Four Dimensional Maths: Things to See and Hear in the Fourth Dimension - with Matt Parker

Matt Parker, comedian and mathematician, shows how four-dimensional shapes appear in a 3D world in this hands-on talk, featuring what is possibly the world's nerdiest knitted hat!

Discover how to make love hearts from Mobius strips, 4D frames from drinking straws and pipe-cleaners, and other maths tricks in this entertaining talk by Matt Parker. Matt explains how to know when someone's throwing a 4D cubes at you and also what happens when your mum knits a three dimensional shadow of a four dimensional donut - to wear on your head, in this fun talk on the challenges of visualising the fourth dimension.

Matt Parker was an Australian school teacher before he moved to London where he works as a stand-up comedian and a maths communicator. He writes books, appears on radio programmes and TV shows, contributes to newspapers, makes school visits and gives live comedy shows.

This event took place at the Royal Institution on Tuesday 27 January 2015.

[Banzybanz]

Matt, you now hold the record for solving a Rubik's cube while delivering a lecture at the Ri.

[thepyromancer]

Do string theorists hate knot theorists.

[BarryBurns]

"I'm standing over a national treasure. Look at the water! The world's first electric motor was demonstrated here. I made a heart!"

Classic.

[schlumpkin]

This guy made watching an hour-long math lesson very entertaining. Love the guys energy, hope he’s doing well

[samyB]

I absolutely love this guy (well this professor). I cant even believe I've sat and looking at his work just over 1 hour. Brilliant work. Thank you and good luck.

[GogiRegion]

My mom is pretty cool because when I said, “Hey, that recycling symbol is a 3 turn mobius loop, ” she actually said that that was cool instead of just not caring like my friends.

[Amethyst_Friend]

This is a wonderful lecture. I thoroughly enjoyed it as an adult; as a child I would have been spellbound.

[christianwilliams]

I'm 26 and learning to tie my shoes. What have I done with my life.

[mgrizzlybair]

My friend and I have a running joke about having a Dungeons and Dragons wizard make a Klein Bottle Bag of Holding. Since the inside IS the outside, putting something into the bag would randomly displace the object to some point inside the physical universe. Also, since if you put a portable hole or a bag of holding inside one another, they explode like a tactical nuclear device, it is possible that the act of creating the Klein Bag of Holding would instantly detonate every portable hole and every bag of holding in existence. BTW, the detonation is due to putting an extradimensional storage container inside another extradimensional storage container. This interaction has been an accepted part of D&D for decades now.

[Corpsegrinderr]

I thought about how hyperactive his speaking style is, but then I realized it's because he is super stoked about science, and that should be applauded. A nice breath of fresh air

[Mendelmandela]

the passion in the guy is palpable..lovely

[davidgreen]

I don't even like math yet I ended up spending 1 hour to watch this guy and I don't regret it... The proof that anything can become interesting, even the things you hate, as long as long as the presentation is done by someone who has the gift for teaching.

[denmartorlanda]

"youre solving a 4D rubiks cube, on a 3D world, on a 2D screen, blowing your 1D mind."

[vitellonealvapore]

"i regret starting this conversation"
me, every conversation.

[glenm]

37:30 "Use arguments to solve arguments." Top tier joke; not one person laughs. :(

[TheRoyalInstitution]

Thanks to our incredible army of volunteer transcribers, we now have English captions for Matt! Thank you so much for everyone who contributed and helped make this video more accessible.

[sabaca]

42:50 It is a 2D picture of a 3D shadow of a 4D Cube.

[Stray]

The Klein Bottle is the 3D shadow of a 4D möbius loop.
That's amazing.

[MrNatkov]

This guy is an actual legend - hilarious. I love both his ability to engage with the audience and his comedy.

[shaileshrana]

One of the best lectures I've seen on this channel. Matt Parker is amazing!