0:04:48 | |
he SO wanted a furry dinosaur | 0:04:48 | 0:04:49 | |
that he climbed up the dispensing shoot and into the machine. | 0:04:49 | 0:04:52 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:04:52 | 0:04:56 | |
-IN FAUX IRISH ACCENT: -"They got a child." | 0:04:56 | 0:04:58 | |
"There's a child there! There's a child!" | 0:04:58 | 0:05:00 | |
-They'll have to grab him out. -LAUGHTER | 0:05:00 | 0:05:02 | |
He wouldn't come out without the dinosaurs. | 0:05:02 | 0:05:04 | |
He'd got two furry dinosaurs. | 0:05:04 | 0:05:05 | |
So, in the end, he was rescued by a passing fireman | 0:05:05 | 0:05:08 | |
and he was allowed to keep the dinosaurs, | 0:05:08 | 0:05:10 | |
but I think... So he should be. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:12 | |
I think they should replace the current adoption system with this. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:15 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:05:15 | 0:05:17 | |
The toys are always a little bit rubbish, aren't they? | 0:05:17 | 0:05:20 | |
-They're always a little bit cheap. -Yeah. | 0:05:20 | 0:05:21 | |
Did you know that there are sort of disposable submarines now? | 0:05:21 | 0:05:24 | |
80% of the cocaine which leaves Colombia | 0:05:24 | 0:05:26 | |
does so in something called a "narco sub" | 0:05:26 | 0:05:28 | |
and it is a cheaply made submarine that's made out of fibreglass. | 0:05:28 | 0:05:31 | |
And what they do is they take the submarine as far as the US coast | 0:05:31 | 0:05:33 | |
where they get rid of the cocaine and just dump the submarine. | 0:05:33 | 0:05:36 | |
Apparently the coast is absolutely littered with... | 0:05:36 | 0:05:38 | |
-No! -Yeah. -Did you know this? | 0:05:38 | 0:05:40 | |
I did know this, yeah. | 0:05:40 | 0:05:41 | |
How do you know this? | 0:05:41 | 0:05:42 | |
-I don't know, I just... -He owns one. | 0:05:42 | 0:05:44 | |
-I've got one. -LAUGHTER | 0:05:44 | 0:05:48 | |
Bill uses it to smuggle hummus out of Morocco. | 0:05:48 | 0:05:52 | |
I've just... I've got an interest in the... | 0:05:52 | 0:05:54 | |
-In the Mexican drug trade. -Right. | 0:05:54 | 0:05:56 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:05:56 | 0:05:58 | |
-When you say an "interest"... -A natural interest. | 0:05:58 | 0:06:01 | |
A lot of cocaine gets put into these pallets and, if the police turn up, | 0:06:02 | 0:06:06 | |
they just dump it over the side. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:08 | |
And a massive paletts of cocaine washed up on a beach in North Devon | 0:06:08 | 0:06:11 | |
and a local dog walker found it. | 0:06:11 | 0:06:14 | |
-Yeah. -And the dog, you know, sniffed at it and went, | 0:06:14 | 0:06:17 | |
"Oh, there's something up here." | 0:06:17 | 0:06:19 | |
Dog wanted a 48-mile walk and then... | 0:06:19 | 0:06:21 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:06:21 | 0:06:25 | |
-Right, games away, please. CLAUDIA: -Sorry! | 0:06:28 | 0:06:30 | |
Thank you very much. | 0:06:30 | 0:06:32 | |
So, that was, of course, oceanography, | 0:06:32 | 0:06:33 | |
but I have some more ologies here for you. | 0:06:33 | 0:06:36 | |
What do these mean? | 0:06:36 | 0:06:38 | |
-Anyone want to pick one? -Enterology. | 0:06:38 | 0:06:39 | |
You want to do enterology? | 0:06:39 | 0:06:41 | |
It's the science of going in... Indoors. | 0:06:41 | 0:06:44 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:06:44 | 0:06:46 | |
I like that. Enterology, what do we think it is? | 0:06:46 | 0:06:50 | |
Entero? Isn't it something up your guts? | 0:06:50 | 0:06:52 | |
Absolutely right, it's the study of your intestines, | 0:06:52 | 0:06:54 | |
but it's also something else. | 0:06:54 | 0:06:55 | |
So, the guts are sort of twisted, | 0:06:55 | 0:06:57 | |
so it's to do with twisting. | 0:06:57 | 0:06:59 | |
It's an actual... | 0:06:59 | 0:07:00 | |
It's a study of Chubby Checker. | 0:07:00 | 0:07:02 | |
Yes. | 0:07:02 | 0:07:03 | |
It is a Vaudeville act usually. | 0:07:03 | 0:07:05 | |
-Balloon modelling? -No, I like that, though. | 0:07:05 | 0:07:07 | |
Balloon modelling with your intestines! | 0:07:07 | 0:07:09 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:07:09 | 0:07:11 | |
Yes, of course! Of course! | 0:07:11 | 0:07:12 | |
-Imagine that if you were having your guts operated on. -Like a giraffe. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:15 | |
Yes, no. | 0:07:15 | 0:07:16 | |
It's making yourself into a balloon animal. | 0:07:16 | 0:07:19 | |
-Oh, a contortionist. -A contortionist is exactly right. | 0:07:19 | 0:07:22 | |
It is the act of squeezing yourself | 0:07:22 | 0:07:24 | |
into a tiny little space, like a box, that kind of thing. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:27 | |
-ALAN: -Someone turned it on when they got in it? | 0:07:27 | 0:07:29 | |
OK, this is an American enterologist called Rick Maisel | 0:07:29 | 0:07:32 | |
