The mathematically impossible ball that shouldn’t exist.
294,683
Published 2024-05-22
Pre-order Love Triangle to read about the Impossi-ball. mathsgear.co.uk/products/love-triangle-by-matt-par…
All UK options: www.penguin.co.uk/books/44315...
All USA options: bit.ly/3wCTesR
Check out Jon-Paul's balls: www.tiktok.com/@jonpaulsballs
Huge thanks to Jon-Paul and Allison for making the ball and inviting us to their studio. 12p.com/
Thanks to everyone at Liverpool FC for being so accommodating and friendly.
Tim's home sustainability tech channel: / @timandkatsgreenwalk
And his foot donut game: stone-baked-games.itch.io/foot-donut-demo
Humble Pi stand-up special is on Maths Gear as a download, and all the other places.
mathsgear.co.uk/products/humble-pi-show
www.amazon.co.uk/Humble-Pi-Comedy-Maths-Errors/dp/…
This was my original video from 2017: • All UK football road signs are wrong!...
The UK government parliamentary petition and official government response: petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/202305ht…
Huge thanks to my Patreon supporters. This would be impossiball without you. www.patreon.com/standupmaths
CORRECTIONS
- None yet, let me know if you spot anything!
Filming and editing by Alex Genn-Bash
Written and performed by Matt Parker
Produced by Nicole Jacobus
Maths of the Day music by Howard Carter
Design by Simon Wright and Adam Robinson
MATT PARKER: Stand-up Mathematician
Website: standupmaths.com/
New book: mathsgear.co.uk/products/love-triangle-by-matt-par…
All Comments (21)
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You should've told them the sign embarrasses football, not geometry. Nobody cares about education but make a video go viral of tourists laughing at the English for not knowing what a football even looks like and you'll have even the old signs ripped out by next Tuesday.
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tfw you love geometry so much that you go into fits and crash you car upon seeing a geometrically accurate football
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I just looked it up on Google street view: in Italy the signs show a correct football and Italy has won more titles than England - coincidence? I think not!
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As an ex civil servant, try with the department of digital culture, media & sport. You’re more likely to get them onside and then the request to DfT will be harder to ignore.
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"The worst they can say is no." Government proceeds to lie to your face, invoke public safety, insult your intelligence.
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The UK government just called for an election, so time to ask every politician how they stand on this touchstone issue!
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Honestly, if I saw the impossible football on a sign while driving, that would be distracting. It looks immediately incorrect in a way that is not immediately obvious. That would definitely distract me as I tried to figure out what's wrong.
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There's only one thing left to do: print up adhesive stickers that show an actual soccer ball, and start plastering them on the street signs.
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Nobody would notice the sign difference. But also, the change would be so shocking it would distract drivers.
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The sign is both too small for drivers to see details, but it also would be potentially dangerously distracting to drivers with the correct geometry. Schrodinger's football.
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On the one hand, I understand why this issue wouldn't be a priority to them and they'd want to just say "no, go away." However, once there was a fully signed petition, why nobody used this as a "do something effortless to get good PR" opportunity is beyond me. They don't even need to change current signs, just add one sentence that says "if replacing the sign, replace it with this version instead."
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"Like our models, it works perfectly from one angle" the man just summarized ALL of science in one sentence.
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I was driving when the notification for this video came up. Fortunately, the football in the thumbnail is geometrically incorrect. Otherwise, I could have been in a serious accident.
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The emails reminds me of one of my favorite Onion headlines "CIA finally realize they've been using black highlighters"
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I have to admit that despite only having been in England twice, each time for less than a day, I was unduly distracted by these footballs. "That doesn't look right". "Wait, it's all hexagons!". "Don't they know about the Euler characteristic of a sphere?" Good thing I wasn't driving.
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I must infer that the reason England has not won the football world championship since 1966 because of the utter confusion of players being confronted with a different ball on the playing field then the one they just saw on the sign directing them to that same field. That might be an useful argument. Also getting stressed trying to find football stadiums abroad might negatively influence their performance. Btw the football ⚽️ in the emoji has the right configuration.
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In contrast to fixing some street signs in the UK, fixing all footballs in the world sounds like a reasonable task (I guess)
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Classic government move saying both "it doesn't matter at the distance that drivers would see it" and also "seeing a geometrically accurate football will cause an increase in the risk of accidents" in the same document LMAO
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2:56 Love the condradiction, "It wouldn't be visible to drivers" and "It would be so distracting drivers would have accidents" is just so Town Council that it's kinda inspiring in a way.
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The next petition should request updating the sign to show the side with the octagon
