1 00:00:23,880 --> 00:00:25,480 APPLAUSE 2 00:00:27,240 --> 00:00:28,800 WHISTLING 3 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:35,840 Goo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ood 4 00:00:35,840 --> 00:00:38,240 evening, good evening, good evening, 5 00:00:38,240 --> 00:00:43,400 and welcome to QI, where tonight we're looking at G for Gravity, 6 00:00:43,400 --> 00:00:47,680 assisted by our weighty contestants and of course my OWN gravitas. 7 00:00:47,680 --> 00:00:52,840 Distorting space-time for us tonight, we have four massive stars. 8 00:00:52,840 --> 00:00:55,680 A gigantic pulsar, Rich Hall! 9 00:00:55,680 --> 00:00:57,240 APPLAUSE AND CHEERING 10 00:00:59,040 --> 00:01:02,800 A huge red giant, Bill Bailey! 11 00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:04,360 APPLAUSE AND WHISTLING 12 00:01:07,760 --> 00:01:11,200 A colossal supernova, Barry Humphries! 13 00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:13,560 APPLAUSE, CHEERING AND WHISTLING 14 00:01:16,320 --> 00:01:20,440 And a hypothetical black hole, Alan Davies! 15 00:01:20,440 --> 00:01:22,560 APPLAUSE AND WHOOPING 16 00:01:26,200 --> 00:01:29,480 And tonight, their buzzers are all weighty. Rich goes... 17 00:01:29,480 --> 00:01:32,600 OBJECT PLUMMETS TO EARTH... 18 00:01:32,600 --> 00:01:35,640 Aw, man... ..AND LANDS WITH A CLANG 19 00:01:35,640 --> 00:01:37,800 Weighty, you see? And Barry's goes... 20 00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:39,840 SOLDIERS' FEET CLUMP... 21 00:01:39,840 --> 00:01:43,480 'Wait for it... Wait for it!' FEET STAND TO ATTENTION 22 00:01:43,480 --> 00:01:45,360 And Bill goes... 23 00:01:45,360 --> 00:01:49,040 SPEAK-YOUR-WEIGHT MACHINE: 'Your weight is 12 stone... 24 00:01:49,040 --> 00:01:50,800 'two pounds, four ounces.' 25 00:01:50,800 --> 00:01:52,800 You wish(!) LAUGHTER 26 00:01:52,800 --> 00:01:54,080 Sorry! 27 00:01:55,800 --> 00:01:57,080 How dare you. Sorry... 28 00:01:57,080 --> 00:02:02,160 Oh... The new cockiness of the recently svelte. No, no. 29 00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:04,360 And Alan goes... 30 00:02:04,360 --> 00:02:05,600 BOING! 31 00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:08,600 'Yaaaaaargh...' 32 00:02:08,600 --> 00:02:09,960 I do, actually. 33 00:02:09,960 --> 00:02:12,040 So, let's... LAUGHTER 34 00:02:12,040 --> 00:02:15,880 ..let's drop right in. My first question is, how can you get from here 35 00:02:15,880 --> 00:02:18,600 to ANYWHERE on Earth 36 00:02:18,600 --> 00:02:22,200 in exactly 42 minutes and 12 seconds? 37 00:02:22,200 --> 00:02:24,800 SOLDIERS' FEET CLUMP 'Wait for it!' 38 00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:28,120 I meant to say, I like that tie very much. 39 00:02:28,120 --> 00:02:30,200 LAUGHTER Why, thank you! 40 00:02:30,200 --> 00:02:34,800 And coming from a man with your colour sense, that makes me so happy. 41 00:02:34,800 --> 00:02:37,800 I was hoping I wouldn't be overdressed tonight. 42 00:02:37,800 --> 00:02:40,400 42 minutes and 12 seconds. You can get to anywhere. 43 00:02:40,400 --> 00:02:42,640 Through the Earth. 44 00:02:42,640 --> 00:02:44,640 Ooh. Ah... Develop. 45 00:02:44,640 --> 00:02:47,000 LAUGHTER Develop that thought. 46 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:51,240 It's a theoretical rather than practical... All right. Burrow then. 47 00:02:51,240 --> 00:02:52,880 Burrowing... Yup. 48 00:02:52,880 --> 00:02:54,640 ..through the Earth, directly. 49 00:02:54,640 --> 00:02:57,920 You'd have to be more vigorous than that. LAUGHTER 50 00:02:57,920 --> 00:03:02,000 Well, that's just getting the... That's just getting the first soil off. 51 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:03,720 All right! LAUGHTER 52 00:03:03,720 --> 00:03:08,120 You've got to start somewhere. You wouldn't start like that, would you? 53 00:03:08,120 --> 00:03:11,280 Well, what speed would you have to go, to do it in 42 minutes? 54 00:03:11,280 --> 00:03:14,120 At the speed that is determined by... 55 00:03:14,120 --> 00:03:16,440 Gravity. Gravity, by maximum velocity. 56 00:03:16,440 --> 00:03:20,360 The idea is that if you were to tunnel, straight through... 