125: $7 bills

This podcast is supported by Progressive, a leader in RV Insurance.

RVs are for sharing adventures with family, friends, and even your pets.

So, if you bring your cats and dogs along for the ride, you'll want Progressive RV Insurance.

They protect your cats and dogs like family by offering up to $1,000 in optional coverage for vet bills in case of an RV accident, making it a great companion for the responsible pet owner who loves to travel.

See Progressive's other benefits and more when you quote RV Insurance at progressive.com today.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates, pet injuries, and additional coverage and subject to policy terms.

In which two different games can you hit a 7-10 split?

The answer to that at the end of the show.

My name's Tom Scott, and this is Lateral.

Welcome to today's show, whether you're listening or watching.

That's right, at the time of recording, you can now watch full episodes of Lateral on Spotify.

We realize that some of you may not think that's a benefit when lateral is just talking heads, so to tempt people into making the Switch, or at least trying it, for video only, here's a picture of the producer's dog.

And if a Bichon Frise won't change your mind, nothing will.

First today, we have a new player to Lateral.

We have wine columnist for The Guardian and broadcaster, Hannah Crosby.

Welcome to the show.

Hello, thank you so much for having me.

This is your first time here.

You have been a listener for a while, I think?

I have been a listener for a while.

When I first discovered this podcast, I think i binged maybe about 10 in a day i was like where has this been my whole life so i feel like i should apologize for that somehow

no it's fine it was a day very well spent um to be honest i'm just very surprised you got back to me

you are currently in south africa i am the rumors are true um yeah i'm very lucky to do this for work i have a very beautiful view right now including you guys obviously but um the view is also great yeah i'm assuming it's wine tasting it's wine tasting tasting today.

Well, I'm currently in the guest houses of Graham Beck, so we've been tasting a lot of sparkling wine today.

So the enamel on my teeth is really, really suffering at the moment.

So I might come back with, yeah, enjoy it while it lasts.

That's another reason to watch.

You can look at my teeth as they stand now before they erode away.

Well, very best of luck to you and your teeth on the show.

You are joined by two returning players.

First from his own YouTube channel about transport, trains and travel.

Jeff Marshall, welcome back.

Hey, Tom, good afternoon.

Nice to be here again.

I appreciate the lateral roundel in the back of shot.

You can change the letters out, right?

Yeah, well, I just cut a template.

It comes with a slidable plastic thing, and I thought I can just cut my own paper ones to shape.

So if you'd like me to customize a name or something funny,

I can do that.

That's fine.

That's appreciated.

What are you working on at the minute?

I was traveling on a bus in Oxford last week, making a little sort of documentary for them, 20-minute documentary, just highlighting an Oxford bus coach service.

I like to travel around, as you are aware.

You seem to be going more into big projects and filmmaking than vlogging as such.

Because I'm getting old, Tom, thanks for highlighting that.

Yeah, no, no.

We went to the pub with a few folks the other week.

It's now the point where half of our conversation is about medical stuff because we're that age.

Yeah, it's not a joke.

It just happens.

Yeah, but with my aging and maturity, I do find I'm getting away from, you know, I'm not a 20-year-old vlogger anymore.

I kind of hate that expression.

So I'm calling myself like a transport.

That wasn't a word when we were 20.

I know, right?

I know.

I like being called like a filmmaker because it's more befitting a man of my age.

I think that's fair.

Well, good luck with the show today.

We are joined by someone who, when I asked what description that she wanted, just said mathematician.

So please welcome mathematician Katie Steckles.

Hello.

Although, you all said the finite group was in there as well.

I don't think we've mentioned that before.

Yeah, this is one of my projects that started in the last year or so.

But yeah, we're a community of mass people and we just do like live streams once a month and just hang out in Discord the rest of the time and it's quite good fun.

How are you feeling coming back to the show as a returning player?

Good.

Like it's always a fun time,

I would like to say.

There is struggle, but

you feel supported, so it's fun.

I mean, what more can you ask for in life?

Yeah.

Very best of luck to all three of you.

Well, with the producer's Bichon Frise sniffing around his legs, it's good to shake a paw with you all let us uh lie down stay and roll over to question one thank you to oliver vorge and mike salter for both sending in this question in 2017 why did fiji begin to circulate a seven dollar banknote i'll say that again in 2017 why did fiji begin to circulate a seven dollar banknote My initial thought goes to the fact that you can get fake Euro notes, which are sort of for their collectible tourist things.

So was it a tourist collectible note for some reason?

No.

And I think those notes, I saw one the other week.

They're deliberately zero Euros, just so they can never be

called to have financial fraud or anything like that.

So this was a genuine $7.

This was a legal tender, $7 note.

Wow.

I almost wonder if there's like something that people frequently had to buy that costs $7 and everyone's getting fed up of giving $3 in change if you paid with a $10 note.

So,

you know, they thought it was easier to just have a note that costs that, but I can't think what it would be that's exactly seven dollars.

Is there a cable car?

No, no, not magnetic.

