The Math Club Pete and Noah

Hey there, Math Club.  We're taking some time off to spend the holidays with our families, so we have a rerun of one of our favorite episodes this week...  Tales from Decrypt.
Today’s match-up answers the age-old question of what happens when an unstoppable brain meets an unbreakable cipher.  In the red corner, weighing in at 2,193 digits….   Noah’s deviously encrypted message!  And in the blue corner.... The Commissioner of Codebreaking….  The Foreman of Frequency Analysis….  Pete’s decoding skills!  Only one will leave the ring victorious.  Who will it be?  Tune in and find out!  The match is about to begin...  DING DING DING!
• Encrypted passage to decode

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In our last episode, Hip to be Square. Pete told us about two famous magic squares—the Sagrada Família magic square and the Dürer magic square—and he mentioned that it’s worth seeing them side by side.  We thought it would be fun to put together this short video showing how they compare with one another.

Ever heard of a magic square? How about 17 quintillion magic squares? In this episode, Pete and Noah explore these fascinating mathematical objects to find out more about them.  Join in the fun as we look at examples of centuries-old magic squares, and investigate the fascinating connections they share with some modern day puzzles.
The Sagrada Familía magic square
The Durer magic square
Our Rubik’s Cube symmetry video
Play Sudoku 
Play KenKen
 
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In our last episode, Linear Thinking, Pete mentioned that one practical application of linear algebra is in the field of urban planning and traffic flow.  Here's a video bonus to illustrate how a linear system of equations can be created from traffic data.

Hey there Math Club.  We noticed after today's episode went out that somehow all of our music and sound effects were stripped out of it.  So, we fixed it and it is now reposted and available for download.  If you haven't listened yet, you may want to go and redownload it and get the new version.

In this episode, Pete and Noah tackle an “unsolvable math problem” that appeared in a recent Newsweek article (Spoiler: It's not that unsolvable). Join us as we apply linear algebra to this puzzle from start to Finnish.
The Newsweek article
 
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