57 00:03:20,360 --> 00:03:23,280 You mean, if there was a tube and you jumped down it, 58 00:03:23,280 --> 00:03:26,920 it would take you 42 minutes to come out the other side? Exactly. 59 00:03:26,920 --> 00:03:30,560 But would you drop... I'd like it if you dropped out the other end. 60 00:03:30,560 --> 00:03:34,360 Yeah, you would accelerate all the way to the middle... and DECELERATE out. 61 00:03:34,360 --> 00:03:36,560 So you'd JUST make it. You'd be in Australia. 62 00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:38,360 Ah! That's the point... 63 00:03:38,360 --> 00:03:39,600 I was going to say. Yeah. 64 00:03:39,600 --> 00:03:46,360 But actually you could do the tunnel from London to Moscow. That's why I said to ANYWHERE from here. 65 00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:51,640 Gravity operates at all angles. It doesn't just operate from the north to south, as it were. 66 00:03:51,640 --> 00:03:53,640 Would you...? You could... 67 00:03:53,640 --> 00:03:56,680 So from London to Paris 68 00:03:56,680 --> 00:03:59,160 would be the same length of time... Yeah. 69 00:03:59,160 --> 00:04:00,840 It would have to be the same time. 70 00:04:00,840 --> 00:04:04,360 If I dug a tunnel, I could get from here to there in 12 seconds. 71 00:04:04,360 --> 00:04:07,720 Yeah. There, you're right. The other 42 minutes is just... 72 00:04:07,720 --> 00:04:10,440 waitin' for your luggage. LAUGHTER 73 00:04:12,120 --> 00:04:15,000 But the Antipodes thing's interesting. 74 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:19,160 An antipode is an exact opposite point on the Earth, they don't have to be north-south. 75 00:04:19,160 --> 00:04:22,600 There are antipodes are from one part of the EQUATOR to another... 76 00:04:22,600 --> 00:04:25,040 I thought we were New Zealand. 77 00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:27,920 Well, the interesting thing is we're nowhere-LAND, 78 00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:30,520 and there was a contest 79 00:04:30,520 --> 00:04:32,320 to make an Earth sandwich. 80 00:04:32,320 --> 00:04:34,280 For someone to put 81 00:04:34,280 --> 00:04:36,760 a piece of bread on one part of the Earth... 82 00:04:36,760 --> 00:04:38,600 LAUGHTER 83 00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:42,480 ..and the others would put the piece of bread on the exact antipode... 84 00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:45,640 There are not many choices. New Zealand was one piece of bread... 85 00:04:45,640 --> 00:04:48,000 Iceland. Not Iceland... 86 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:50,240 Little further south. Tewkesbury. Spain. 87 00:04:50,240 --> 00:04:52,080 Spain is the right answer! Thank you. 88 00:04:52,080 --> 00:04:54,480 Ah. Brilliant, very good. LAUGHTER 89 00:04:54,480 --> 00:04:57,880 But there was immediate controversy because they used baguettes... 90 00:04:57,880 --> 00:04:59,160 LAUGHTER 91 00:04:59,160 --> 00:05:04,120 ..and so no-one was sure if they were oriented in the same direction. It might have been a cross shape - 92 00:05:04,120 --> 00:05:08,200 you can't have a sandwich with baguettes crossing, can you? But anyway... 93 00:05:08,200 --> 00:05:11,400 How do you get to be involved in these competitions? LAUGHTER 94 00:05:11,400 --> 00:05:13,960 I fear the answer is you have to be Canadian. 95 00:05:13,960 --> 00:05:16,920 They were Canadian brothers called Jonathan and Duncan. 96 00:05:16,920 --> 00:05:21,200 But, anyway, they could have chosen Indonesia to... Oh. Erm... America. 97 00:05:21,200 --> 00:05:24,960 You're going sideways rather than... South America, it's Colombia. 98 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:29,760 But one of the most interesting ones from a practical point of view, if you're a religionist, 99 00:05:29,760 --> 00:05:32,560 would be the antipode of Mecca. 100 00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:36,280 The exact opposite of Mecca is a tiny little atoll in the South Pacific... 101 00:05:36,280 --> 00:05:37,920 BILL: Christmas Island. 