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 The Math Factor
  



Category: Talk - Math
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!


Previews of The Math Factor
(All Active Shows)

    HR. CardColm
Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:20:59 -0500 (13.8 Mb)
Colm Mulcahy joins us to share some of his card magic!


    HQ. Newton v Leibnitz
Mon, 26 Mar 2012 09:53:10 -0500 (10.1 Mb)
A break from puzzling to discuss the history of the great Newton-Liebnitz dispute over the invention of Calculus, with the playwright Todd Taylor.


    HP. Happy Root 10 Day
Fri, 16 Mar 2012 09:42:29 -0500 (9.3 Mb)
For procrastinators...


    HO. Crazies On The Plane
Fri, 09 Mar 2012 06:51:11 -0600 (6.3 Mb)
Madness in the aisles...


    HN. Barbette
Mon, 27 Feb 2012 11:07:09 -0600 (9.8 Mb)
The great aerialist Barbette makes an wholly gratuitous appearance on the Math Factor, and a few quick puzzles.


    HM. Five Cards
Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:04:11 -0600 (11.4 Mb)
Big math news, answers and a quick and easy puzzle.


    HL. Bear Hunt
Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:19:01 -0600 (9.3 Mb)
Kyle stumps Chaim, and we revisit a neat twist on an old chestnut


    HK. Spiders and Fly
Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:47:40 -0600 (9.6 Mb)
Another pursuit puzzle from the Math Factor


    HJ. Strange Suitor
Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:21:24 -0600 (6.9 Mb)
An odd marriage proposal...


    Hi! Getting Closer
Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:16:31 -0600 (6.7 Mb)
How close can we get to exactly one glass of water?


    HH. Corpuscle Candy
Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:23:08 -0600 (11.4 Mb)
Hot piles of M&M's!


    HG. Two Love
Sun, 01 Jan 2012 11:59:57 -0600 (8.0 Mb)
Numbers, numbers numbers... hadn't noticed there are so many of them.


    HF. True Love
Fri, 23 Dec 2011 15:23:09 -0600 (1.5 Mb)
In which Chaim ponders how much his true love loves him truly.


    HE. On Cake and Coffee
Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:51:55 -0600 (12.5 Mb)
In which we discuss the mystery of cooling coffee.


    HD. The Math Factor Returns
Sun, 04 Dec 2011 10:34:39 -0600 (4.4 Mb)
And we're back in the studio together again! Lots of great stuff to come!


    HC. Strongly Connected Components
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 09:58:36 -0500 (32.0 Mb)
Check out the Strongly Connected Components podcast at acmescience.com


    HB. Puzzlers Pegg and Stephens
Sat, 09 Apr 2011 13:50:42 -0500 (37.7 Mb)
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.


    HA! Conway on Gardner
Mon, 28 Jun 2010 11:06:40 -0500 (55.2 Mb)
John H. Conway on his friendship with Martin Gardner.


    The Math Factor Takes a Bow
Sun, 09 May 2010 14:10:39 -0500 (1.5 Mb)
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!


    GY. Conversation with Greg Chaitin
Mon, 05 Apr 2010 09:48:43 -0500 (30.0 Mb)
A conversation with Greg Chaitin, creator of Chaitin's Omega and author, most recently, of MetaMath!! These ideas are well worth a close listen.


    GW. Wolfram's Principle of Computational Equivalence
Tue, 30 Mar 2010 09:35:59 -0500 (7.4 Mb)
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.


    G4G9 Report From the Gathering
Sun, 28 Mar 2010 10:54:54 -0500 (36.5 Mb)
Quick interviews at the Gathering, with Stephen Wolfram, Will Shortz, Dale Seymore, John Conway and many others!


    GV. Three Quick G4G9 Puzzles From Ed Pegg
Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:08:38 -0500 (2.6 Mb)
We catch up with Ed Pegg, of mathpuzzle.com who gives us three great puzzles! Now Tweeting from G4G9!


    GW. Math Factor Hits The Road
Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:59:09 -0500 (6.7 Mb)
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.


    GV. Mix Up At The Five And Dime
Sat, 13 Mar 2010 11:41:50 -0600 (5.7 Mb)
A vintage segment from July 11, 2004.


    GU. Number Freak
Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:18:30 -0600 (11.4 Mb)
Derrick Niederman tells us what is so un-22 about Catch 22, and other marvels from his new book, Number Freak.


    GT. The Largest Escher Exhibit Ever
Sat, 27 Feb 2010 11:32:00 -0600 (18.9 Mb)
The largest Escher exhibit ever is on display in Boca Raton. A must see event!