But did you know when in in Japan, when when the original Space Invaders arcade machine came out, like back in the 70s, they ran out of 10 yen pieces because so many people were putting them into arcade machines.

And so, so the Japanese mint had to like make like a million extra 10 yen pieces.

So, yeah, is there something that is costing seven what was it again?

Seven Fiji seven dollars.

What costs seven dollars that everybody is spending i mean i guess the question is how much is seven fijian dollars worth like in a in a currency that i have a handle on has anybody been to fiji no no

do they do they do they not do wine in fiji hannah is that another thing uh look they do wine in pretty much every country in the world but i've never come across it and it certainly wouldn't be seven dollars that would work out to about three us dollars so it's the kind of amount you'd have a small note for i'm wondering is it something that's uh standardized nationally, like a bus ticket or something like that?

I was going to say bus or train ticket.

I'm such a nerd.

I feel like it was Jeff if

it would be quite operating.

That's exactly what I was thinking.

I can't believe it took you so long here.

I was thinking, I just didn't want to, I didn't want to be first to say it.

There is a connection between the country and the number here.

Is seven like a lucky number or an unlucky number?

Yeah, it's lucky in some cultures, yeah.

Is it one of those, or we must have seven seven somethings?

How many points is the word Fiji on a scrabble board?

Oh,

I don't think it's.

J's got to be like 10, right?

Yeah, that J's got to be worth a lot.

F is four and J is eight.

So that's but you have absolutely worked out how this game works, Hannah.

That is a very good play for a first-time player.

And honestly, just kind of conceptually starting to get just vaguely closer there, but very, very vaguely.

Very vaguely.

I mean, was it to celebrate seven hundred years of something or seven...

It was to celebrate something.

This is one of those notes that is legal tender, but is probably not going to be found in too many actual transactions.

Yeah, like when you get the five pound coin.

Yeah, yes.

Was it a five pound or two pound coin that we had?

That was really rare.

Was it a five pound coin, Katie?

I think there was a five.

There is a five.

The two pound coin also briefly started to become rare after it came out because people thought that the early ones were going to be collector's items.

They weren't.

The Royal Mint had made a staggering number of them, but enough people kept them that it started to cause a problem.

This is collector's items.

It was something like it was 100 years of, they were celebrating 100 years or something, and there were seven people in the Fijian government or something, and so seven pictures appeared on the note.

Are there seven people in something?

Yes.

Ooh, ooh, ooh.

Was it S-Club seven?

I never knew that origin story, but I believe you.

Seven.

Are there seven?

Is it to do with sport?

I'm thinking of seven members on a team of something.

Keep going, Hannah.

Oh, no, that's about as far as I can get.

No, hang on.

We're asking a mathematician, a transport nerd, and a wine expert a sports question.

Okay.

But that's not like rugby or soccer.

It's got to be like volleyball or net.

Jeff, what's the sport that's connected with Fiji out of those you just said?

What?

No, rugby?

No.

Rugby.

There are seven players on a rugby team, are there?

Rugby sevens.

Rugby sevens, you've got it, Katie.

So

the last connection is, why was this in 2017?

Did they win a thing?

Yeah.

I have to be honest, I don't follow rugby sevens

as closely as I follow any other sport.

What happened the year before, 2016?

So

2016 was a busy year, Tom.

Some kind of Olympics?

Yeah.

Hannah's got it.

The 2016 Olympics.

So this is, I think you have all the pieces now, and it's a sports question, so I will connect them for you.

This was to commemorate the Fijian Rugby Sevens team having their first ever gold medal.

And not just the team's first ever gold medal, the country's first ever gold medal.

Nice.

It was the first time that any sports team or person had brought home a gold medal for Fiji.

And the way they commemorated that was their own $7 banknote.

They didn't just put them on a banknote.

They put them on a banknote that had never been made before.

Nice.

I'm so proud of them.

That's beautiful.

Are they still in circulation today or are they become collector's items?

I think they were just one-off collector's items, but the coach who was British-born, Ben Ryan, also got his own 50-cent coin.

So that will probably still be in circulation somewhere.

Nice.

Wow.

I mean, like we did the gold post boxes thing, right?

That was.

We did.

They're still one of those.

In London, they're still one of those in a few other cities.

If you won a gold medal for Britain in 2012, a post box near your hometown got painted gold instead of red, and they keep that up to this day.

Katie, it is over to you for the next question.

Okay, so this question has been sent in by Jordan Elder.

In November 2021, Graham put up a display of both Adele's and Ed Sheeran's solo albums in his vinyl record shop.

Each artist's work was displayed in order of release.

Why do collectors find this incredibly satisfying?

So I read that again.

In November 2021, Graham, you know Graham, put up a display of both Adele's and Ed Sheeran's solo albums in his vinyl record shop.

Each artist's work was displayed in order of release.

Why do collectors find this incredibly satisfying?

That's classic, Graham.

I know, right?

He's always doing stuff like this.

Well, I think I might have got a very good guess straight away.

