10 years of Periodic Videos

Today marks the 10th anniversary of our first upload to Periodic Videos.

To mark the occasion, we've released a special film in which Professor Martyn Poliakoff discusses his 10 "favourite videos".

You can watch it here, or watch a YouTube playlist of the 10 videos he selected.

To accompany the professor's selection, I've also chosen 10 of my favourites.

You can watch my selection here, or again a playlist of the videos in their entirety.

We have also released a special enamel pin to mark our anniversary. You can pre-order the pin here.

Our thanks to everyone who has watched and supported our project over the past 10 years.

It has been so much fun and we can't wait to make more.

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Squaring the Circle - The Documents

This week we posted an Objectivity video featuring Dr James Grime visiting the Royal Society.

Head librarian Keith Moore showed James an intriguing object - an ornamental piece purporting to prove that a circle can indeed be squared.

Sent by a chap named Charles Hudson, based in Calcutta, it was said to show "the solution and demonstration of the quadrature of the circle".

At the time of filming, we did not have the object's accompanying documents.

But, by popular demand, Keith has dug up some correspondence and made it available to us.

You can download it as a PDF here, or see the photo gallery below.

But you may have to transcribe the handwriting yourself. We can't do everything for you.

And of course, as James himself told us on Numberphile, the whole endeavour was later proven to be impossible.

A Vintage Computer Game

Periodic Videos and Computerphile have joined forces to tell the story of a vintage computer game.

Scroll down for links to the PLAY ALL THE GAMES.

In the first video, Professor Sir Martyn Poliakoff explains how he commissioned students to make the compilation of chemistry-themed games in the 1980s.

With help from Dr Steve Bagley and a vintage computer, Sir Martyn also tries to play one of them.

In a second video on Computerphile, Dr Bagely discusses with Sean Riley how old software can be revived and run on emulators.

Dr Bagely has also put both sides of the disk on an emulator so you can play the games too.

SIDE ONE
SIDE TWO

Our thanks to Matt Godbolt for helping with the emulator.

Note that information in the game, such as the periodic table and university course info, is somewhat out of date. It was the 1980s!

You can also download the software itelf from Dr Bagley's Github here.

And here is a PDF of the game instructions.

Hannah's Book

Thanks to Numberphile regular Hannah Fry for supplying some signed copies of her Christmas mathematics book - The Indisputable Existence of Santa Claus.

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The book has been updated from last year with a whole new chapter, new cover, and fewer typos, according to Hannah.

The copies signed by Hannah and her co-author Dr Thomas Oléron Evans have been sent to top Numberphile Patreon supporters (you will have been messaged if one is coming!)

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However if you'd like to buy the book, it's available all over the place... Or you can use the Amazon affiliate links below.

UK link: http://amzn.to/2jDnPRV
US link: http://amzn.to/2B2NoA6

It's not just a fun book - it's great to support the work of people like Hannah who have always been generous with their time for Numberphile.

Looking for stocking fillers? Other Numberphile collaborators with great books include...

Steve Mould and Helen Arney (this is a new one - check it!):
http://amzn.to/2ja3WxA (UK)
http://amzn.to/2zSGMpC (US)

Alex Bellos books: http://amzn.to/2hNMLFA

And of course Matt "Parker Square" Parker:
http://amzn.to/2hLg5wt (UK)
http://amzn.to/2jEQfe0 (US)