The Random Request
Curious Cases
BBC
4.8 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 31 August 2018
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Two random questions in this episode. "Is anything truly random, or is everything predetermined?" asks Darren Spalding from Market Harborough.
Hannah and Adam go in search of random events, from dice throws to lava lamps. Can we predict the outcome of any event? And "how do computers manage to pick random numbers?", asks Jim Rennie from Mackinaw in Illinois.
Joining them are a random selection of experts: mathematician Colva Roney-Dougal, technology journalist Bill Thompson, Science Museum Curator Tilly Blyth and quantum physicist Jim AlKhalili.
Presenters: Adam Rutherford, Hannah Fry Producer: Michelle Martin.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Dr Adam Rutherford. And I'm Dr Hannah Fry. And you are going to send us your everyday |
| 0:10.8 | mysteries. And we are going to investigate them using the power of science. Science. |
| 0:16.5 | I like it. Hello, Curios. Episode 4, series 11. Now, I think we need to change that jingle |
| 0:26.6 | because I'm getting bored with hearing myself going, science. Is that science? It's just |
| 0:32.4 | not an attractive sound, is it? Time for change. I think so. Let's try and bend the |
| 0:37.0 | shell here. For series 12. You know, and if she doesn't agree, we'll just record |
| 0:41.2 | it ourselves and then slip in the darkened tools of the BBC in the middle of the night |
| 0:44.8 | and swap over the tapes. Have you got any idea any of this equipment works? No. No, |
| 0:48.7 | I mean either. That's not going to happen, is it? It's probably just going to stick the |
| 0:52.9 | same one. Yeah. Now, today is, today's episode is totally random. It's totally random. |
| 0:58.6 | It is literally about randomness. Yeah. So this is a maths one. This is for you. It is a |
| 1:04.7 | maths one. Hooray. Hooray. I'm very excited. As you will learn throughout the course of this |
| 1:10.3 | episode, enjoy. We've randomly selected today's question from all the emails you've sent |
| 1:21.2 | to curious cases at BBC.co.uk. Well, that's clearly not true. Actually, if you understand |
| 1:27.8 | how randomness works, OK, Mathmo, let's find out shall we? So a couple of curious podcast |
| 1:33.2 | listeners, otherwise known as the Curios, sent us two random questions from opposite ends |
| 1:37.7 | of the pond, Jim Renny from Mac and all Illinois and Darren Spalding from Market Harbor in |
| 1:42.5 | Leicestershire. Let's tackle Darren's question first. He asks, is anything truly random or |
| 1:47.3 | is everything predetermined? I totally knew you were going to say that. Now, I spoke to |
| 1:52.2 | mathematician Colver Ronny Dugal from the University of St Andrews in Scotland. And she told |
| 1:57.0 | me that this is a question that has perplexed the greatest thinkers in the world all the way |
| 2:01.4 | back to the ancient Greeks. |
... |
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