and he combines enterology with escapology, | 0:07:32 | 0:07:35 | |
so what he does is he climbs into a washing machine | 0:07:35 | 0:07:37 | |
wearing five pairs of handcuffs and two pairs of leg irons. | 0:07:37 | 0:07:41 | |
He gets somebody to switch the machine on | 0:07:41 | 0:07:43 | |
and then he escapes while being tumbled in soapy water. | 0:07:43 | 0:07:47 | |
And I hope that he cleans the filter out after. | 0:07:47 | 0:07:49 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:07:49 | 0:07:50 | |
Apparently contortionists tend to specialise in different things. | 0:07:50 | 0:07:53 | |
So, frontbenders have... | 0:07:53 | 0:07:55 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:07:55 | 0:07:58 | |
Settle down, people. | 0:07:58 | 0:07:59 | |
They've got spines which flex forward, | 0:07:59 | 0:08:01 | |
so backbenders have the opposite. | 0:08:01 | 0:08:03 | |
Splitters have got flexible hips, | 0:08:03 | 0:08:05 | |
and dislocators can dislocate joints at will. | 0:08:05 | 0:08:07 | |
CLAUDIA SHUDDERS | 0:08:07 | 0:08:09 | |
-I've seen a dislocator. -Have you? -Have you? -Don't like it. | 0:08:09 | 0:08:12 | |
-He can get through a tennis racket. -No! | 0:08:12 | 0:08:15 | |
-The head of a racket? -I've seen it. | 0:08:15 | 0:08:16 | |
Yeah, horrible. | 0:08:16 | 0:08:17 | |
Not a... One of those big ones, either. | 0:08:17 | 0:08:19 | |
A normal-sized one. | 0:08:19 | 0:08:21 | |
Table tennis. | 0:08:21 | 0:08:22 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:08:22 | 0:08:25 | |
-I like oology, whatever that is. -Oology. What do we reckon? | 0:08:25 | 0:08:28 | |
That is the study of | 0:08:28 | 0:08:30 | |
how much nans think you've grown. | 0:08:30 | 0:08:33 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:08:33 | 0:08:37 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:08:37 | 0:08:40 | |
"Ooh!" | 0:08:40 | 0:08:42 | |
-"Ooh!" -"I say!" | 0:08:42 | 0:08:44 | |
"Come here, I've got a hanky." | 0:08:44 | 0:08:46 | |
SANDI MIMICS SPITTING | 0:08:46 | 0:08:47 | |
It's something to do with stones. | 0:08:47 | 0:08:49 | |
-Is it stones? -No, it's something that comes out of birds' bottoms. | 0:08:49 | 0:08:52 | |
-There we are. -Is it? -It's the study or collection of eggs. | 0:08:52 | 0:08:55 | |
ALL: Oh! | 0:08:55 | 0:08:56 | |
-Yeah. -They come out of the anus, the eggs? -Yeah. Oology. | 0:08:56 | 0:08:58 | |
Don't they have their own tube, eggs? | 0:08:58 | 0:09:00 | |
You know about birds. | 0:09:00 | 0:09:01 | |
I don't do that bit of it. | 0:09:01 | 0:09:03 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:09:03 | 0:09:05 | |
Disgusting. I'm the beak end, I'm at the beak end. | 0:09:05 | 0:09:07 | |
-PHILL: -"I'm the beak end"? -Plumage. | 0:09:07 | 0:09:09 | |
Worst ornithologist ever! | 0:09:09 | 0:09:11 | |
"No, not that nasty business." | 0:09:11 | 0:09:14 | |
Anyway, oology is the study or collection of eggs. | 0:09:14 | 0:09:16 | |
It's, of course, been illegal to possess a wild bird's egg | 0:09:16 | 0:09:18 | |
in the UK since 1954, so it's not a thing, really. | 0:09:18 | 0:09:21 | |
OK, eggs - oology. Anybody? Agnoiology. | 0:09:21 | 0:09:23 | |
-Top right. -Sheep, lambs. | 0:09:23 | 0:09:25 | |
Sheep and lambs? | 0:09:25 | 0:09:26 | |
-I like that. BILL: -Study of sheep. -No. | 0:09:26 | 0:09:29 | |
-Study of... -A word that sounds a bit... | 0:09:29 | 0:09:30 | |
-The study of agnosticism. -Yes, same route. -Agnostic? | 0:09:30 | 0:09:32 | |
From the Greek agnosis. | 0:09:32 | 0:09:34 | |
So, it's the study of... | 0:09:34 | 0:09:35 | |
not really knowing one way or the other. | 0:09:35 | 0:09:37 | |
-Yes, it's the study of things we don't know. -Ah! | 0:09:37 | 0:09:39 | |
That's it. LAUGHTER | 0:09:39 | 0:09:42 | |
So, the term was coined by James Fraser, | 0:09:42 | 0:09:44 | |
he was a professor of Moral Philosophy at St Andrews, | 0:09:44 | 0:09:46 | |
1808 to 1864, | 0:09:46 | 0:09:48 | |
and it's the theory of ignorance. | 0:09:48 | 0:09:50 | |
Basically, he said there is more ignorance than knowledge. | 0:09:50 | 0:09:52 | |
So, he said, "The fact of our extreme ignorance is undeniable. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:55 | |
"It is therefore necessary to examine and fix what ignorance is, | 0:09:55 | 0:09:58 | |
"what we are and can be ignorant of." | 0:09:58 | 0:10:00 | |
-So it's the study of... -I love that. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:02 | |
-I like that a lot. -Yes. | 0:10:02 | 0:10:03 | |
Right, any more? Let's see. | 0:10:03 | 0:10:05 | |
-OK, heterology. -Heterology. | 0:10:05 | 0:10:07 | |
It's one of a pair, which do you think it goes with? | 0:10:07 | 0:10:09 | |
-Autology. -Autology. Absolutely right. | 0:10:09 | 0:10:11 | |
Heterology and autology. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:12 | |
