Lateral with Tom Scott
63: Upside-down riches
Dec 22, 2023
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.
49:50
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Quick takeaways
- 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.
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