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WS MoreOrLess: Brazil’s Maths Superstar
The Man Who Counted, a book of 'Arabic' mathematical tales written by Middle Eastern scholar Malba Tahan was published in Brazil in the 1930s. It became a huge success. Malba Tahan's birthday, May 6t…
Published on 11 years, 7 months ago
Food Bank Britain
Food banks are being used by a million people in Britain according to recent newspaper reports. But what do we really know about how many people are using food banks, and does this tell us anything a…
Published on 11 years, 7 months ago
Sir Roger Bannister's ‘impossible’ feat
Sir Roger Bannister became the first man to run a mile in under four minutes 60 ago. It's one of the most famous records of the 20th Century, one that the passage of time has shrouded in legend. Was …
Published on 11 years, 7 months ago
British Law - Made in Brussels?
How much British law is made in Brussels - 75% as UKIP say, or 7% as Nick Clegg says? And how might the ideas of an 18th century minister help find the missing flight MH370?
Published on 11 years, 7 months ago
Killed for being female?
Are 100 million women missing from the world? A listener asks More or Less to explore this powerful statement - "More girls were killed in the last 50 years, precisely because they were girls, than m…
Published on 11 years, 8 months ago
Magic Numbers
Do you have a favourite number - one you love, one you think stands out from all the others? Author Alex Bellos joins us to talk about his quest to find the world's favourite number and discuss wheth…
Published on 11 years, 8 months ago
Nigeria - rich or poor?
Nigeria's bureau of statistics has overhauled the way it calculates the country's GDP figures. With GDP now estimated at around $510 billion, it has surpassed South Africa as the continent's largest …
Published on 11 years, 8 months ago
Freedom in Numbers
How many people in the world live in freedom? The BBC's Freedom 2014 season got Tim Harford and the More or Less team wondering about this. It's actually pretty hard to put a number on freedom, so Ti…
Published on 11 years, 8 months ago
Is London France’s sixth largest city?
Are there really be 300,000 French people in London and would they really want to leave France for the UK anyway? The Mayor of London, British journalists and commentators have trotted out this "fact…
Published on 11 years, 8 months ago
Missing planes
Could Bayesian statistics find Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing? This niche form of statistical modelling has been used to find everything from submarines to missing people. More or Less exp…
Published on 11 years, 9 months ago