It's basically men and motors. | 0:10:12 | 0:10:14 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:10:14 | 0:10:16 | |
They go together. | 0:10:16 | 0:10:18 | |
Yeah. A word is autological if it is self-descriptive. | 0:10:18 | 0:10:21 | |
So, polysyllabic is autological | 0:10:21 | 0:10:24 | |
because it is, itself, polysyllabic. | 0:10:24 | 0:10:26 | |
But conversely, heterology is the attribute of a word | 0:10:26 | 0:10:28 | |
not being self-descriptive. | 0:10:28 | 0:10:30 | |
So, for example, if you regard "misspelt" with a T | 0:10:30 | 0:10:33 | |
as British English | 0:10:33 | 0:10:35 | |
as opposed to the American English "misspelled" - | 0:10:35 | 0:10:37 | |
which is spelt with a D - | 0:10:37 | 0:10:39 | |
then "misspelt" with a T would be autological in America | 0:10:39 | 0:10:41 | |
because it is misspelt and heterological in the UK... | 0:10:41 | 0:10:44 | |
-cos it is...not misspelt. -Right, my head's just exploded. | 0:10:44 | 0:10:47 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:10:47 | 0:10:51 | |
OK, let's try Piphilology. | 0:10:54 | 0:10:56 | |
Piphilology... | 0:10:56 | 0:10:58 | |
All the pies that Phill likes. | 0:10:58 | 0:11:00 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:11:00 | 0:11:02 | |
So, the important bit is pi. | 0:11:02 | 0:11:04 | |
-What is that in science? Pi? -The number. -The number. | 0:11:04 | 0:11:07 | |
Yes, the number. So, it is the use of mnemonic sentences | 0:11:07 | 0:11:11 | |
to record the digits of pi. | 0:11:11 | 0:11:13 | |
So what you do is, you use words with the same number of letters, | 0:11:13 | 0:11:16 | |
so this would be a review, for example, of an episode of QI. | 0:11:16 | 0:11:18 | |
"Now I need a think, | 0:11:18 | 0:11:20 | |
"knowledge of clever ideas was aptly conveyed, | 0:11:20 | 0:11:22 | |
"including General Ignorance." | 0:11:22 | 0:11:24 | |
If you remember that sentence, | 0:11:24 | 0:11:26 | |
you will remember what the very first bits of pi are. | 0:11:26 | 0:11:28 | |
The easiest one to do for the first nine. | 0:11:28 | 0:11:30 | |
"How I wish I could recollect pi easily today." | 0:11:30 | 0:11:33 | |
Is this a proper thing? | 0:11:33 | 0:11:35 | |
-It is a proper thing. It's how... -So, people go and they could do... | 0:11:35 | 0:11:38 | |
They study... This is what they do. | 0:11:38 | 0:11:40 | |
Well, here is the really worrying thing about it, Claudia. | 0:11:40 | 0:11:42 | |
OK, somebody wrote a 10,000 word novel using piphilology. | 0:11:42 | 0:11:48 | |
All right? | 0:11:48 | 0:11:49 | |
It's called Not Awake, and I think you aren't by the end. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:52 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:11:52 | 0:11:53 | |
It was written by, surprise-surprise, | 0:11:53 | 0:11:55 | |
a software engineer called Michael Keith. | 0:11:55 | 0:11:57 | |
-Really? -Is Michael here? | 0:11:57 | 0:11:58 | |
-No, sadly. -I want to mount him. -Do you know what I love? | 0:11:58 | 0:12:01 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:12:01 | 0:12:03 | |
I'm proud of him. | 0:12:03 | 0:12:04 | |
So, that's your ologies and here's another - ophthalmology. | 0:12:04 | 0:12:09 | |
What has a U, two Ts and three eyes? | 0:12:09 | 0:12:12 | |
And here we are in its habitat. | 0:12:12 | 0:12:15 | |
What I'd like, just before we continue, | 0:12:15 | 0:12:18 | |
is some sort of deal | 0:12:18 | 0:12:19 | |
that you're not going to make the klaxon noise. | 0:12:19 | 0:12:21 | |
-You don't like that? -I think I'll jump and it will be nerve-racking. | 0:12:21 | 0:12:24 | |
I'll jump and you won't like it. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:26 | |
-None of it's good. -All right, so what I'll do... | 0:12:26 | 0:12:28 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:12:28 | 0:12:31 | |
KLAXON BLARES | 0:12:31 | 0:12:34 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:12:36 | 0:12:39 | |
OK, I am looking for something... | 0:12:48 | 0:12:51 | |
with a U, two Ts and three eyes. | 0:12:51 | 0:12:54 | |
-BILL: -Is it a creature with three eyes? | 0:12:54 | 0:12:56 | |
It is a creature. | 0:12:56 | 0:12:57 | |
There is the beginning. | 0:12:57 | 0:12:59 | |
-A tuatara. -A tuatara. Yes. Very well done. | 0:12:59 | 0:13:01 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:13:01 | 0:13:04 | |
It does have three eyes. | 0:13:05 | 0:13:07 | |
Do you know anything more about it? Have you seen one or...? | 0:13:07 | 0:13:09 | |
-I have held one, yes. -At gunpoint. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:11 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:13:11 | 0:13:13 | |
It does have a, sort of, a third...eye. | 0:13:13 | 0:13:15 | |
Yes, it does, at the very top of its head. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:17 | |
It's what's called a parietal eye, | 0:13:17 | 0:13:20 | |
