Hello and welcome to More or Less on the BBC World Service with me Ruth Alexander.

This week one of our favourite things had its 30th birthday.

I imagine you probably like the Simpsons too, but have you noticed the maths?

We have and way back in 2008 Tim Halford explored it.

Yes, even the Simpsons.

One of the great joys of the Simpsons is that there are jokes for everyone, slapstick for

the kids, adult humour for the parents, or should that be slapstick for the parents and

adult humour for the kids either way?

Have you ever noticed the jokes for mathematicians?

Simpsons writer Jeff Westbrook explains.

We've done all kinds of math over the course of the show and we do it for all kinds of reasons.

Sometimes it helps with the story.

Sometimes you're making a little bit of fun of the fact that many people do regard scientific

and math abilities sort of witchcraft.

And sometimes it's just because we think it's cool and it'd be kind of fun to put in the

background.

There's actually a very complicated joke in one of the early episodes where Bart cheats

on a math exam and as a result he's placed in a gifted school.

So why equals R cubed over 3?

And if you determine the rate of change in this curve correctly, I think you will be pleasantly

surprised.

Oh!

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