I've got a guess of the start of this, but I don't know what the satisfying part is.

Well, Adele's

albums are all numbered, because they're like 1921, and Ed Sheeran's are all like, are all mathematical symbols.

So it's got to be a mass thing, right?

Where the albums line up to form a calculation or something.

And that's probably wrong.

Is it right?

I was figuring they were lining up to a calculation, but that doesn't count as satisfying unless the equation actually adds up.

Equals.

Katie's just looking at us.

Yeah, to clarify, up to this point, they've both done four albums.

So Adele's albums were definitely, she had a 19 and a 21.

Has she had like a 24 and a 28 since or something?

Those were her ages when they came out.

Yeah.

And Ed Sheeran has definitely had plus, divide.

I think he's had a cross, a multiply.

It's got to be, it's a math.

It's Katie's question.

It's a mass thing.

It's got to be.

It's got to be.

Okay, does anyone know Ed Sheeran's albums in order?

No.

Plus is first.

That's the, because they're all color coordinated as well.

So orange is plus.

Divide is

blue.

Multiply is green.

No one's stopping me, so I'm assuming these are right levels.

They're not.

You're saying it with so much confidence, however, we're just like, yeah,

I can confirm those colours are correct.

I'm not going to say whether the order is correct.

Oh, okay.

Does anyone know Adele's numbers for her albums?

Can you remember how old Adele was each year that she released an album?

I'm fairly sure 18 was one and 21 was another,

but that's it.

But that doesn't explain why it's particularly satisfying because if we've got...

Wait, is Ed Sheeran's fourth album equals?

It is.

Oh,

so it's something plus something, minus something, plus something equals, and then the correct answer.

That's not a complete equation.

If we've got four numbers, but three operators and an equals, we're missing the thing at the end.

Katie did say it was November 21.

Did it equal 2021?

It did not equal 2012.

That was such a good guess, yes.

That was so good.

Damn it.

I mean, would you like me to confirm what the albums were?

Sorry, Katie, is the date relevant?

Because you said that you've said November 21, which would be 1121.

Is the date relevant?

It was, I think the date is relevant in the sense that by that point they each had four albums.

All right.

Was it the number of Graham's shop, whoever Graham is?

Or his age?

Or

something pertaining to Graham?

I'm going to say it was not unrelated to Graham's shop, but it wasn't a specific thing about Graham's shop.

It wasn't kind of a

local fact.

Are there any shops which have numbers in their name?

So it was it was the name of the shop somehow, and the name of the shop was a number.

Oh, um,

is oh, sorry, I'm just thinking this is probably completely wrong, but I'm going to go for it anyway.

Um, that's what this show's about.

That's what it's all about, baby.

Is it

I'm thinking of the shops H M V as Roman numerals, and maybe it's like an enormous no.

That's good.

Oh, that's really good.

But H is H is H isn't.

But H is like a million zillion.

Yeah, I don't know.

Well, it's not one of the standard Roman numerals.

It might be a medieval Roman numeral because they've got all sorts in there, but the standard Roman numerals don't include H, as far as I know.

Oh, that would have been so good.

I'm writing Roman numerals down to see if I can make a word about music in there.

And

I've got some of the letters, but not all of the letters.

I can make the word mild

and

civil and not much else off the top of my head.

So Adele's albums are all kind of realistic ages for a human.

Yes.

So So, they're all in that kind of area.

And of the Ed Sheeran albums, you've got a plus and a times and a divide.

So, the number isn't going to get that big.

That's fair because those two aren't going to, they're not going to cancel each other out, but it's going to come close to it.

You are multiplying by a number and then dividing by a very similar number, which

have to have some sort of factor in common because it's not going to come out with some ridiculous fraction.

So, if it's something like was it pi

That would have been incredible.

Let's assume that her first albums are something like

19 and 21.

That's going to make 40, which is a number you can get a lot of things out of.

Then you're going to multiply that by a number and then divide it by a larger number, if that's the order those albums are in.

So, you're going to end up with

something like 25,

30, 32, some.

I can't see any way to get any number out that isn't like in the mid-30s.

What's 19 plus 21, Tom?

40.

Multiply it by 4 times 25.

Let's do 40 times 25.

Well, it doesn't matter because it's just got to be some factor in that.

The maths nerds are on this, all right?

We've got this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

People are yelling at their phones right now.

And then you divide it, and it turns out to be a prime number.

It comes out to some amazing mathematical number.

Is it a prime number?

But the question was, why was this satisfying?

There's got to be a number.

It's got to be a little bit less than 40, I think.

You're in the right area.

Is it something to do with either of the artists, Kay?

Not specifically.

I will say it was a number that was satisfying for Graham.

And Graham is not a mathematician, but Graham is the owner of a record shop.

Oh,

different vinyl.

How are the different vinyl lengths?

If they're all kind of like vinyls, what's the different inches?

Oh, no.

Not a 40-inch, not a 40-inch vinyl.

Oh, Oh, but I'd love to see a 40-inch vinyl.