or possibly a pineal eye. | 0:13:20 | 0:13:22 | |
But it can't actually see particularly well out of it. | 0:13:22 | 0:13:24 | |
Mostly it can distinguish light, darkness. | 0:13:24 | 0:13:27 | |
Phill. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:28 | |
There is a red circle around nothing on that lizard. | 0:13:28 | 0:13:30 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:13:30 | 0:13:32 | |
-This is a classic... -That's his eye. -..QI Trump-like ruse. | 0:13:32 | 0:13:35 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:13:35 | 0:13:37 | |
-It's there. -Where? -You can see it there. | 0:13:37 | 0:13:40 | |
-That's a freckle! -No, it's not! -LAUGHTER | 0:13:40 | 0:13:43 | |
Fight, fight, fight! | 0:13:43 | 0:13:45 | |
If that's an eye, is that its old fella? | 0:13:45 | 0:13:48 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:13:48 | 0:13:51 | |
It doesn't have six penises, if that's what you're saying. | 0:13:51 | 0:13:53 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:13:53 | 0:13:55 | |
-Do you know what the weird thing is? -What? -That's his arse. | 0:13:55 | 0:13:58 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:13:58 | 0:14:01 | |
It's got... | 0:14:01 | 0:14:02 | |
It's got eight arses. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:04 | |
It's going to upset you, Phill, | 0:14:04 | 0:14:06 | |
but most lizards have a third eye | 0:14:06 | 0:14:08 | |
to a greater or lesser extent. | 0:14:08 | 0:14:11 | |
As do lampreys, a lot of frogs. | 0:14:11 | 0:14:13 | |
Oh, I see! | 0:14:13 | 0:14:15 | |
-Can you see? -That is an eye. -See? There. | 0:14:15 | 0:14:17 | |
That's it there. There it is. | 0:14:17 | 0:14:19 | |
There is an eye there. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:21 | |
There's another one there. | 0:14:21 | 0:14:22 | |
-PHILL: -Look, I've got one! | 0:14:22 | 0:14:24 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:14:24 | 0:14:26 | |
On my arm, there. Unbelievable! | 0:14:26 | 0:14:29 | |
Many animals have a third eye. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:32 | |
Now, oenology. Blindfolds on, please. | 0:14:32 | 0:14:35 | |
Ring-a-ding-ding. Here we go. | 0:14:35 | 0:14:38 | |
Everybody got blindfolds on? | 0:14:38 | 0:14:39 | |
-Yes. -So, we're going to place something in front of you. | 0:14:39 | 0:14:42 | |
It's nothing dangerous at all. | 0:14:42 | 0:14:44 | |
It's actually rather pleasant. | 0:14:44 | 0:14:45 | |
Is it a kitten? | 0:14:45 | 0:14:46 | |
It is even nicer than a kitten. | 0:14:46 | 0:14:48 | |
So, we're just going to put your hands... | 0:14:48 | 0:14:49 | |
There we go. Thank you. | 0:14:49 | 0:14:51 | |
Right, so, we're going to do one at a time, please. | 0:14:51 | 0:14:54 | |
So, Bill, I would like you to taste | 0:14:54 | 0:14:55 | |
what you have in front of you and tell me what it is. | 0:14:55 | 0:14:58 | |
OK. All right, then. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:00 | |
OK. | 0:15:00 | 0:15:02 | |
What do you think that is? | 0:15:02 | 0:15:04 | |
Oh, it's a wine. | 0:15:04 | 0:15:06 | |
Yes, what kind of wine? | 0:15:06 | 0:15:07 | |
-A red or white? -Yes, please. | 0:15:07 | 0:15:09 | |
-Red. -You're going to go red, are you? | 0:15:09 | 0:15:11 | |
KLAXON BLARES | 0:15:11 | 0:15:14 | |
OK, Phill. Phill, have a glass, have a sip. | 0:15:15 | 0:15:18 | |
It's right in front of you. | 0:15:18 | 0:15:20 | |
What? I'm looking for the cheese. | 0:15:20 | 0:15:21 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:15:21 | 0:15:23 | |
-OK, all right. -What have you got? | 0:15:23 | 0:15:25 | |
-Red or white? -That's a red. | 0:15:26 | 0:15:28 | |
Red, OK. And, Claudia? | 0:15:28 | 0:15:30 | |
What do you reckon it is? | 0:15:30 | 0:15:32 | |
We've had white and red, what else could it be? | 0:15:32 | 0:15:34 | |
-I've given you a clue. -Rose! -Yes. | 0:15:34 | 0:15:35 | |
Rose? KLAXON BLARES | 0:15:35 | 0:15:38 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:15:38 | 0:15:40 | |
OK, Alan. | 0:15:40 | 0:15:42 | |
What do you reckon yours is? | 0:15:42 | 0:15:44 | |
Disgusting. | 0:15:47 | 0:15:48 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:15:48 | 0:15:50 | |
It's a low budget. | 0:15:50 | 0:15:52 | |
What do you reckon it is? | 0:15:52 | 0:15:53 | |
-Don't look, don't look! -Red. | 0:15:53 | 0:15:54 | |
Red, you're going to go with red. KLAXON BLARES | 0:15:54 | 0:15:57 | |
This is to do with our inability, actually, mostly, | 0:15:57 | 0:16:00 | |
to taste what it is. | 0:16:00 | 0:16:01 | |
So, Bill, yours is a room temperature white. | 0:16:01 | 0:16:03 | |
So, most people would think it was red | 0:16:03 | 0:16:05 | |
-because it is at room temperature. -It's confusing. | 0:16:05 | 0:16:07 | |
-Phill, you have a chilled red. -A chilled red. | 0:16:07 | 0:16:09 | |
Sometimes it's difficult to tell and, I have to say, Claudia, | 0:16:09 | 0:16:12 | |