102 00:05:37,920 --> 00:05:41,640 Tematangi Atoll. It's also known as Captain Bligh's Atoll. 103 00:05:41,640 --> 00:05:46,840 That's actually a photograph, amazingly. It's actually got a huge lagoon in it. 104 00:05:46,840 --> 00:05:51,280 And if you were a Muslim, you could face any direction there and you'd be facing Mecca. 105 00:05:51,280 --> 00:05:52,720 Because it's the antipode. 106 00:05:52,720 --> 00:05:57,520 We were talking about the gravity train, weren't we? The idea of going through... 107 00:05:57,520 --> 00:06:02,000 Is it feasible, then? Has Richard Branson already figured out some way of...? 108 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:06,320 It's not feasible on Earth. On the Moon it might be, because the Moon has no molten core. 109 00:06:06,320 --> 00:06:09,080 Though, oddly enough, it would be 53 minutes. 110 00:06:09,080 --> 00:06:12,240 Which moon are we talking about? Ah! Mmm. There's a sore point. 111 00:06:12,240 --> 00:06:14,480 LAUGHTER 112 00:06:14,480 --> 00:06:17,320 Just our usual, friendly moon. The one we look at. 113 00:06:17,320 --> 00:06:20,040 Oddly enough, that would be 53 minutes to get through. 114 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:22,720 What?! Why would it take longer to get through the moon... 115 00:06:22,720 --> 00:06:25,160 The gravity is so feeble. Yeah. 116 00:06:25,160 --> 00:06:27,960 Yeah. And just, really... What's the point of it, really? 117 00:06:27,960 --> 00:06:29,600 LAUGHTER 118 00:06:29,600 --> 00:06:33,760 Ehhh... The antipodes are not that exciting, really. 119 00:06:33,760 --> 00:06:37,600 "I'm on the moon and I'm on the other side..." Just as boring as... Exactly. 120 00:06:37,600 --> 00:06:41,960 What, though, is interesting is who do you think worked out the 42 minutes and 12 seconds? 121 00:06:41,960 --> 00:06:43,440 Patrick Moore. 122 00:06:43,440 --> 00:06:46,440 No. Um... QI researcher. 123 00:06:46,440 --> 00:06:48,120 LAUGHTER 124 00:06:48,120 --> 00:06:50,000 I know. Alan Titchmarsh. 125 00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:52,720 Keeps digging the garden, er... LAUGHTER 126 00:06:52,720 --> 00:06:54,520 Charlie Dimmock. 127 00:06:54,520 --> 00:06:56,920 Where are they now, eh? 128 00:06:56,920 --> 00:06:58,640 Down there. Oh! 129 00:06:59,720 --> 00:07:03,720 What's amazing is that it was a series of letters between Isaac Newton and Robert Hook 130 00:07:03,720 --> 00:07:07,640 in the 17th century. They worked out the exact mathematics and it's not changed, 131 00:07:07,640 --> 00:07:09,360 it's still as true as it was then. 132 00:07:09,360 --> 00:07:13,640 You know the film, Brazil, where they put things in tubes and never know where they go? 133 00:07:13,640 --> 00:07:16,600 Put it in a tube and it pops out in the antipodes... 134 00:07:16,600 --> 00:07:21,560 You're too young, young scampy grace, to remember the change machines in shops. 135 00:07:21,560 --> 00:07:23,840 Ah! You remember those? You're a scampy grace. 136 00:07:23,840 --> 00:07:27,160 It was wonderful. What was the one in...Gamages, was it? 137 00:07:27,160 --> 00:07:32,080 That's right. You gave the money - real money, no credit cards... 138 00:07:32,080 --> 00:07:33,480 That's it. 139 00:07:33,480 --> 00:07:37,520 ..and a very nice girl, in black, with BO, she'd... 140 00:07:37,520 --> 00:07:38,800 LAUGHTER 141 00:07:38,800 --> 00:07:43,360 She took the money and wrapped it in the docket, it was called a docket... 142 00:07:43,360 --> 00:07:45,360 Oh, yeah. And she put it in a cylinder... 143 00:07:45,360 --> 00:07:50,560 Looked like a milkshake. ..it was immediately sucked into some other part of the store. 144 00:07:50,560 --> 00:07:52,800 It was a vacuum, a sort of "wh-doop!" 145 00:07:52,800 --> 00:07:55,640 So you put the fiver in there, put the docket in which said 146 00:07:55,640 --> 00:07:58,640 you've bought something worth £3 7s 6d, 147 00:07:58,640 --> 00:08:01,360 and there's the five pounds, and it would go... POP! 148 00:08:01,360 --> 00:08:04,840 ..or that "shhloop!" noise, as you say, and they'd wait there and chat... 149 00:08:04,840 --> 00:08:08,080 They were subject to abuse, those machines. Were they? 150 00:08:08,080 --> 00:08:11,080 LAUGHTER 151 00:08:15,600 --> 00:08:17,720 Perhaps it wasn't BO after all. 152 00:08:17,720 --> 00:08:20,160 AUDIENCE GROANS AND LAUGHS 153 00:08:20,160 --> 00:08:22,080 Just aren't enough tubes, are there? 