How fast would the outside of that be going?

Yeah.

Yeah, did it come out?

Hang on, hang on.

Did it equate to 33 or 45, which is the revolutions per minute of a vinyl record?

Is it Graham's birthday?

Has he just turned 35 and he's worked out that he can put all this up in the record shopping?

That's that's instead of happy birthday on bunting, it's got that.

It's not Graham's birthday.

I'm going to go back to what Jeff just said.

RPM of a vinyl record.

Well, an LP, a 12-inch LP traditionally plays at 33, RPM, a 7-inch single plays at 45.

So I'm going for 33.

So is it something to do with 33?

It's not exactly 33.

Is it 33 and a third?

It is.

Wow.

That is the old...

That's the revolutions per minute of a vinyl record.

of a long play vinyl it's not a third it's it's marked as 33 but it's 33 and a third is it really 33 and a third what how am i so old and i don't know that

so this is an absolutely incredible fact that I guess no one could have predicted because Adele was literally just naming the albums after her age at the time and Ed Sheeran was doing something.

I don't know what, but as a mathematician, I'm very happy.

And yeah, this is the thing.

So the albums were 19, 21, 25, and 30.

So your attempt at doing 40 times 25 was definitely in the right direction.

If you'd pushed through with that, you might have got, but I think Tom was in the right area with something between 30 and 40.

Yeah, I'm sorry I cut you off there, Jeff.

That would have been spot on because that would have been a thousand divided by 30, which would have been the absolute correct number.

I just assumed it was going to be a whole number.

Yeah.

And the solo albums were plus times divide and equals for Ed Sheeran.

And if you do 19 plus 21 times 25 divide by 30,

and you have to ignore kind of conventions about order of operations.

You just literally go from left to right.

You end up with 33 and a third, which is the number of revolutions per minute for a vinyl record.

Wow.

Oh, brilliant.

Thanks, Katie.

Well done.

I'm going to say top work on Graham for spotting this and being like, right, those are going up in the window.

Done.

That's my favorite lateral question ever.

That's fantastic.

That's genius.

We all thought as soon as that question appeared, oh, we know this.

We didn't know that.

You did not.

It's so good, isn't it?

Oh, the hubris, man.

Yeah, it'll get you.

Olivia loves a challenge.

It's why she lifts heavy weights

and likes complicated recipes.

But for booking her trip to Paris, Olivia chose the easy way with Expedia.

She bundled her flight with a hotel to save more.

Of course, she still climbed all 674 steps to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

You were made to take the easy route.

We were made to easily package your trip.

Expedia, made to travel.

Flight-inclusive packages are at all protected.

Tires matter.

They're the only part of your vehicle that touches the road.

Tread confidently with new tires from Tire Rack.

Whether you're looking for expert recommendations or know exactly what you want, Tire Rack makes it easy.

Fast, free shipping, free road hazard protection, convenient installation options, and the best selection of BF Goodrich tires.

Go to TireRack.com to see their BF Goodrich test results, tire ratings, and reviews, and be sure to check out all the special offers.

TireRack.com, the way tire buying should be.

Say hello to the next generation of Zendesk AI agents, built to deliver resolutions for everyone.

Zendesk AI agents easily deploy in minutes, not months, to to resolve 30% of customer and employee interactions on day one, quickly turning monotonous tasks into autonomous solutions.

Loved by over 10,000 companies, Zendesk AI makes service teams more efficient, businesses run better, and your customers happier.

That's the Zendesk AI effect.

Find out more at zendesk.com.

Thank you to Bob Weiss for this next question.

In 2005, an employee handed an accountant a piece of paper with the word paper on it.

This cost their company millions of dollars.

How?

In 2005, an employee handed an accountant a piece of paper with the word paper on it.

This cost their company millions of dollars.

How?

When was the financial crash again?

Which one?

Which is, hey, look, who's counting?

Yeah.

Is it maths or transport related?

I mean, it feels maths related.

It does, doesn't it?

Only the kind of very functional maths that accountants do.

You know, not the fun stuff.

I'm wondering whether it's a physical transaction that needed to happen.

So a transfer of money needed to happen for a specific good.

And then it just so happened to be a piece of paper, marked paper.

Are they trading in paper?

Was it the price of paper here that was relevant?

Millions.

Paper as a commodity.

Yeah, I'm just wondering why you would hand someone a piece of paper with the word paper on it.

Like, is that confirmation of the fact that paper is the thing that is in question?

Is it like, you know, was the person needing to report, oh, which of our products is making the most money or whatever?

And they brought back a thing and it said paper.

For some reason, is it a high-stakes game of rock, paper, scissors?

I was just going there.

I was just going to say that.

Just the office party Christmas game of rock, paper, scissors.

Keep going oh no

right and the and like the boss got a bit you know tipsy at the party and decided to gamble no katie hand i'm just going to go rock paper scissors now if you're up for this one yeah yeah sure run up one on on four one two three go paper obviously

katie threw scissors the two of you threw paper katie uh if we had points you would get the point for correctly identifying that this is a rock paper scissors match okay But that's not quite the full story.