yours is the most difficult because it's a mix of white and red. | 0:16:12 | 0:16:14 | |
So when you said Rose, I actually think you got it the nearest. | 0:16:14 | 0:16:17 | |
And, Alan, yours is a white wine | 0:16:17 | 0:16:19 | |
with red food colouring because we thought you might cheat. | 0:16:19 | 0:16:21 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:16:21 | 0:16:25 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:16:25 | 0:16:29 | |
But there was a Californian wine grower called Robert Hodgson | 0:16:29 | 0:16:32 | |
and he was upset by how inconsistently | 0:16:32 | 0:16:35 | |
his wine fared in competitions | 0:16:35 | 0:16:37 | |
and he thought that maybe the experts | 0:16:37 | 0:16:38 | |
don't really know what they're doing. | 0:16:38 | 0:16:40 | |
So, he did an experiment in which he served the same wines | 0:16:40 | 0:16:42 | |
to the same experts | 0:16:42 | 0:16:44 | |
at different times, | 0:16:44 | 0:16:45 | |
and the findings, | 0:16:45 | 0:16:47 | |
they were absolutely stunning as far as the wine industry was concerned. | 0:16:47 | 0:16:50 | |
Only 10% of the judges were consistent in any given year | 0:16:50 | 0:16:53 | |
and none of those were consistently consistent. | 0:16:53 | 0:16:55 | |
So, if you made a good judgment one year, | 0:16:55 | 0:16:57 | |
maybe you didn't make a good judgment the next year. | 0:16:57 | 0:16:59 | |
And he found that, in California, | 0:16:59 | 0:17:01 | |
all the medals given out for wine | 0:17:01 | 0:17:02 | |
were effectively distributed at random... | 0:17:02 | 0:17:04 | |
-No! -..because really even the experts weren't sure. | 0:17:04 | 0:17:06 | |
It can even be difficult to tell red from white in a blindfold test. | 0:17:06 | 0:17:10 | |
Now, time for a bit of optology. | 0:17:10 | 0:17:12 | |
Look at this picture of a fire engine, tell me what colour it is. | 0:17:12 | 0:17:16 | |
# Oh-oh-oh! # | 0:17:16 | 0:17:18 | |
Yes, Bill? | 0:17:18 | 0:17:19 | |
Red! | 0:17:19 | 0:17:20 | |
KLAXON BLARES | 0:17:20 | 0:17:24 | |
No. If you hide the rest of the picture | 0:17:24 | 0:17:26 | |
so that only the red bit can be seen, | 0:17:26 | 0:17:29 | |
what you'll see is that the whole... | 0:17:29 | 0:17:31 | |
There's the colour spectrum. In fact, the whole thing | 0:17:31 | 0:17:33 | |
-is actually grey-green. -No! | 0:17:33 | 0:17:35 | |
So it's called retinex effect or the land effect. | 0:17:35 | 0:17:38 | |
It's named after Edwin Land, | 0:17:38 | 0:17:39 | |
the man who invented Polaroid cameras and such. | 0:17:39 | 0:17:42 | |
The colour we see isn't just dependent | 0:17:42 | 0:17:44 | |
on the wavelength of light entering the eye, | 0:17:44 | 0:17:47 | |
it is also to do with all the adjacent areas | 0:17:47 | 0:17:49 | |
and the brain takes the information and decides what colour it is. | 0:17:49 | 0:17:52 | |
Basically, it is an optical illusion | 0:17:52 | 0:17:53 | |
and the thing we are actually looking at is grey-green. | 0:17:53 | 0:17:56 | |
And there are lots of other optical illusions. | 0:17:56 | 0:17:58 | |
Have a look at this. I love this. | 0:17:58 | 0:17:59 | |
This is the same effect, the one we've just been having a look at. | 0:17:59 | 0:18:02 | |
It's called the splitting colour illusion. | 0:18:02 | 0:18:04 | |
So, have a look. We've got two identical | 0:18:04 | 0:18:06 | |
flickering coloured stripes. | 0:18:06 | 0:18:07 | |
These are not going to change throughout the demonstration. | 0:18:07 | 0:18:10 | |
You can see that they are identical. | 0:18:10 | 0:18:11 | |
We're going to bring in colours on both the top and bottom, | 0:18:11 | 0:18:14 | |
different colours, and as they go across, | 0:18:14 | 0:18:16 | |
keep your eye on those flickering stripes | 0:18:16 | 0:18:17 | |
and you see that they totally change colour. | 0:18:17 | 0:18:19 | |
What?! | 0:18:19 | 0:18:21 | |
So that the colour of something is dependent on its surroundings. | 0:18:21 | 0:18:23 | |
-That's what we learned from that. -That is brilliant. -Isn't it? | 0:18:23 | 0:18:26 | |
But the fire engine is red. | 0:18:26 | 0:18:28 | |
A real fire engine is red, your brain knows it's red, | 0:18:28 | 0:18:31 | |
but the one you were looking at was grey-green. | 0:18:31 | 0:18:33 | |
It's an optical illusion. Have a look at this, | 0:18:33 | 0:18:35 | |
it's also an optical illusion. The Fraser spiral illusion. | 0:18:35 | 0:18:38 | |
First described by James Fraser in 1908. | 0:18:38 | 0:18:41 | |
He was a British psychologist. | 0:18:41 | 0:18:42 | |
So, the overlapping black arcs | 0:18:42 | 0:18:45 | |
appear to form a spiral, | 0:18:45 | 0:18:46 | |
but they are, in fact, a series of concentric circles. | 0:18:46 | 0:18:49 | |
So, if we bring in some coloured lines and put them over the top, | 0:18:49 | 0:18:53 | |
you can see these are just circles. | 0:18:53 | 0:18:55 | |