    GS. I Met A Man
Sat, 20 Feb 2010 12:59:05 -0600 (4.7 Mb)
In which we discuss the yillion and a strange encounter with an aged man.


    GR. VIth Anniversary of the Math Factor!
Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:56:05 -0600 (9.8 Mb)
That's right, we return with our sixth anniversary "special". Can a clip show be far behind?


    GQ. Durned Ants
Thu, 31 Dec 2009 10:32:35 -0600 (6.6 Mb)
Keep those durned outs offa me!


    GP. Switcheroo!
Sat, 26 Dec 2009 09:51:57 -0600 (7.7 Mb)
A plan for the shop, and still more tormented prisoners. What is the deal with those poor souls anyway?


    GO. Coin Fraud!
Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:12:00 -0600 (8.4 Mb)
Yay! Another Fraud Detection Prevention tip from your friends and accomplices at the Math Factor, as well as further discourse on Benford's Law.


    GN. Benford's Law
Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:02:18 -0600 (6.7 Mb)
If you're gonna commit accounting fraud, some things to watch out for! Benford's law is an amazing property of many kinds of lists of data.


    GM. What's the Big Deal Anyway?
Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:58:15 -0600 (7.1 Mb)
Wherein Chaim lets off a little steam about an urgent problem...


    GL. Math 2033
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:43:18 -0600 (3.5 Mb)
Chaim's new Math 2033 is going like gangbusters! Check out the class wiki at math2033.uark.edu


    GK. Mythematics
Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:36:38 -0600 (7.8 Mb)
Michael Huber solves the 12 Labors of Hercules!


    GJ. Mathletics
Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:52:07 -0600 (11.3 Mb)
Wayne Winston discusses his sports-math book, Mathletics!


    GI. Mrs. Perkins' Electric Quilt
Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:09:45 -0500 (11.8 Mb)
Paul Nahin discusses his fabulous new book "Mrs Perkins Electric Quilt", mosquitos, falling through the Earth, whether mathematics is "real" and much more!


    GH. The Math Book
Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:02:24 -0500 (14.1 Mb)
Clifford Pickover discusses his beautiful new Math Book: From Pythagoras to the 57th Dimension, 250 Milestones in the History of Mathematics.


    GG. OLD IDAHO USUAL HERE
Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:41:10 -0500 (5.7 Mb)
Stephen Morris rounds out his puzzles with a discussion of OLD IDAHO USUAL HERE.


    GF. More Clock Crazies
Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:40:24 -0500 (6.4 Mb)
Jetting around with Stephen Morris, who leaves us at a rare loss for words!


    GE. Clock Confusion
Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:47:46 -0500 (10.2 Mb)
Stephen Morris, mathfactor correspondent at large, discusses the Kate Bush conjecture and how to get a dead clock to tell the right time many times throughout the day!


    GD. The Math Circus Is Coming!
Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:30:43 -0500 (6.8 Mb)
Back after a sleepy summer, the Math Circus Opens 9/9/9!


    GC. Another Buncha Prisoners
Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:37:02 -0500 (8.3 Mb)
Man, what is it about puzzlers and prisoners? Jeff Yoak lines em up and the stakes are high!


    GB. Hat Strategy
Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:58:28 -0500 (3.4 Mb)
#mathfactor now on twitter; Jeff Yoak poses a hat puzzle stumper!


    GA. Stacking the Chips
Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:41:04 -0500 (10.6 Mb)
Jeff Yoak discusses math in his career as a poker pro.


    FZ. Will a Real Gold Coin Please Stand Up?
Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:06:08 -0500 (2.6 Mb)
Jeff Yoak, one of the mathfactor website authors, shares a puzzle with an intriguing twist!


    FY. Weights in a Row
Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:36:57 -0500 (2.5 Mb)
Every number in a mysterious sequence is the weighted average of its neighbors...


    FW. Walk Around the Clock
Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:50:26 -0500 (1.6 Mb)
A quick puzzle sent in by a listener! Very elegant solution, using a fair coin...


    FV. Singmastery!
Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:16:45 -0500 (11.2 Mb)
David Singmaster, Puzzler Extraordinaire, early master of the Rubik's Cube, poser of the Singmaster Conjecture, etc, etc, engages in some wordplay.


    FU. Arp and Bif Shake Hands
Mon, 25 May 2009 05:18:52 -0500 (9.4 Mb)
We express regret, answer a puzzle, shake hands and welcome back astronauts Arp and Bif.


    FT. Sum and Double & Double and Sum
Mon, 18 May 2009 09:34:54 -0500 (8.2 Mb)
A puzzle on sums of digits, and an interview with Rob Fathauer, of Tesselations Inc.


