A Brilliant Young Mind Page #4

See?

Michael:
One, two,

buckle my shoe

Three, four.

Knock on my door.

Five, six, pick up your sticks

Seven, eight, lay them straight

One, two.

Buckle my shoe

Three, four...

Strong squad this year?

Testing my team for

weaknesses, Richard?

You should relax more,

not take it so seriously.

It's all right for you, you got the

best in the world to choose from.

But having your niece

on the team, Deng?

I mean, really?

You'll see.

Luke, I don't care.

Civilizations have used 10, not

l2, digits to count for millennia.

Yes, for purely primitive reasons, and the

fact that we have ten digits on our hands.

My argument is that

if we use base 12

it is an infinitely superior

system, and more logical.

It takes 12 months for

the Earth to orbit the sun,

there are 12 hours a

night and 12 hours a day,

and each of those hours there

are 12 five-minute increments.

And what do you

think, Nathan?

You a member of the

dozenalist society?

I don't know.

Sorry.

People disagreeing with my opinion

is one thing, but no opinion?

You might as well not be here.

The vertices of a

regular 72-gon.

The vertices of a

regular 72-gon

are each coloured red, green

or blue in equal amounts.

Show that we can always choose four

red, four green or four blue vertices

such that each monochromatic set

form a congruent quadrilateral.

Yes, so, of course, the whole question

can be trivialised by Ramsey Theory.

No, sorry, Luke. There were

other hands up before you.

Well, I've already

answered it now.

Really? You think so?

Is anyone here convinced

by Luke's answer?

"It's interesting you ask

"is anyone convinced?"

rather than "is anyone

not convinced?"

- I'm not convinced.

- I'm not convinced.

Nathan, would you

join in, please?

This isn't a holiday.

Do you have a proof to share?

That's a disappointment.

Ben?

Muirhead's inequality

and Schur's inequality?

It's interesting stuff, Nathan, but

you do over-complicate everything.

Things can be much simpler

than they initially appear.

Did Mr. Humphreys

not tell you that?

Mind you, he never did quite

live up to his potential, that one.

It's because his illness

was getting worse.

His Illness?

Is he still using that excuse?

Stephen Hawking has

done all right on far worse.

No, I'm afraid it wasn't Mr.

Humphreys' body that failed him,

it was his character.

He just couldn't stay with it.

If you must wait

Wait for them here in

my arms as I shake

If you must weep...

- Is that strong enough for you?

- That's fine.

- No sugar?

- No sugar, sweet enough for me.

- How are you doing?

- Never better.

You must mourn, my love

Mourn with the moon

and the stars up above

you must mourn

Don't do it alone

So, as well as your

cycle of amitriptyline,

you were prescribed glucocorticosteroids

for your latest relapse.

You can't have got through

all of those already.

I wouldn't have thought.

Someone broke Into my car.

Unfortunate.

- Mention it to the police?

- No, there's no point, is there?

Because they only stole

the pills and some CD's.

Bee Gees' greatest hits.

Which I was gutted about

because I bloody love those

squeaky little bastards.

So to be clear, these are not

anti-depressants, Mr. Humphreys.

I mean, that's good

because I'm not depressed.

You know, maybe you

wanna change your mind

about going to one of

those groups I mentioned?

What, sit in a circle and listen to

how crap everybody else's life is?

- You know, sharing your issues might help.

- Sharing my issues?

Like how I hate wobbling

about like a twat,

how I've started to lose control of my

bladder and it won't be on the floor

before I lose control of my

arse and start to sh*t myself.

So, be careful, 'cause I

could go at any second.

And then, to top it all off...

My dick doesn't work.

Is that the sort of thing you

think I should be sharing?

Yeah.

Perhaps.

No, but what I really

want, Martin, is for you to

not give up.

I should probably take this

because it's my crack dealer.

- Hello?

- Hello, Martin.

It... It's Julie. Yes.

That's right. Julie Ellis.

- Hi. Hi.

- Hiya.

- Thanks for coming round. It's...

- It's all right.

- Yeah.

- You sure you're ready for this?

Absolutely.

Okay, then. Let's begin at

the beginning, shall we?

It's all right. It's like

anything. It's scary at first.

But then when you get your

head round it, you'll be all right.

Has he, um...

Has he rung you again?

- Nathan? No.

- Yeah.

Now, look, I'm sure he didn't

mean anything by it, calling me.

It's just he doesn't think

sometimes, does he?

Well, no, he does think a lot.

Just mainly about maths.

Which is fine, you know.

He just thinks I'm a bit of an idiot

because I failed at maths at school.

I mean, I got everything

else, it was just, you know...

It's why I wanna do this really,

you know, get into his head more.

- I'm not making sense. Shut up, Julie.

- No, you're making perfect sense.

- Not really.

- No, you are.

I mean, the thing about

maths, as with any subject,

I think if you have an inspirational

teacher, um, then you'll be away.

Which is where I come in.

Mr. Inspirational.

Okay, then.

Let's start with something...

- Yeah. Pythagoras. Yay.

- Okay.

- Can you say that word?

- Hypotenuse.

Bless you.

You all right? You got

a little bit of a cold?

It's time to step up, mofo,

and see what you can do.

Keep your Pythag theorem to yourself

I raise you B minus C plus F equals 2.

- Who's next? Who's next?

- Your turn, Luke.

Go, Luke.

Go, Luke. Go, Luke.

Thank you, but I really

don't see the point.

Apart from succumbing to

testosterone-fuelled irrationality.

It's because it's funny, Luke.

- Don't you have a sense of humour?

- Just ignore him.

He's here to bring the mood

down as always, so don't let him.

- I'm here to do maths.

- You're just a regular quadrilateral.

- Okay, take it, Ben.

- UK, make some noise!

'Cause I'm talking

pi, bro, I'm talking...

1141592653553...

9793238462643...

- Sorry.

- Um...

No, It's all right.

I was just practicing

my fingering.

Um...

Go on, laugh.

No? Okay.

Um, do you play?

- No.

- Come on.

So...

Beautiful sounds are

about frequency ratios.

The simpler the ratio, like this C

and this C, a simple ratio of 1:2.

Beautiful.

Complex harmonies, like this...

Ugly.

Do you want to try?

Okay.

Is that right?

Yeah, it was, um...

- So you've never played before?

- No.

All music is maths, really.

Come on, I'll teach

you the next bit.

- Is this all right?

- Christ, yeah.

- Do you want me to pour it out?

- Please.

It's nice to relax actually.

It's been a while.

- There you go.

- Thank you.

Well, it's good that you

find maths relaxing.

Must have been

very difficult for you,

being just you and Nathan.

You know, without...

- Michael.

- Michael.

- Sorry. D*ckhead.

- No.

- Me, not... Not Michael.

- I know.

Well, I mean, but you're...

You're the same.

It must be the...

I mean, you're not with anyone.

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