You can see that, actually, what we were looking at was just circles, | 0:18:55 | 0:18:58 | |
-but it became... -Cor! -Our brain made it into a spiral. | 0:18:58 | 0:19:00 | |
It's a famous optical illusion. | 0:19:00 | 0:19:02 | |
PHILL CACKLES | 0:19:02 | 0:19:04 | |
-These are good. -They are good. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:05 | |
Now it's time to go straight over to the wordy shambles | 0:19:05 | 0:19:08 | |
that is General Ignorance. | 0:19:08 | 0:19:10 | |
Is this a sardine or a pilchard? | 0:19:10 | 0:19:12 | |
# Oh-oh-oh! # Bill. | 0:19:13 | 0:19:15 | |
Pilchard. | 0:19:15 | 0:19:16 | |
KLAXON BLARES | 0:19:16 | 0:19:20 | |
Try again. Yes. | 0:19:20 | 0:19:22 | |
# Oh, what a night! # | 0:19:22 | 0:19:23 | |
-Sardine. -Sardine. Yes! | 0:19:23 | 0:19:24 | |
KLAXON BLARES | 0:19:24 | 0:19:27 | |
# Oh, Carol! # | 0:19:27 | 0:19:28 | |
-Yes? -Dolphin! | 0:19:28 | 0:19:30 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:19:30 | 0:19:33 | |
If it were an optical illusion, it would be red. | 0:19:33 | 0:19:36 | |
It would therefore be a red... | 0:19:36 | 0:19:37 | |
Snapper! | 0:19:37 | 0:19:38 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:19:38 | 0:19:40 | |
Easy, easy, easy. | 0:19:40 | 0:19:43 | |
-That is a ringtone. -"Snapper!" -"Snapper!" | 0:19:43 | 0:19:47 | |
-Or a text. -LAUGHTER | 0:19:47 | 0:19:49 | |
I am aroused. | 0:19:49 | 0:19:51 | |
That is fantastic. | 0:19:51 | 0:19:52 | |
-Wow. -We need that as a gif. | 0:19:52 | 0:19:54 | |
-Whoa, Nelly! -Snapper! | 0:19:54 | 0:19:56 | |
Again, again, again, | 0:19:56 | 0:19:58 | |
-but right in my face. -Can we do it one more time? | 0:19:58 | 0:20:01 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:20:01 | 0:20:03 | |
Right in my face. Come on. | 0:20:03 | 0:20:06 | |
-Ready? -I am ready. | 0:20:06 | 0:20:08 | |
Yeah. Go on. | 0:20:08 | 0:20:09 | |
If it was an optical illusion, it was red, it would be a red... | 0:20:09 | 0:20:12 | |
-Snapper! -SHE LAUGHS | 0:20:12 | 0:20:15 | |
Sorry. | 0:20:17 | 0:20:18 | |
What I was actually looking for was herring. | 0:20:18 | 0:20:21 | |
It would be a red herring. LAUGHTER | 0:20:21 | 0:20:22 | |
That makes more sense. | 0:20:22 | 0:20:25 | |
-Now you've said it. -Now I've said it. | 0:20:25 | 0:20:27 | |
So, the terms sardine and pilchard | 0:20:27 | 0:20:28 | |
do not relate to specific species. | 0:20:28 | 0:20:31 | |
They are describing ways of packing fish. | 0:20:31 | 0:20:33 | |
So, the UN and the World Health Organization | 0:20:33 | 0:20:35 | |
cites 21 different species | 0:20:35 | 0:20:37 | |
that could be classed as sardines. | 0:20:37 | 0:20:39 | |
Nobody knows for sure how to separate the sardines | 0:20:39 | 0:20:41 | |
from the pilchards. | 0:20:41 | 0:20:42 | |
OK, in theory, | 0:20:42 | 0:20:44 | |
how fast can this boat sail? | 0:20:44 | 0:20:47 | |
OK. Oh, the jib's broken. | 0:20:47 | 0:20:49 | |
Oh, hang on a minute. Wait, wait, wait. | 0:20:49 | 0:20:51 | |
-There we are. OK. -Is it dependent on the wind? | 0:20:51 | 0:20:53 | |
Yes, one moment, hold that thought. | 0:20:53 | 0:20:55 | |
I'll do it again. OK. | 0:20:55 | 0:20:56 | |
Nobody knows for sure how to separate the sardines | 0:20:56 | 0:20:59 | |
from the pilchards. | 0:20:59 | 0:21:00 | |
In theory, how fast... | 0:21:00 | 0:21:01 | |
Something about wind! | 0:21:01 | 0:21:03 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:21:03 | 0:21:06 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:21:08 | 0:21:11 | |
Oh, how unusual, a boy who came before I was ready. | 0:21:11 | 0:21:14 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:21:14 | 0:21:17 | |
Come on! | 0:21:21 | 0:21:23 | |
-Sorry! Sorry! -Sorry! -Sorry! | 0:21:23 | 0:21:26 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:21:26 | 0:21:27 | |
-Put your glasses on... -Sorry, it's happened again. Sorry. | 0:21:27 | 0:21:30 | |
I'll see you tomorrow, same time. | 0:21:30 | 0:21:32 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:21:32 | 0:21:35 | |
I'm going to do it again. | 0:21:38 | 0:21:40 | |
OK, baby! | 0:21:40 | 0:21:42 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:21:42 | 0:21:45 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:21:45 | 0:21:48 | |
You know what to do. | 0:21:48 | 0:21:51 | |
I'm ready, I'm ready, come on. | 0:21:51 | 0:21:53 | |
All right, then. I'm ready, I'm ready, baby. | 0:21:57 | 0:22:01 | |
-LAUGHTER -Say the words, lady. | 0:22:01 | 0:22:03 | |
Bill, shut the fuck up. | 0:22:03 | 0:22:06 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:22:06 | 0:22:10 | |
CHEERING | 0:22:10 | 0:22:13 | |
Claudia, I'm going to bring out a yacht... | 0:22:14 | 0:22:17 | |
I'm excited about it. | 0:22:17 | 0:22:18 | |
..and you're going to say, "Is it something to do with the wind?" | 0:22:18 | 0:22:21 | |
I'm going to do it! | 0:22:21 | 0:22:24 | |