How did that cost that company millions of dollars?

Was it a match against a different company?

Yes.

Okay.

Were they using this to decide some kind of business thing?

Yeah.

Yes, they were.

You can tell how much I work in business by how I'm describing it as some kind of business thing, you know, the business things that business people do.

Yeah.

I get the sense.

It's two feuding rivals that knew each other from school or college, and years later in the business world, they decided to settle like a multinational million deal thing with a stupid game of rock paper scissors honestly jeff uh i think you've brought it home there um this is

this was a battle between sotheby's and christie's the auction houses uh there was a japanese electronics giant maspro denko corporation they decided to auction off their well part of their art collection they couldn't decide between the two companies so they hired an accountant to run a game of rock paper scissors between the two auction houses.

Oh, brilliant.

Do you want to speculate on the strategies that either company might have taken there?

Did they hold 100 games of rock, paper, scissors and see what people were most likely to pick?

They'd watch the Mark Rober video that tells you how to win at

rock, paper, scissors.

There's that actual strategy.

Well, Sotheby's thought it was just chance.

So they randomly picked paper.

The rep from Christie's researched the topic deeply.

A colleague's daughter said, rock is way too obvious and scissors beats paper.

Christie's went with scissors and won millions in commission as a result.

Wow.

Wow.

I have to say, a few years ago, I don't know what happened to it, but I went to a pub in London where they ran like a rock, paper, scissors sort of like tournament.

And I believe it's like a yearly thing.

And as a complete rookie, I got down to like the final 10 purely on.

Yeah, but

I beat last year's winner or something who did not take it well.

And then in the last 10, I then got decimated there are some very very expert players of rock paper scissors here like theoretically it should just be chance but I guess like if you're playing repeated games you sort of get to know the psychology of people and this there is a bit of a natural there is actually one point from that question we haven't covered why was the word paper on paper because they had to post their offerings to yeah they needed to reveal at the same time so that they wouldn't be able to get any prior information so

they faxed it.

It's 2005, clearly not.

They handed it to an accountant, so there was absolutely no dispute over someone reading the other person or coming in later or anything like that.

It was the most formalized multi-million pound game of rock, paper, scissors there has ever been.

Hannah, it is over to you for the next question.

Fabulous.

This question has been sent in by Ingmar.

The traditional Swedish drink Kafekask is made using coffee, a clear liquor such as vodka and a coin.

What are the two-part instructions for making it?

I'll say it again.

The traditional Swedish drink café cask is made using coffee, a clear liquor, such as vodka, and a coin.

What are the two-part instructions for making it?

First of all, can I just say thank you for having my maiden question being related to you somehow?

Alcohol-based, yep.

Thank you, thank you.

A coin, a coin, any, any coin or specific.

So coffee, liquor, and a coin, a clear liquor specifically.

And the coins in the drink?

Well, we don't know that yet.

We don't know.

Is it you have the two drinks and you flip the coin and if it's heads, you get drunk, and if it's tails,

it's another game of chance.

Yeah.

Or you flip the coin to see which you put in first, the coffee or the liquor.

Does that determine the order?

Wouldn't make much difference, would it?

But you know, it's fun.

For the person who doesn't really do alcohol or caffeine, I am feeling kind of slightly out of depth on this question.

Did you say it was Cafe Cast or café cask?

Café cask.

Cooker cask.

With a k so it's spelt k-a-f-f-e-k-a-s-k.

It would help if I knew what the word cask meant in Swedish.

Is it just in Sweden?

Is it any other countries?

It's just a Swedish thing?

Can we ask?

It hasn't caught on internationally.

You might, you're probably not familiar with it.

Does Sweden have does Sweden have the Euro?

Why do I feel like is it which one of those countries doesn't have the euro?

Sweden actually does have Swedish krona rather than Euros, but I don't think.

Good to know.

All good, but the actual currency isn't relevant, unfortunately.

I'm very impressed.

But is the fact that it's a coin relevant, that like you either use it for heads and tails, or is it just the fact that it's a bit of metal?

Well, I'm going back to being a student when the rule was if someone manages to slip a penny in your drink, you have to down the thing.

Save the queen, right?

Yeah, oh, guys, save the king these days, isn't it?

Oh, save the king, yes, of course.

You know what?

This is a sign of the university and the folks I hung out with.

It was not some old Etonian slash Oxford, oh, you must save the king.

It was just, ha, penny, and you drink.

We didn't do the classy part of it.

Does the size of the coin match the size of the glass that the coffee is drunk in?

Ooh.

Is it to do with the circumference of the coin?

Oh, because you could have a physics thing where they separate out and then you have to nearly choke on a coin.

Yeah, I realized as soon as I said that, that metal is heavier than both of those things.

Yeah.

So I've heard.

