Mathematician Hannah Fry, domino artist Lily Hevesh, and comedy writer Brian David Gilbert discuss topics such as flying planes upside down, improving inventions like ketchup bottles, the existence of two javelin events in the Olympics, the mystery of a man-made water trough, and the challenges of organizing a massive funeral scene in a movie.
A funeral ceremony in 1981 for a film included 300,000 people, 95,000 contracted performers, and lasted only 2 minutes on screen.
The 1912 Olympics awarded two gold medals in javelin due to a transition between throwing styles.
Deep dives
Funeral ceremony with no death
In 1981, a funeral ceremony drew 300,000 people even though no one had died. The event was a scene from the film 'Gandhi' filmed in 1982. It included 95,000 contracted performers and 200,000 volunteer extras, and lasted for only two minutes on screen. The extras were paid about 50 cents each.
Javelin gold medals
At the 1912 Summer Olympics, two gold medals were awarded in the javelin event. Eric Lemming won gold with a throw of 60.64 meters, while another athlete won gold three days later with a distance of 109.42 meters. Both gold medals still stand because the 1912 Olympics marked a transition between different styles of throwing the javelin, not continuous throws. The previous style allowed multiple throws, while the new style limited athletes to one throw.
Pale rock with stripes
London's Natural History Museum has a 19th-century stone fragment from a water trough in Tyneside, England. The pale rock, made of calcium carbonate deposits, has thin dark stripes that come in sets of five or six. The stripes are caused by the presence or absence of coal miners working in the mines. The dark stripes form when the mine is operational, and the light stripes occur when the mine is closed, usually on Sundays or holidays.
Scale model of the solar system
Along Melbourne's coastline, there is a 1-to-1 billion scale model of the solar system that spans nearly 6 kilometers. A short walk from the model of the sun is a scale model of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the sun. This represents the vast distances between stars in the actual solar system, with each kilometer in the model corresponding to 1 million kilometers in reality. The inclusion of Proxima Centauri in the model highlights the incredible scale of interstellar distances.
Hannah Fry, Lily Hevesh and Brian David Gilbert face questions about desperate decrees, crowded ceremonies and rebalanced records.
LATERAL is a comedy panel game podcast about weird questions with wonderful answers, hosted by Tom Scott. For business enquiries, contestant appearances or question submissions, visit https://www.lateralcast.com.