I'm going to do it. Snapper! | 0:22:24 | 0:22:26 | |
-LAUGHTER -Go ahead. -Shush! | 0:22:26 | 0:22:28 | |
Put the wine away. Put your wine away. | 0:22:28 | 0:22:30 | |
God, it's just like being at school. | 0:22:30 | 0:22:32 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:22:32 | 0:22:33 | |
"Put your wine away!" | 0:22:33 | 0:22:35 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:22:35 | 0:22:38 | |
-"Shut up, put your wine away!" -"Shut up, put your wine away!" | 0:22:41 | 0:22:43 | |
-I'll tell you what. -Happiest days of our lives. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:45 | |
Bloody hell. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:47 | |
Bobbington Gurney Primary was rough! | 0:22:47 | 0:22:49 | |
School of Hard Knocks, I'm telling you. | 0:22:49 | 0:22:52 | |
"Here, Bailey, put your wine away and shut the fuck up!" | 0:22:52 | 0:22:56 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:22:56 | 0:22:57 | |
Right, quiet! | 0:22:57 | 0:22:59 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:22:59 | 0:23:03 | |
Right, here we go. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:04 | |
Nobody knows for sure how to separate the sardines | 0:23:04 | 0:23:07 | |
from the pilchards. In theory... | 0:23:07 | 0:23:10 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:23:10 | 0:23:12 | |
..how fast can this boat sail? | 0:23:12 | 0:23:13 | |
Claudia, what do you think? | 0:23:13 | 0:23:15 | |
-Is it...? -# Oh, what a night. # | 0:23:15 | 0:23:17 | |
Has it got something to do with the wind? | 0:23:17 | 0:23:19 | |
Yes! | 0:23:19 | 0:23:21 | |
LAUGHTER AND CHEERING | 0:23:21 | 0:23:24 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:23:25 | 0:23:28 | |
We've got wine over here! | 0:23:41 | 0:23:44 | |
You've been whining for two hours! Come and sit down. | 0:23:44 | 0:23:47 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:23:47 | 0:23:48 | |
-Come and sit down. -Come on, and I'll say, "Snapper." | 0:23:48 | 0:23:51 | |
-Yeah, sit. -Sit down. | 0:23:51 | 0:23:53 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:23:53 | 0:23:56 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:23:57 | 0:24:00 | |
Stupid game anyway. | 0:24:00 | 0:24:02 | |
Snapper! | 0:24:02 | 0:24:04 | |
# Oh, what a night! # | 0:24:04 | 0:24:07 | |
# Oh, oh, oh. # | 0:24:07 | 0:24:08 | |
-Has it got something to do with wind? -No. | 0:24:08 | 0:24:11 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:24:11 | 0:24:12 | |
-OK. -Stupid game, anyway. -HE MUMBLES | 0:24:12 | 0:24:15 | |
-It is to do with wind. -Really? -How fast can it sail? | 0:24:15 | 0:24:18 | |
Oh! | 0:24:18 | 0:24:21 | |
It's difficult because, after a while, | 0:24:21 | 0:24:24 | |
the wind will blow you quite fast, | 0:24:24 | 0:24:25 | |
but then it'll suddenly going into a spiral and take you up into the sky, | 0:24:25 | 0:24:28 | |
so does that count? | 0:24:28 | 0:24:30 | |
How many times have you been sailing? | 0:24:30 | 0:24:32 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:24:32 | 0:24:34 | |
So, there must be a maximum speed. | 0:24:34 | 0:24:36 | |
-What would you say, maximum... -13, 14? | 0:24:36 | 0:24:39 | |
-15, 15 knots. -Don't have the number. | 0:24:39 | 0:24:41 | |
Is it faster or slower than the wind? | 0:24:41 | 0:24:42 | |
Slower than the wind. | 0:24:42 | 0:24:44 | |
Oh... KLAXON BLARES | 0:24:44 | 0:24:46 | |
You fell right into that. | 0:24:46 | 0:24:48 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:24:48 | 0:24:50 | |
OK, so, imagine that the wind is coming from here, | 0:24:50 | 0:24:53 | |
so you're sailing directly downwind, | 0:24:53 | 0:24:55 | |
-it's known as running. -Yes. -So the wind... | 0:24:55 | 0:24:57 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:24:57 | 0:24:59 | |
Sorry. | 0:24:59 | 0:25:01 | |
-The wind... -Sorry, Miss! | 0:25:01 | 0:25:03 | |
The wind will simply fill the sail | 0:25:03 | 0:25:05 | |
and it won't be able to go as fast as the wind | 0:25:05 | 0:25:06 | |
because, of course, there's resistance from the water. | 0:25:06 | 0:25:09 | |
However, if you are sailing across the wind, | 0:25:09 | 0:25:12 | |
the wind blows across the sail and this generates lift. | 0:25:12 | 0:25:14 | |
So it's a bit like an aeroplane wing. | 0:25:14 | 0:25:16 | |
So, it's sucked along as well as pushed along, | 0:25:16 | 0:25:18 | |
and if you add those two forces together, | 0:25:18 | 0:25:20 | |
you can sail faster than the wind. | 0:25:20 | 0:25:22 | |
The modern hi-tech racing catamarans have taken things one step further. | 0:25:22 | 0:25:25 | |
They have speeds of up to 2.79 times the speed of wind. | 0:25:25 | 0:25:29 | |
Unbelievably... | 0:25:29 | 0:25:30 | |
ALAN BLOWS RASPBERRY | 0:25:30 | 0:25:32 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:25:32 | 0:25:35 | |