    FS. The Portuguese Waiter Trick
Wed, 06 May 2009 14:19:48 -0500 (8.9 Mb)
Dr Schaffer returns to show us more of his math-dance moves!


    FR. Who Wants To Be A Mathematician?
Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:39:48 -0500 (10.7 Mb)
Kyle and Chaim return to the studio with an interview with Michael Breen, of the hit gameshow, "Who Wants To Be A Mathematician?" Lots of puzzles!


    FQ. Cards In The Dark
Mon, 06 Apr 2009 05:10:47 -0500 (4.2 Mb)
Fumbling with cards in the dark...


    FP. Carriage Return
Fri, 03 Apr 2009 05:09:17 -0500 (4.3 Mb)
A simple typesetting puzzle from Stephen Barr's Intriguing Puzzles in Math and Logic.


    FO. Eyebrow Hairs
Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:49:37 -0500 (3.6 Mb)
Why do these hair seem to grow in fits and starts?


    FN. Three Square Napkins
Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:34:33 -0500 (4.3 Mb)
Another Sam Loyd puzzle: what is the largest square table that can be covered by three 1 foot square napkins?


    FM. Bamboopalooza One
Thu, 26 Mar 2009 08:43:44 -0500 (5.6 Mb)
Our very first Bamboopalooza, in Wilson Park April 2004!


    FL. Algebra on the Radio
Tue, 24 Mar 2009 11:40:34 -0500 (5.6 Mb)
If I give you a number, can you always find another number whose sum and product with my number are the same?


    FK. Twiddling Screws
Tue, 17 Mar 2009 10:05:09 -0500 (4.3 Mb)
Having lost their thumbs, Arp and Bif twiddle screws instead investigating a simple, but counterintuitive bit of 3D geometry.


    FJ. Dr Loyd's Atomic Easter Eggs
Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:40:58 -0500 (5.6 Mb)
For Easter Sunday, 2004, an old puzzle from the superb 19th century puzzler Sam Loyd.


    FI. Paranoia!
Mon, 09 Mar 2009 09:09:04 -0500 (4.2 Mb)
Paranoid scientists don't trust anyone! How many locks are needed to protect the vital contents of a safe?


    FH. Girdling The Earth
Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:14:51 -0600 (3.6 Mb)
From March 28, 2004, a simple, surprising chestnut about girdling the earth.


    FG. Mr Fled _Math_Factor_03_04_09
Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:33:45 -0600 (5.1 Mb)
From March 21, 2004, we pose another old chestnut.


    FF. Hostile Flowers
Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:08:57 -0600 (5.5 Mb)
Recalling an early Star Trek episode, we save some space hippies from certain doom.


    FE. Burn the Rope
Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:35:46 -0600 (6.6 Mb)
Edmund Harriss steps in and poses a puzzle on this early segment.


    FD. Space Walkers
Mon, 23 Feb 2009 08:35:24 -0600 (7.8 Mb)
Another segment from the Golden Age of Mathradio, Math Factor #5, aired February 22, 2004.


    FC. Cool Clear Water
Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:11:52 -0600 (8.2 Mb)
Math Factor Number Four; how much water is required to get across the desert? (This is basically the same problem as BK. Bananas and Rockets)


    FB. The Legendary Monty Hall Problem
Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:59:30 -0600 (7.4 Mb)
After all these years, we finally get around to putting the Monty Hall Problem up on the web-- it's deja vu all over again as we post the third math factor segment ever!


    FA. The Johnsons
Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:19:34 -0600 (4.5 Mb)
We revisit an old chestnut.


    EZ. A Special Double Feature
Mon, 02 Feb 2009 10:11:59 -0600 (15.5 Mb)
Our servers are back up, after an astounding ice storm that shut down the town; we celebrate with a special double feature: "Google, Flutes and Monopoly" and the very first Math Factor Episode ever aired.


    EY. Vth Anniversary Special
Wed, 21 Jan 2009 09:50:48 -0600 (10.8 Mb)
Our Fifth Anniversary Special! Come visit our brand new, totally fair casino!


    EX. Gamblers Ruin
Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:23:23 -0600 (7.4 Mb)
Shortly after taping this segment, Kyle and Chaim suddenly hit on a great way to make huge amounts of money. We'll offer you a terrific opportunity you can't refuse in next week's segment!!


    EW: What's The Difference?
Mon, 22 Dec 2008 13:01:57 -0600 (11.4 Mb)
Isaac Newton's puzzling polynomial problem!


    EU. Stacking Cannonballs
Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:40:42 -0600 (10.8 Mb)
Pascal's has so many strange and amusing applications!