I will say that, although you guys are talking about glass that it is a standard rounded coffee cup that's used oh okay well and you must use this standard cup to do this drink apparently so you can use you can use other variations but this is the most common is it a tradition that comes from sort of tipping tipping the person that served you a coffee in in in in the restaurant or whatever and that's just tradition here's some booze

I will ask, yeah, maybe keep on rotating a few ideas of how the coin can be used with the cup.

All right.

It can go on the cup, but it can go under the cup.

This could hide a coin under the cup and you discover it when you take the coffee drink.

I don't know where I was going with that, but

it is jammed into the handle perfectly, so you can't pick the coffee cup up well.

You tap the cup with it to make a tune.

And as you drink, the note gets higher and higher and higher.

Okay, I'm going to say that you're sort of like ambling towards the right frame of mind.

I will say again that it's a two-part instruction on how to make coffee.

Oh, yeah.

But the recipe doesn't require any weights or measures.

So how would the coin help?

Ah, does it show you the amount of vodka to put in one coffee?

Oh, the thickness of the coin.

Katie, you were closer.

Keep going.

Go on, Katie.

Go on.

Go on.

I don't drink coffee, so this is just...

You don't need to.

Vodka, on the other hand, all the time.

Just absolutely yeah

what was your suggestion again Katie?

I mean like you can use the coin somehow to determine when you've put the right amount of vodka per cup of coffee.

Right.

So what would the two steps be?

I don't know.

Put the coin in the cup and pour the vodka up to the I don't know because it wouldn't stand up would it?

I will say that the coffee must be poured first.

So do you pour the coffee over the coin?

Do you put the vodka how?

No, keep going with do you pour the coffee over the coin?

Is this one of those coins that has a hole in the middle?

There are definitely currencies out there that have a coin with a hole in the middle.

I'll say that the thickness doesn't necessarily matter.

You can use any kind of coin.

I will also say that the colour of the two drinks is significant.

Tom, you were so nearly there with pouring the coffee over the coin.

The coffee is dark brown.

The liquor is clear.

Have we ever had a question that

they just had to tell us the answer?

It's been a while since we've had a complete panel stumper.

We might need the next clue here.

We've got one more actually.

It says the coin helps get the balance right.

So all of you individually have said something quite helpful.

It is about the

colour, or yeah, it is about the colour of the two liquids.

You do pour it onto the coin, but how would that help you do the recipe?

Like when you put enough vodka in, does the coffee get pale enough that you can see the coin through it in the bottom of the cup?

So what would step one be?

You said you put the the coffee in first so coffee put the coffee in first then coin then put in enough vodka that you can see the coin yes well done

that's a lot of vodka

yeah it depends on how strong the coffee is right like i guess i guess it's not like you can see it clearly i guess it's like once you can start seeing the coin in the bottom but that's That's diluting your coffee with a lot of vodka.

That's a lot of vodka.

So step one is pour coffee so you can't see the coin.

And step two is pour vodka so you can see the coin.

In my head, this was a massive mug of coffee with a massive amount of vodka being added.

It's right.

Okay, that makes more sense.

Yeah, so this drink has been consumed throughout Scandinavia.

As I said, it hasn't caught on internationally.

There are different variations.

Some call for silver or copper coins.

So, a cup with a rounded bottom is advisable.

So, the coffee is diluted at a faster rate, so you aren't getting completely trolley.

The cask part of cafe cask comes from the lower German for strong or astringent, which, yeah, probably

very strong coffee.

I'm wondering if, like, you can like determine how strong your drink is by how similar in colour the coin and the cup are.

So, if you've got like a grey cup, you're just like, sure, this is going to work.

You need to put a silver coin in it.

You're like, nope, still can't see it.

Yeah.

Thank you to Ryan for this question.

In 1918, the U.S.

Geological Survey placed a marker near Lebanon, Kansas.

In 1962, they installed a new one, 442 miles to the northwest in Belfouch, South Dakota.

What is this marker for and why was a new one needed?

In 1918, the US Geological Survey placed a marker near Lebanon, Kansas.

In 1962, they installed a new one, 442 miles or 711 kilometers, to the northwest in Belfouch, South Dakota.

What is this marker for and why was a new one needed?

I'm just thinking historical events.

So obviously end of First World War and then 1962, I think is just before the end of Khrushchev.

Obviously a lot happening in between those two dates, but I'm wondering whether the marker was installed after the First World War because they now knew that they needed to know something or track something because of what happened.

And is it something that changes over time?

So you need to re-update the marker like a geography thing like a magnetic fields thing or something i want to say is it is it like a tourism thing someone's decided that something is here but it then got later moved to somewhere else like the center of something

yeah the center of the isn't that a thing in america they're like the center of the universe is is here is here oh they'd there's like 10 different places that claim to be the center of the universe

and then

Didn't Hawaii get accepted as a state much later on?

So then the center would be completely off, right?

And that's the last thing I needed.

Absolutely right between you.

Congratulations.

It was.

I've not seen teamwork like that in a while.

We just got that in 30 seconds.

Yep.

This is the US Geological Survey marking the geographic center of the United States.

And the last thing I've got here is Alaska and Hawaii joining the USA removed that midpoint.

