Bec reads a review aloud titled "Bec Hill is incredible and the maths dude isn't too shabby either".
Bec was unable to join Matt and his wife at an event she invited them to. Instead, she got covid from her husband. The event was the launch event for a new season of reality TV show "Below Deck Down Under", where they follow the crew and rich people on super yachts in Australia. Matt ate a lot of cheese and Vegemite on toast, and he stole Bec a goodie bag.
So I was driving in my car today and had the following thought: What are the odds of having the same child twice? Not twins! Giving birth to a child, getting pregnant, then having the exact same child again by the same parents. It's infinitesimal, but how much compared to other infinitesimally unlikely occurrences?
A human cell has 23 pairs of chromosomes, for redundancy. When the body makes a reproductive cell (sperm/egg), only one of each pair is chosen. This makes for 2²³ = 8'388'608 possible options per parent, or 70 trillion possible children. In other words, the second child has a one-in-70-trillion chance of being the same as the first.
However, biology is a lot more complicated and there's actually a lot more combinations. Including some of those effects, there's 3 * 10¹⁶⁶ possible options for a reproductive cell starting with an XX configuration and 2*^0¹⁶⁰ starting with an XY configuration. The number of combinations for a single child has over 300 digits.
The probability of having a child and then another identical child is the equivalent of picking a single proton from the entire observable universe, mixing it back in, and randomly picking it again, four times in total. In short, it's not going to happen. It's slimpossible (there's an infinitesimally small chance, but it's practically impossible).
A "from my angle, I'm giving it a ding" from Bec (combined with a Beardyman ding)
Are there more wheels or doors in the world?
Both Matt and Bec came to the conclusion "doors".
A "ding" by Bec and a "ding ding ding" by Matt
APS is the first podcast Eva listens to regularly, and they really like the format. They want to listen to more, however they don't know how to find more good ones. Thus, they ask for recommendations.
Bec recommends A Podcast Of Unnecessary Detail (featuring Matt), Science Vs, Mathematical Objects, Reply All, Darknet Diaries, The Dream Factory.
The Dream Factory talks about hypothetical movies with pun titles. Matt spontaneously comes up with "Fast & Spurious", which Bec promises to send in to the podcast.
A combined Matt and Beardyman ding
Due to Bec being filled with phlegm, the answer will be delayed by one episode.
Dennis replied "Wow Bec, you went so far to answer my question. Congrats on your certification! Thanks a lot for it. You definitely get an un-gnid-able ding."
Chris asked whether counterfeiting a food naming certificate counts as a food crime.
An un-gnid-able ding by Dennis, combined with a Beardyman ding
Several people wrote in that it came from problem 018-3. One person, Red, wrote down the time and a transcript. Instead of cutting in the section of the recording, Bec and Matt read the transcript as a sort of old-timey audio play (Matt is playing Bec, and Bec is playing Matt).
Matt presents three cards to Bec, one of which is her card.