Hello, everybody!
So last week, I asked you to set me some questions,
which you have done.
I've had loads.
Thank you for that!
I've been reading through them.
It's been hilarious!
Thanks a lot.
I'm going to try to answer as many as I can.
If I don't have time to answer your question,
please don't take it as a snub,
or anything like that.
So let's crash on.
OK, the first question is
"What's your full name?"
OK, so it's difficult ones first, eh?
My name is James Robert
Tiberius Montgomery
Scarborough Grime,
MSci, PhD, MFI.
The next question is "Where did you get the name 'singingbanana'?"
So singingbanana has been my internet name
since 1997, OK?
So for a long time.
There are some other singingbanana's about
on the internet.
Don't bother them. They may not be me.
I guess that's just coincidence.
I took it
from an advert at the time
for yoghurt,
which had a signing banana in it.
"Do you have a favourite YouTuber?"
Well, I have several YouTubers
I'd like to recommend to you.
For funny,
I'd like to recommend
a channel called "Becoming Batman,"
which is a hilarious series,
which should have more subscribers.
So go--go, and watch, and subscribe.
That's "Becoming Batman."
There's a guy who does another hilarious series
called "The Church of Blow."
And really, he's just throwing out ideas for free.
So go--go watch his stuff. "Church of Blow."
He also has a personal channel
which is called "Weeping Prophet."
For science and that sort of thing,
I recommend a channel called "Periodic Videos,"
which is doing for chemistry
what I would like to do
for maths,
if someone would like to give me some money,
I would like to do that too.
But go have a look at "Periodic Videos."
And also for science,
there's a great channel called "TED Talks,"
which is very professional, very slick,
and brilliant, fascinating talks on there.
But perhaps my favorite YouTuber, which is what you asked,
is--one of the more famous ones
though, is probably "Community Channel,"
which is this lovely Australian girl called Nat.
You may fall in love with her,
but back off! She's mine! I saw her first!
"How did you meet Mismag822 and Ericsurf6?"
Right.
I don't know Mismag. I don't know Ericsurf6.
We're just YouTubers.
I only know them through YouTube.
I know them as well as you do.
OK, there is no clique, or anything like that.
They have ten times more subscribers than I do.
So, you know, no one knows who I am.
OK. There is no, like, clique or anything like that.
So, next question
is from Ericsurf6.
He asks,
"How serious are you about juggling?"
Right. Not very serious at all.
I've run a couple of juggling clubs in my time.
I just do it as a hobby.
I'm not very good.
I kind of try and make up for not being very good
by doing unusual props. Hang on.
Let me show you.
RIght. So this is an Ultimate Wheel.
It's a unicycle
without a seat.
It's just a wheel, which I can ride--there you go,
the hypnotic thing.
I made this myself.
On the other side,
there is its name.
I call this "The Wheel Mobile."
So I'm not the best juggler in the world.
But I'm a jack of all trades,
and master of none.
Second question from Eric:
"What age did you realize you had a head for maths?"
Well, I guess when I was a kid, I had this thing called
a "Little Professor."
We're talking early 80's here.
It had an LED display,
and it was all very retro,
and it used to set you
maths questions
and by the time I was eight
I was doing 23 times 312.
And I went to the Science Museum last month,
and I saw it in a glass case
in the Science Museum.
So how old do I feel?
Now the third question from Eric is
"Do you have a girlfriend?"
Right. Now, what is this? What is this?
I had about twelve people ask me this.
Is this because I'm a mathematician?
Right. Even I
have had my moments.
I can't think of any right now,
but I'm sure I have.
More from Eric.
"How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?"
That's three.
And
"What did the two walls say to each other?"
I don't know. What did the two walls say to each other?
Yeah, this is not the best way to tell a joke.
Carnownage asks
"What's your job?"
Right. Great question! I'm glad you asked.
So I used to be a research mathematician.
and a lecturer at a UK university.
But I'm not a research mathematician anymore.
Now I'm a public speaker.
I work for Cambridge University,
and on behalf of Cambridge University,
I go out on tour,
and I give talks about mathematics.
Hopefully interesting talks--entertaining talks.
Pretty much like what I do for YouTube.
So I'm very lucky.
My job is also my hobby.
So I go around on this tour,
and I give a talk about
the history of code breaking,
with a demonstration
of this thing here,
which is a World War II
Enigma machine.
This is a genuine
World War II
Enigma machine.
I can show you, if I open it up.
There we go.
There we have it, if you can see that.
And it's in working order,
and I will come to your school,
your educational establishment,
come to your organization,
and I will give you a talk
and I will show you this machine,
in exchange for some money
which is kind of me.
So that's what I do.
It's very rock and roll,
because I live in hotels,
I tour around the country, I tour around the world
doing this.
So book now to avoid disappointment.
Timar03 asks
"Which countries have you traveled?"
Well, I've traveled to
Germany, Switzerland, Spain--
I used to live in Denmark.
I lived in Denmark in Aarhus for about six months.
Jeg taler ikke dansk,
so don't ask.
EnlightenedPerson asks
"Do you know Stephen Hawking?"
Well,
Stephen Hawking has the office directly above my office,
and that's absolutely true!
You'd think they'd put him on the ground floor, wouldn't you?
But no!
No, he's directly above me.
He's upstairs.
"Who's that making all the noise?"
"Oh, it's Stephen Hawking again."
MrAwesome257 asks
"What's your favourite number?"
Well, I don't know.
One?
I don't know.
Yeah, one. OK. You can't beat the multiplicative identity, can you?
Where would we be without it, right?
In a semi-group, that's where.
Several people have asked "What's your IQ?"
Uh, yeah.
IQ is lame, OK?
And people who care about IQ are lame.
It's not a very good measure of intelligence.
But I will answer this.
I'll answer this once,
right, and I'll never want to speak of it again.
When I was 16, I did have my IQ tested.
It was 155.
OK, now people are going to write back now
and say "Well, my IQ is 160."
Well, my penis is bigger,
so, you know--it evens out.
OK, sgtforge21 asked
if someone offered me my teaching salary
or more to quit teaching and only study group theory,
would you take the offer?
Well, I already made that choice.
So I have quit research
in favor of being 'show biz!'
OK, I've got some more personal questions here.
Timar03 again has asked
"How old are you? Does that count as mathsy?"
What's wrong with mathsy?
Mathsy's a perfectly good word!
How old are you?
I've just had a birthday. I'm 29.
Or, as I'm calling it, "not 30."
That's the new word for 29 now. "Not 30."
"How old are you?" "I'm not 30." 29.
We've got here "Why are you so skinny?"
I've got worms, all right?
And "Where did you grow up?"
I grew up in Nottingham,
in England.
So Nottingham is home of Robin Hood,
and other gangsters.
Next question--EpicEditingInc asks,
"What influenced you to get into mathematics?"
Right. Hang on for a second.
These are a few of the posters I used to have in my old office.
Let's have a look at this.
Right. Who influenced me to get into mathematics?
Probably this guy.
This is Johnny Ball.
He was a children's presenter
when I was a kid.
He used to do maths and science programs.
He used to jump up and down.
He was very excited about what he did.
And how could you not be impressed with that?
I used to watch things like
the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures,
which is a series in Britain
which are science programs
over the Christmas week,
which is a fantastic thing.
And I'd get quite excited when that comes on.
And this is the sort of thing that
influenced me when I was a kid,
and it's kind of what I want to do now,
with my tour,
and with this YouTube stuff.