Good stuff.

Well done, everyone.

I am going to ask you to figure out how did they work out in 1918 where the center was they

did not

they did not have that sort of mathematical modeling so how do you work out the midpoint based on just you take the whole of the us you hang it from a piece of string

and you draw the vertical down the through the center of mass and then you hang it from a different corner and then where those two lines cross yeah you get two people to stand at either end and walk really slowly into the center and wherever they met or just a really long piece of string, right?

Yes.

And then you take the really long piece of string, fold it in half, and that's saved by the middle.

Of those many guesses, Katie's first one was actually the closest.

No way.

I mean, you sort of want a line with an equal amount of America either side of it, which you could sort of do on a map or.

No, you were talking more about, I mean, it wasn't like they were suspending the entire US on a piece of string, but how might the US Geological Survey have tried to estimate doing that?

Because they were going for that sort of center.

I'll just cut out a piece of paper with a map of the US and do it with the piece of paper.

Yeah, they took a cardboard model of the US and balanced it on a point.

And the place where it balanced, they said that is the center of the United States.

Oh, amazing, like a flat thing on a

little bit.

Flat thing on a point.

Yep.

More modern methods say they're out about 20 miles there, but for 1918 on something the scale of the US, that's actually pretty accurate.

So So yes this was the US Geological Survey who placed a marker in the center of the US as they calculate it and then had to move it because Alaska and Hawaii had joined.

Jeff it is time for your question.

Take it away.

In November 1938, BBC Radio broadcast a dance match from a pub in Eastbourne in Sussex.

But why did the match coverage contain long repeated sections of silence?

Shall I read that again?

Go for it.

It's November 1938.

On the radio, on the BBC, a dance match was broadcast from Eastbourne, but the coverage contained, this is the important bit, long repeated sections of silence.

Why was that?

How long is an average darts game?

Quite long, right?

Or quite short.

Again, another sports question.

A very different sport.

I'm going to get complaints if I say that darts is leisure, not a sport.

That's.

I'm not taking it personally.

Yeah, I mean, my initial instinct here is it's during the Second World War.

Could it be some kind of blackout-related like

noise something?

It's it's just before it was 1938.

Oh, 38, yeah.

38, yeah, yeah.

I'm wondering whether the long pauses are an opportunity for people to do something that they wouldn't.

So obviously they're not watching it on demand.

Is it an opportunity for them to do something?

Oh, can I keep going with that?

Oh, yes.

Okay, okay.

She's on to it straight away.

I'm going to throw up my terrible idea first thing because I've got a darts fact, which is that they have to especially mic up the dartboard.

So that thunk you hear when a dart hits, they have four microphones literally contacting the back of the dartboard because otherwise the microphone can't pick anything up.

And they throw the dart and it's just silence and it doesn't feel right.

It's not that.

Okay.

There was also a rumor that they were sweetening it with kick drum samples at one point.

They just had a little sensor at the back.

And what was actually happening is the dart hit in silence, a little sensor went off and it just played a kick drum.

But in 1938, there's somebody with a Roland drum machine

pressing the snare symbol.

No, no, no, no, it's

1938.

It's just a Welsh guy who's known as Roland Drum Machine.

He's just there, ready with a drum.

Roland drum machine.

That's his nickname, the drum machine.

Yeah, you are definitely on the right path there.

So keep going down that path.

So it's giving enough time for

the listeners to do something, make a cup of tea.

Go with that, not tea.

Is it just when the players went and got a pint?

I wish, but no, it's not that.

No,

you've got it.

The listeners were doing something, but what were they being allowed to do?

Oh, wait, would

I was going to say, is this an answer that Katie should have?

Is it like do all the calculations for them?

Like they didn't have someone at the darts match who was doing the sums, so you were actually required to do the mental arithmetic at home.

No, it's not.

Sorry, Katie, it's not maths.

It's just,

it's much more straightforward and simple.

What would I want to do

during a darts game?

So you're listening to a darts match, right?

Which is already slightly unsatisfying because you can't just see what's happening.

Yeah, I mean, that's a funk and hopefully a commentator going, oh, it's just Mr.

Treble 20 there.

Is this something to do with the radio?

Is it something that people are doing to the radio?

They're needing to like readjust?

Or actually, it's just going to be the one channel, isn't it?

If they're trying to recreate the atmosphere of a darts match, is there something that you do at a darts match?

I mean, these days it's dress up in fancy dress and put costumes on and drink a lot of beer and sing.

But what would it have been in 1938 that you were doing at a darts match that you'd also want like the audience at home to do?

Sing the national anthem.

I don't know after every round.

Oh, yeah, important part of darts, right?

Regular singing the national anthem, yeah.

Yes, yes.

Now I'm thinking of those, you know, how it's like wrestlers, they come on to their own songs.

Maybe it's an opportunity for people to sing their own song at home.

No, the darts, the darts folks do that as well.

Darts get their own entry music.

Yeah.

Ah, yes, that's why I was thinking that.

