Look Around You

Maths can help us in our daily lives - for example, in cooking pasta, in calculating the correct moment for starting a conversation, or (if you can fly) in working out where to land. Queen Elizabeth III and Queen Elizabeth IV are going to a party given by Queen Elizabeth V. QE3 has forty dresses to choose from, QE4 has four thousand, and QE5 has only one dress, but it can take the form of many dresses. Then, during the night, QE3's servant steals the plans for QE4's party dress and, working till dawn, makes four thousand exact copies... So can we reckon what the chance is that all of the Queens will be wearing the same dress at the party?

In this episode we learn about the amazing igloo-building skills of ants and the surprising ability of water to boil eggs.

You need to know something about Germs. You really do. And Professor Miles can help you...

Why can't ghosts whistle? Well, let's hear from a ghost.

Sulphur is revealed, and the story is not really about brimstone.

A brief investigation of the world of music, from its Neolithic beginnings...

Iron (Fe) is not quite all it's cut up to be... The use of magnets is strictly prohibited during this episode.

The team investigates the human brain and meets a man who is addicted to Electronic Brain Enhancements. What happens if you probe the brobe? How many nuts are there in a jar? And what are brain flakes? All of these questions are addressed, if not answered.