A Problem Squared Matt Parker & Bec Hill

🙏 Is this emoji praying hands or a high five? 

🍚 What's the best present for celebrating a billion seconds?

💼 For the first time we have Any Other Business WITH SPECIAL GUESTS!

If you want a collectable (and mistake-ridden) copy of ‘Love Triangle’, with a special, limited edition book cover designed by print-artist Paul Catherall. You'll get one free while stocks last. Head over to MathsGear! https://mathsgear.co.uk/products/love-triangle-by-matt-parker-signed

Here’s some background on the ‘Folded Hands’ emoji mentioned in Bec’s problem: https://blog.emojipedia.org/emojiology-folded-hands/

This is the pixelated 2001 Softbank version of the Folded Hands emoji: https://emojipedia.org/softbank/2001/folded-hands

Here’s the KDDI emoji from 2003, where someone is literally praying: https://emojipedia.org/au-kddi/type-d-1/folded-hands

You can find the ‘glowing’ folded hands emoji put out by Apple in 2008 here: https://emojipedia.org/apple/iphone-os-2.2/folded-hands

You can find some more variations of the folded hand emoji (including with faces) here: https://b1681952.smushcdn.com/1681952/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Early-Versions-Folded-Hands-Emojipedia-1.jpg?lossy=0&strip=1&webp=1

There were some fascinating early issues with Unicode (which made emojis universal), where ‘yellow hearts’ sent by iOS users would show up as ‘hairy hearts’ on Android phones. You can read about that here: https://web.archive.org/web/20140502051433/http://www.tuaw.com/2014/04/30/you-may-be-accidentally-sending-friends-a-hairy-heart-emoji/

You can find the Unicode emoji design guidelines here: https://unicode.org/reports/tr51/#Design_Guidelines

And if you want to find out whether you’ve already passed your 1 Billionth Second, you can do that here: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=10%5E9+seconds+in+years+and+days

If you want to find out whether you’ve already passed your 1 Billionth Second, you can do that here: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=10%5E9+seconds+in+years+and+days

As always, send your problems and solutions to our website: www.aproblemsquared.com. And, if you want more from A Problem Squared, you can also find us on Twitter, Instagram, Discord and on Patreon.

🪙 How many coins would you need to sort through to collect all commemorative €2 coins in circulation? 



📍How do you display enamel pins?! 



💼 The Any Other Business briefcase is…mostly open. 



Here’s the Coupon Collector’s problem video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BstloCx8KDk

You can see more on the “Number of banknotes/coins returned from circulation in Euro Area, Euro area (changing composition), Monthly” here: https://data.ecb.europa.eu/data/datasets/BKN/BKN.M.U2.RE10.C.20P0.AS.F.E

And, Wiki Sources: “2 euro commemorative coins” on good old Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_euro_commemorative_coins

As always, send your problems and solutions to our website: www.aproblemsquared.com.

And, if you want more from A Problem Squared, you can also find us on Twitter, Instagram, Discord and on Patreon.

In this episode...

🎂 Where did birthday cake come from? 

🚗 How come my indicator is never in sync with other cars waiting to turn?

💼 And, as always, some business from the business briefcase.

Nina, here’s that recipe for Greek Honey Cake: https://www.food.com/recipe/greek-honey-cake-428671

And for more cake from around the world, look no further than this infographic: https://i.imgur.com/lhhotIE.png

Here’s the Ben Eater video referenced by Matt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRlSFm519Bo

And the fascinating paper about time perception and its illusions: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2866156/

Please do send us your problems and solutions to the website: www.aproblemsquared.com

If you want more from A Problem Squared, you can also find us on Twitter, Instagram, Discord and on Patreon.

🌒 What’s the best place to see the next solar eclipse? 

💤 Do animals dream? 

💼 The Any Other Business briefcase is…half open. 



Send your problems and solutions to our website: www.aproblemsquared.com.



For a detailed look at the path of the 2026 eclipse, here’s the website referenced by Matt: https://eclipsophile.com/future-eclipses-2024-2028/



If you want to hear the full interview with David Pena Guzman about animal consciousness referenced by Bec, you can do that here: https://news.uchicago.edu/do-animals-dream-david-m-pena-guzman.



Videos of Sky potentially dreaming will be on social media. Tell us what you think? Do dogs dream? 

And, if you want more from A Problem Squared, you can also find us on Twitter, Instagram, Discord and on Patreon.

🔔🚨This is an emergency broadcast🚨🔔



Unfortunately a bout of sudden food poisoning has got in the way of our latest recording session. Everyone's safe (now) but as you may have noticed, we're missing an episode.



We've now got a new date in the diary but the podcast won't be back for two weeks - sorry about that everyone!



SO in this episode, A Problem Squared presents...



🧙‍♀️ The first EVER episode of bonus podcast I'm A Wizard.

🪄A latter and very silly episode of I'm A Wizard.



We HOPE this is a good solution to our emergency problem, but only you, the listener, can give us that ding.



And if you'd like to hear more from the Wizards, you can join up on Patreon and give as little or as much as you like.



Thanks everyone!

In this episode...

🧺 What is lint? 

👌 When does zero count? 

💼 And, as always, some business from the business briefcase. 

Please do send us your problems and solutions to the website: www.aproblemsquared.com.

Bec’s got loads of gigs coming up! If you wanna go see her check out dates on her website: https://www.bechillcomedian.com/tour-gigs.

Matt’s also got an Evening of Unnecessary Detail every two weeks at the Cockpit Theatre in Marylebone, London.

There’s going to be a mathssive (get it) Evening of Unnecessary Detail Extravaganza show at the Bristol Beacon on the 12th March.Find details for those here: https://festivalofthespokennerd.com/tickets/.

If you want more from A Problem Squared, you can also find us on Twitter, Instagram, Discord and on Patreon.