The mystery of why there are more ones than nines is complicated and mathematical. It involves logarithms, doubling, and the culture of numbers. A reporter went to a math conference to find answers. They met a group of mathematicians at the city university of New York. The conference was about combinatorial and additive number theory.
First aired back in 2009, this episode is all about one thing, or rather a collection of things. Whether you love 'em or hate 'em, chances are you rely on numbers every day of your life. Where do they come from, and what do they really do for us? This hour: stories of how numbers confuse us, connect us, and even reveal secrets about us.