    ET. Your Holiday Gift Guide
Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:46:10 -0600 (16.6 Mb)
Our favorite new and not-so-new products for 2008! Check out Zome, Puzzellations, DROD, Magic Mirror Coloring Book, The Riddles of the Sphinx, the Nikoli puzzle company, The Princeton Companion to Mathematics, How Round is your Circle and many more ideas!


    ES. The Ishango Bone
Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:29:01 -0600 (29.6 Mb)
Dirk Huylebrouck discusses the incredible Ishango bone, and thousands of years of arithmetic.


    ER. The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search
Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:20:07 -0600 (10.6 Mb)
Just two months ago, the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, discovered a huge prime number, with more than ten million digits! Mersenne primes are closely related to the famous "perfect" numbers, numbers which are the sum of their divisors.


    EQ. Ed Pegg Returns
Wed, 22 Oct 2008 08:28:10 -0500 (10.2 Mb)
Ed Pegg, of mathpuzzle.com, joins us to discuss cellular automata and a fiendishly difficult puzzle.


    EP. HIPE
Sun, 12 Oct 2008 11:41:15 -0500 (5.9 Mb)
Peter Winkler returns to discuss the bonus chapter in his book Mathematical Mind Benders!


    EO. Spaghetti Loops
Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:05:09 -0500 (13.3 Mb)
Just why does the constant e appear in so many ways?


    EN. Plinko
Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:53:08 -0500 (9.9 Mb)
We discuss some business and then consider the game of Plinko.


    EM. Awash In Billiard Balls
Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:41:52 -0500 (6.6 Mb)
We discuss math on TV, the smallest ungoogleable number and a devilish game with billiard balls.


    EJ. Math Dance with Dr Schaffer and Mr Stern
Mon, 08 Sep 2008 01:00:00 -0500 (14.5 Mb)
Karl Schaffer of Math Dance shows us some geometry tricks.


    EL. The Law of Small Numbers
Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:12:05 -0500 (9.0 Mb)
In which we discuss the Fibonacci numbers, the law of small numbers, and just why one should expect to see the golden ratio so often.


    EK. Math Factor at the Farmers Market
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:00:00 -0500 (6.5 Mb)
We set up a booth and wait to see what happens.


    EI. How to Pass a Cube Through Itself!
Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:15:56 -0500 (6.1 Mb)
We conclude our interview with Dana Richards.


    EH. The Worm Makes It!
Sat, 16 Aug 2008 13:02:21 -0500 (9.2 Mb)
The worm makes it, in only about 15,092,688,622,113,788,323,693,563,264,538,101,449,859,497 steps! (Give or take a few) This incredible fact depends on the mysterious Harmonic Series, discussed a little more on the Math Factor website mathfactor.uark.edu.


    EG. The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles and Problems
Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:32:17 -0500 (10.4 Mb)
Dana Richards, editor of The Colossal Book of Short Problems and Puzzles, talks to us about Martin Gardner and his legacy.


    EF. Visions of Symmetry
Wed, 30 Jul 2008 07:22:51 -0500 (13.4 Mb)
Escher expert Doris Schattschneider sits down with us in Leeuwarden, Friesland, his boyhood home.


    EE. Tossem Beaver
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:36:31 -0500 (11.2 Mb)
Mathemagician Art Benjamin explains a few tricks of his trade!


    ED. Mathemagician Art Benjamin
Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:57:42 -0500 (8.2 Mb)
Art Benjamin, mathemagician extraordinaire amazes and delights...


    EC. Skyrocketing functions
Sun, 29 Jun 2008 08:52:01 -0500 (10.4 Mb)
Some functions just take off! Amazingly there are functions that cannot be bounded in by anything that can be computed!


    EB. Busy Beavers and Dumb Robots
Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:03:49 -0500 (19.8 Mb)
We finally get around to discussing the Dumb Robots problem, the nature of computation, and baseball.


    EA. The Limits of Computation
Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:04:21 -0500 (9.2 Mb)
Can the answer to any mathematical question be computed?


    DZ. Mind Control Across Time and Space
Thu, 29 May 2008 09:16:16 -0500 (11.5 Mb)
Erik Demaine of MIT controls minds across all time and all space!


    DY. The Symmetries of Things
Wed, 21 May 2008 21:17:14 -0500 (12.4 Mb)
We shamelessly plug our beautiful new book, the Symmetries of Things, by John H. Conway, Heidi Burgiel and Chaim Goodman-Strauss.


    DX. Dumb Robots
Tue, 13 May 2008 10:20:57 -0500 (9.0 Mb)
In which we discuss the incredible Collatz function, and smashing dumb robots into each other.


    DV. Dealing with Chaos
Thu, 01 May 2008 18:22:51 -0500 (10.2 Mb)
We continue to play Tag Deal!



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