Yeah, maybe it's an opportunity for people to add.

You can do that on the radio.

They can sing along at home.

That wouldn't be silence.

Yeah.

I'm wondering if it's like go and get the darts back from the darts board, but that's not a thing you'd have to do if you were watching either.

The date included a month.

Jeff, I'm going to metagame this slightly.

Is November important here?

No.

Oh.

Oh.

Okay.

Just happened that that's when it was.

Put away their Halloween decorations.

So the radio coverage was just following this one player's throw, so there was no prize or recognition for the winner.

But Hannah, you did say it earlier.

The listeners were

doing something.

What were they doing?

Hold on.

Hold on.

Hold on.

Darts competition.

We have assumed that this is a radio darts competition.

This is two players

both throwing at the same board, like we'd see now.

But it could be a competition for the listeners.

I'm not quite sure how that would work.

Oh, brilliant.

Yeah, I think you're there.

How does that even work?

So you would score against to see if you could beat the darts player who's

brilliant.

Oh, that's funny.

That's lovely.

Interactive darts.

Well, one of my next clues was it's an early experiment in interactive media.

Oh, that's exactly wonderful.

That's exactly what it is.

All right, I'll give you the answer.

So it's November 1938.

The BBC got the darts champion F.H.

Wallace to play a regulation game of 301 darts from the Alexander Pubs.

Listeners could hear the three darts being thrown at the board, along with with the Roland drum machine sound effect,

and the resulting score was announced.

The pause then allowed the listeners to throw their own darts at home and see how they did compared to the player on the radio.

And if the listener completed the 301 points necessary before Mr.

Wallace, then they were their own self-proclaimed winners.

Oh, that's above ladies.

That's so nice.

Isn't that great?

At the start of the show, I asked a question that was sent in by Joseph Robidoux.

In which two different games can you hit a 7-10 split?

It is another games question.

Does anyone want to take a shot at that before we give the answer?

Another 7-10 split.

So like in 10-pin bowling, you can split.

That is one of the games, yes.

I'm wondering if it's something like snooker when you break, but they're obviously not going to just take out the middle ones and leave two balls where they were.

What is a 7-10 split in bowling for the folks who it's when the two pins are at either side or at the back and you can't get both?

If you number them from from the front, one, two, three, four, five, six, all the way back, then seven, eight, nine, ten is the back row, and it's those two on the back row.

It is theoretically possible to get both of those, but you have to power the ball down the lane as fast as possible, whack a pin into the backboard, and hope it bounces off and hits the other.

And it is incredibly difficult.

That is one of the games.

That is 10-pin bowling.

What is the other where you might have a 7-10 split?

What other things do you need to knock over?

In gymnastics, where you can do a split at an angle of seven over ten.

Seven, ten split, you could knock over both players marked seven and ten in rugby.

If the players numbered seven and ten who were in a relationship have a massive fallout during a game.

Yes.

I did say it was a games question, not a sports question.

Electronic game.

Not really.

I'm using games like Superset of Sports here.

Scrabble?

The numbers are printed out.

Cards.

Uno.

I'm just imagining serious Uno is one of its

terminology, but yeah.

Oh,

this can be a very serious game.

Poker.

Where might you play poker?

In a casino.

Blackjack or other.

Is it a roulette?

Katie, keep going.

Where you get a 7 and a 10 on the wheel?

Yep.

Why might it be called a 7-10 split?

Are 7 and 10 next to each other on the wheel?

Not on the wheel.

Oh, on the side?

That's where you place your tokens, whatever they're called.

Are they numbered, those spaces?

Yes, they are.

Can you bet on both 7 and 10 by putting a token on the middle?

Yes, you can.

Spot on.

A 7-10 split is where you can put your chip on the borders of 7 and 10.

They are next to each other on a roulette table, and that will let you bet on both of them for worse odds.

Congratulations to all three of our players.

What's going on in your lives?

Where can people find you?

We will start with our new player, Hannah.

Yes, sir.

I've just started as the new wine critic columnist at The Guardian.

So if you could read my musings every single week on the magical world of drinks, that would be amazing.

Katie!

I'm all over the place.

I'm just writing another book.

My previous books, the ones that are out in the UK, include 100 Ideas in 100 Words, Maths and Shortcuts, Maths.

They've all got maths in the title.

So look out for those and for the new one, which will be out this year or next year.

But yeah, Finite Group is the best place to find me and what I'm doing.

And Jeff, you'll find me on YouTube making wonderful nerdy transport travel documentaries, not vlogs, tracking documentaries.

Jeff with a G Marshall.

Hello, thank you.

And if you want to know more about this show, you can do that at lateralcast.com where you can also send in your own ideas for questions.

We are at lateralcast basically everywhere, and there are regular video highlights at youtube.com/slash lateralcast.

Thank you very much to Jeff Marshall.

Thanks, Tom.

Thank you.

Katie Steckles.

Thank you.

Hannah Crosby.

Thank you.

I've been Tom Scott, and that's been Lateral.