Episode 008 = Height Matters and Dish Splatters

My brother keeps complaining about a situation he and his wife are in. Namely, he's pretty tall and she's definitely short, and neither of them like using the kitchen counters because the average height that they are designed for is uncomfortable to reach down to or reach up to respectively. How can I get him to stop complaining to me about this problem or — even better — what could they do to solve their kitchen height woes?

Bec suffers from an optical illusion where people assume her to be smaller than she actually is, and her husband Gavin is very tall, so she can emphasize. Her solution: Her husband does all the cooking.

For a more practical solution: Bec asked her friend and comedian Gareth Berliner, who is married to Kiruna Stamell who has dwarfism. He mentioned rise and fall counters, which are counterweighted and can change their height. Bec contacted Ed Warner, whose company called Motionspot makes well-designed accessible counters. He explains the different types of furniture they offer.

To stop the complaining, Manic should get their brother to listen to this episode (as should people with similar problems).

A "I think I can confidently give that a very firm ding" by Matt

My question is truly global: I'm wondering whether the recorded area of each country — as stated by encyclopedias etc. — assumes the country is completely flat/completely smooth, i.e part of the surface of a sphere, or takes into account topography. For some countries, e.g. the Netherlands, there might be little difference between these figures. But for others, e.g. Switzerland or Norway, the many steep mountains could surely make a significant difference. Any idea which country would exhibit the biggest difference, and whether it would be enough to change its place in the traditional ranking of countries by land area. Thanks!

Matt likes the problem; Bec wonders if Phil has land investments. For tides at coasts, you use the mean high water mark as a defined border. Matt explains the coastline paradox, where a coastline is fractal and its length changes depending on the granularity in which you measure it.

Matt could not find out who's in charge of the UK's surface area, so he looked at Australia (which is about 31 UKs in size), for which Geoscience Australia is responsible. Matt struggles with their geo data format. Geoscience Australia confirms that they don't include height in their computations. Matt extrapolates that this applies to all countries.

Alistair Ray [Editor's note: Spelling likely incorrect] has previously tried to answer this question using a 25 km² chunk of Scotland. However, the same coastline problem now applies to the 2D surface of the land: The higher the resolution of your data, the higher the surface area. The 25 km² area in Scotland increased by 7.1% to 8%. Switzerland increased by 6.96%, Liechtenstein increased by 8.72%.

Matt will keep working on this problem and plans to release a YouTube video on the standupmaths channel at the same time the podcast is released. Bec only gives it a "di", the "ng" will be awarded when the video is released

Problem: Why don't plastic things dry in the dishwasher? Why? Whyyyyyyyyyy?

Bec has no (electric) dishwasher; Matt is a big fan of them. Matt experimented with his dishwasher earlier before recording, which opens itself slightly once it's finished. He guesses it has to do with the heat capacity of the materials (i.e. how easily they warm up or cool down). Matt suspects that Plastic has a lower capacity, thus cools down quick and doesn't dry well, while ceramics retain heat longer. Lucie suspects surfactants in the detergent, which change how the water interacts, beads, and drains off. Bec suspects plastic containers are usually containers, which would trap steam better. Their theories run into more and more troubles with differently-shaped and -materialed kitchen implements. Listeners are encouraged to do their own experiments and report back. Dish washing experts are also encouraged to get in contact.