BK. Bananas and Rockets

FromThe Math Factor

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BK. Bananas and Rockets

FromThe Math Factor

ratings:

Length:

8 minutes

Released:

Oct 25, 2006

Format:

Podcast episode

Description

A classic puzzle reveals why rockets require so much fuel, even for wee payloads.

Released:

Oct 25, 2006

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

A brief, weekly math conversation and puzzle, airing on KUAF 91.3 FM, Fayetteville Arkansas. Send your answers, comments, questions, puzzles, or cash, to mathfactor@uark.edu!

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AA. The Way Out of the Forest: Which way leads out of the forest of Liars & Truth-tellers by The Math Factor
4 min listen
AW. Will we run out of Social Security Numbers?: When will the crisis come? When will we run out of Social Security Numbers, and other musings. by The Math Factor
5 min listen
AD. Bigger and Smaller Infinities: Are there only half as many even numbers as counting numbers? by The Math Factor
8 min listen
AB. The Rational Ruler: Finer and finer, a ruler with infinitely many marks... by The Math Factor
7 min listen
AO. Choosing Balls from A Bag: A fifty-fifty chance of drawing four blue balls from a bag: how many balls were blue? by The Math Factor
3 min listen
AN. More Sucker Bets: Is there always a better choice? by The Math Factor
6 min listen
AH. QED: In this "secret track", we show there are vastly more real numbers than rationals! by The Math Factor
5 min listen
AE. The Jalopy: What is "average?" by The Math Factor
5 min listen
AQ. The Principle of Indifference Redux: The solution to the balls puzzle and a quick puzzle about cards. by The Math Factor
4 min listen
AL. Rumors and suckers: In which we show gossip is unreliable and how you can always fleece a sucker. by The Math Factor
6 min listen
AK. Paradoxes and Liars: The mathematics of gossiping! by The Math Factor
4 min listen
AF. Counting All: Are the rationals rational? by The Math Factor
8 min listen
AI. Census Taker's Puzzle: More puzzles from the Mathfactor, featuring the mathematical stylings of KUAF's Kyle Kellams and Chaim Goodman-Strauss. by The Math Factor
4 min listen
AC. No Vacancy: A hotel with an infinite number of rooms... by The Math Factor
7 min listen
BA. The Ring is Exchanged: Peter Winkler answers his puzzle set in the Land of Kleptomaniacs, and we chat about Martin Gardner. We'll pose another puzzle next week! by The Math Factor
5 min listen
BG. Bamboopalooza!: Join Chaim and Kyle at Bamboopalooza 3! Octahedral pencil holders, giant 12 pointed bamboo stars, pig lighters and other mathematical oddments were enjoyed by all! (Google for pictures!) by The Math Factor
11 min listen
AY. Dollar Cost Averaging: A common investment strategy takes advantage of the subtleties of averaging. by The Math Factor
5 min listen
AG. The Eagle: How far does the eagle fly as it makes an infinite series of shorter and shorter trips? by The Math Factor
6 min listen
AJ. The Pop Quiz: Why 462 is the least interesting number less than 1000, and the students get a paradoxical pop quiz. by The Math Factor
5 min listen
AR. Quick Game: Two players take turns removing coins from a line; how can the first player always be sure to have at least as much money as the second? by The Math Factor
5 min listen
BD. Magic Numbers: We discuss a neat trick involving powers, mod a pair of primes. by The Math Factor
7 min listen
AT. Peter Winkler Answers: Peter Winkler answers. Another puzzle next week! by The Math Factor
4 min listen
AM. Arrow's Theorem: Can A be better than B, B be better than C and C be better than A? No voting system will ever be fair! by The Math Factor
9 min listen
AZ. Another puzzle from Peter Winkler: We answer last week's puzzle and Peter Winkler asks how to send a ring through the land of the kleptomaniacs. by The Math Factor
3 min listen
BN. Puzzling Panelists: A quickie: how many puzzled panelists can you have? by The Math Factor
3 min listen
AV. Dennis Shasha Answers: The solution is a quick bit of algebra, but how do you explain it on the air? by The Math Factor
5 min listen
BC. Casting Out Nines: How do modern "trap-door" encryption schemes work? Over the next three weeks we'll explain, but to warm up, we talk about the medieval practice of "casting out nines". by The Math Factor
6 min listen
AS. A Puzzle From Peter Winkler: Peter Winkler, author of "Mathematical Puzzles: A Connoisseur's Collection", asks how many coins are needed to cover a table. by The Math Factor
5 min listen
AU. Dennis Shasha asks about Polish Multiplication: Dennis Shasha, puzzle columnist for Scientific American, asks about a curious way to multiply numbers on your fingers. by The Math Factor
4 min listen
CA. Cut the Cake!: How to satisfy the most jealous of triplets? by The Math Factor
9 min listen