Do you know, people often say to me, | 0:25:38 | 0:25:41 | |
"What did Stephen say to you as he left?" | 0:25:41 | 0:25:44 | |
And the truth is he shook his head and went, "You have no idea." | 0:25:44 | 0:25:47 | |
LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE | 0:25:47 | 0:25:51 | |
Boats sailing across the wind can go much faster than the wind itself... | 0:25:51 | 0:25:54 | |
Oh, stop going on about the bloody... | 0:25:54 | 0:25:57 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:25:57 | 0:26:00 | |
LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE | 0:26:02 | 0:26:04 | |
It's so awful. | 0:26:04 | 0:26:06 | |
Oh, thank God you're here. | 0:26:09 | 0:26:10 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:26:10 | 0:26:12 | |
A boat sailing across the wind can go much faster than the wind itself. | 0:26:12 | 0:26:15 | |
Indeed there is no theoretical limits to its speed. | 0:26:15 | 0:26:18 | |
OK, which of these are there more of? | 0:26:18 | 0:26:22 | |
Trees on earth, stars in the Milky Way or neurons in your brain? | 0:26:22 | 0:26:26 | |
Yes, Bill? | 0:26:26 | 0:26:28 | |
Neurons in your brain! | 0:26:28 | 0:26:30 | |
-Ah! -KLAXON BLARES | 0:26:30 | 0:26:33 | |
# Oh, Carol... # | 0:26:33 | 0:26:34 | |
Stars! | 0:26:34 | 0:26:36 | |
KLAXON BLARES | 0:26:36 | 0:26:38 | |
Yours has to be really clever! | 0:26:38 | 0:26:39 | |
-Wait, wait, wait! -No. Claudia's go! | 0:26:39 | 0:26:41 | |
# Oh, what a night! # | 0:26:41 | 0:26:43 | |
-Is it trees? -Yes! | 0:26:43 | 0:26:44 | |
LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE | 0:26:44 | 0:26:48 | |
In 2015, a paper by Yale researchers | 0:26:49 | 0:26:52 | |
estimate the number of trees on earth is 3.04 trillion. | 0:26:52 | 0:26:56 | |
That is, rather pleasingly, 7.5 times more | 0:26:56 | 0:26:58 | |
than was previously thought. | 0:26:58 | 0:26:59 | |
So, they used a combination of satellite imagery | 0:26:59 | 0:27:01 | |
and forest inventories | 0:27:01 | 0:27:03 | |
and super computer programmes, and that's a huge number. | 0:27:03 | 0:27:05 | |
Stars, obviously quite tricky to count. | 0:27:05 | 0:27:07 | |
Nasa do their best. | 0:27:07 | 0:27:08 | |
They don't really know the number of stars in the Milky Way, | 0:27:08 | 0:27:11 | |
but probably between 100 and 400 million, | 0:27:11 | 0:27:13 | |
but that would be ten times fewer | 0:27:13 | 0:27:15 | |
than the trees on planet Earth. | 0:27:15 | 0:27:17 | |
So the wind blows across the sail... | 0:27:17 | 0:27:19 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:27:19 | 0:27:23 | |
Brain cells, estimated number of neurons, | 0:27:23 | 0:27:26 | |
and that is your brain cells in the human brain, | 0:27:26 | 0:27:28 | |
it varies between 83 and 200 billion. | 0:27:28 | 0:27:32 | |
If you count the number of synapses, | 0:27:32 | 0:27:34 | |
so the connections between the brain cells, | 0:27:34 | 0:27:36 | |
you're looking at as many as a thousand trillion | 0:27:36 | 0:27:38 | |
or one quadrillion - | 0:27:38 | 0:27:39 | |
so 300 times as many synapses in your brain | 0:27:39 | 0:27:42 | |
as there are trees on Earth. | 0:27:42 | 0:27:43 | |
-Wow. -That's not every brain. | 0:27:43 | 0:27:46 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:27:46 | 0:27:49 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:27:49 | 0:27:53 | |
And at the end of that onomnasiological obfuscation, | 0:27:53 | 0:27:56 | |
we reach the scores and I've never been more pleased in my entire life. | 0:27:56 | 0:28:00 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:28:00 | 0:28:03 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:28:03 | 0:28:05 | |
In last place, with -35, | 0:28:08 | 0:28:11 | |
-it's Bill. -Yes! | 0:28:11 | 0:28:12 | |
CHEERING | 0:28:12 | 0:28:16 | |
In third place, with -19, it's Phill. | 0:28:16 | 0:28:18 | |
CHEERING | 0:28:18 | 0:28:19 | |
Where's my cheese? I want my cheese. | 0:28:19 | 0:28:22 | |
Second place, with a magnificent -16, | 0:28:22 | 0:28:25 | |
it's Alan! | 0:28:25 | 0:28:27 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:28:27 | 0:28:29 | |
And the winner, with a really breathtaking five full points, | 0:28:29 | 0:28:33 | |
it's Claudia. | 0:28:33 | 0:28:34 | |
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:28:34 | 0:28:37 | |
It only remains for me to thank Claudia, Phill, Bill and Alan, | 0:28:43 | 0:28:47 | |
and I leave you with this. | 0:28:47 | 0:28:49 | |
The great conductor Sir Thomas Beecham | 0:28:49 | 0:28:51 | |
described a musicologist | 0:28:51 | 0:28:52 | |
as somebody who can read music but can't hear it | 0:28:52 | 0:28:55 | |
and a gentleman as someone who can play the bagpipes | 0:28:55 | 0:28:58 | |
but doesn't. LAUGHTER | 0:28:58 | 0:29:01 | |
That's all from QI this time. Thank you very much. | 0:29:01 | 0:29:03 | |
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:29:03 | 0:29:07 |