More Episodes from The Math Factor

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HR. CardColm: Colm Mulcahy joins us to share some of his card magic! by The Math Factor
14 min listen
HQ. Newton v Leibnitz: A break from puzzling to discuss the history of the great Newton-Liebnitz dispute over the invention of Calculus, with the playwright Todd Taylor. by The Math Factor
10 min listen
HP. Happy Root 10 Day: For procrastinators... by The Math Factor
10 min listen
HO. Crazies On The Plane: Madness in the aisles... by The Math Factor
7 min listen
HN. Barbette: The great aerialist Barbette makes an wholly gratuitous appearance on the Math Factor, and a few quick puzzles. by The Math Factor
10 min listen
HM. Five Cards: Big math news, answers and a quick and easy puzzle. by The Math Factor
12 min listen
HL. Bear Hunt: Kyle stumps Chaim, and we revisit a neat twist on an old chestnut by The Math Factor
10 min listen
HK. Spiders and Fly: Another pursuit puzzle from the Math Factor by The Math Factor
10 min listen
HJ. Strange Suitor: An odd marriage proposal... by The Math Factor
7 min listen
Hi! Getting Closer: How close can we get to exactly one glass of water? by The Math Factor
7 min listen
HH. Corpuscle Candy: Hot piles of M&M's! by The Math Factor
12 min listen
HG. Two Love: Numbers, numbers numbers... hadn't noticed there are so many of them. by The Math Factor
8 min listen
HF. True Love: In which Chaim ponders how much his true love loves him truly. by The Math Factor
1 min listen
HE. On Cake and Coffee: In which we discuss the mystery of cooling coffee. by The Math Factor
13 min listen
HD. The Math Factor Returns: And we're back in the studio together again! Lots of great stuff to come! by The Math Factor
5 min listen
HC. Strongly Connected Components: Check out the Strongly Connected Components podcast at acmescience.com by The Math Factor
33 min listen
HB. Puzzlers Pegg and Stephens: Back with an interview with two fantastic puzzlers, Ed Pegg (mathpuzzle.com) and James Stephens (puzzlebeast.com) Check out mathfactor.uark.edu for lots of links to the puzzles and people they talk about. by The Math Factor
39 min listen
HA! Conway on Gardner: John H. Conway on his friendship with Martin Gardner. by The Math Factor
57 min listen
The Math Factor Takes a Bow: We are taking the summer off (at a minimum) but check back in a while for new segments. And don't forget to drop us a line! by The Math Factor
2 min listen
GY. Conversation with Greg Chaitin: A conversation with Greg Chaitin, creator of Chaitin's Omega and author, most recently, of MetaMath!! These ideas are well worth a close listen. by The Math Factor
62 min listen
GW. Wolfram's Principle of Computational Equivalence: Stephen Wolfram, creator of Mathematica and author of A New Kind of Science describes a fundamental principle, showing how irreducible complexity arises even in simple systems. by The Math Factor
8 min listen
G4G9 Report From the Gathering: Quick interviews at the Gathering, with Stephen Wolfram, Will Shortz, Dale Seymore, John Conway and many others! by The Math Factor
22 min listen
GV. Three Quick G4G9 Puzzles From Ed Pegg: We catch up with Ed Pegg, of mathpuzzle.com who gives us three great puzzles! Now Tweeting from G4G9! by The Math Factor
2 min listen
GW. Math Factor Hits The Road: The Math Factor hits the road, with live updates from the Gathering For Gardner! And the premier of James Greeson's Canon and Chorale on Pi. by The Math Factor
7 min listen
GV. Mix Up At The Five And Dime: A vintage segment from July 11, 2004. by The Math Factor
6 min listen
GU. Number Freak: Derrick Niederman tells us what is so un-22 about Catch 22, and other marvels from his new book, Number Freak. by The Math Factor
12 min listen
GT. The Largest Escher Exhibit Ever: The largest Escher exhibit ever is on display in Boca Raton. A must see event! by The Math Factor
20 min listen
GS. I Met A Man: In which we discuss the yillion and a strange encounter with an aged man. by The Math Factor
5 min listen
GR. VIth Anniversary of the Math Factor!: That's right, we return with our sixth anniversary "special". Can a clip show be far behind? by The Math Factor
10 min listen
GQ. Durned Ants: Keep those durned outs offa me! by The Math Factor
7 min listen

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BK. Bananas and Rockets

BK. Bananas and Rockets

Description

Titles in the series (100)

More Episodes from The Math Factor