154 00:08:22,080 --> 00:08:24,200 Are there not enough tubes in the world? 155 00:08:24,200 --> 00:08:27,320 Things that work mechanically are kind of larky and fun. 156 00:08:27,320 --> 00:08:29,840 Yeah, and they'd suck that big sucking sound. 157 00:08:29,840 --> 00:08:33,680 I would like to know the force that an airline toilet... 158 00:08:33,680 --> 00:08:35,040 LAUGHTER 159 00:08:35,040 --> 00:08:36,960 It's frightening. 160 00:08:36,960 --> 00:08:38,320 I had to cover my ears. 161 00:08:38,320 --> 00:08:40,640 If you mis-timed it, your intestines would go 162 00:08:40,640 --> 00:08:43,840 straight down and shoot out...! LAUGHTER 163 00:08:43,840 --> 00:08:47,040 If you're sitting on it, and you've sealed round the rim... 164 00:08:47,040 --> 00:08:50,440 You would lose your guts. You can lose your innards. Yup. 165 00:08:50,440 --> 00:08:53,080 I've heard of that happening. Wow. 166 00:08:53,080 --> 00:08:55,960 There's a guy where I live in Montana, cos we have prairie dogs, 167 00:08:55,960 --> 00:08:58,000 and prairie dogs are like, that big. 168 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:02,440 They're cute, like a cross between a meerkat and a squirrel. But they dig tunnels, 169 00:09:02,440 --> 00:09:06,440 and if you don't want to shoot them with a .22 this guy will come around and suck them out, 170 00:09:06,440 --> 00:09:09,960 with a grain elevator. On the back of a truck. 171 00:09:09,960 --> 00:09:13,960 A big Howitzer kind of nozzle, and he knows how many are in the tunnel, 172 00:09:13,960 --> 00:09:15,920 he'll go, "There's four in that tunnel," 173 00:09:15,920 --> 00:09:18,640 and he turns this thing on and it goes "thp, thp, thp, thp." 174 00:09:18,640 --> 00:09:21,960 The most amazing sound in the world. 175 00:09:21,960 --> 00:09:25,080 Then they come through and they have this '80s blow-dry look, 176 00:09:25,080 --> 00:09:28,200 they've just been sucked through at, like, 80 miles per hour, 177 00:09:28,200 --> 00:09:30,480 they're like miniature werewolves... 178 00:09:30,480 --> 00:09:34,160 And I said to him... So they don't get shredded? Not shredded. 179 00:09:34,160 --> 00:09:37,800 It's not like Steve Buscemi in Fargo? No. But they are looking at you 180 00:09:37,800 --> 00:09:40,480 like you owe them an explanation. LAUGHTER 181 00:09:42,360 --> 00:09:46,320 APPLAUSE 182 00:09:46,320 --> 00:09:50,160 I said to the guy, I said to the guy, "Doesn't this give them brain damage?" 183 00:09:50,160 --> 00:09:52,080 And he went, "Yeah, of course." 184 00:09:52,080 --> 00:09:55,800 But it doesn't kill them, that's the humane alternative. 185 00:09:55,800 --> 00:10:00,240 I said, "What do you do with them?" He said, "I take them across the river and let them go 186 00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:03,920 "and then I wait three, four days and work THAT side of the river." 187 00:10:03,920 --> 00:10:06,240 To return to the original question, 188 00:10:06,240 --> 00:10:08,800 if you drive a tunnel straight through the Earth, 189 00:10:08,800 --> 00:10:11,160 a gravity train would take you where you want to be 190 00:10:11,160 --> 00:10:13,720 in exactly 42 minutes and 12 seconds. 191 00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:17,640 Aristotle, as I'm sure you all know, thought that heavier objects 192 00:10:17,640 --> 00:10:20,680 fell faster than lighter objects. 193 00:10:20,680 --> 00:10:23,920 And it seems an intuitive and correct idea. 194 00:10:23,920 --> 00:10:27,240 But Galileo worked out that they didn't. How did he do that? 195 00:10:29,040 --> 00:10:30,360 BUZZER: 'Wait for it!' 196 00:10:30,360 --> 00:10:34,400 He dropped two cannonballs off the Leaning Tower Of Pisa. 197 00:10:34,400 --> 00:10:38,920 Ah! Well, did he? KLAXON 198 00:10:38,920 --> 00:10:43,280 I'm sorry, my love. The reality is that he worked out 199 00:10:43,280 --> 00:10:47,280 that this was the case from his head. 200 00:10:47,280 --> 00:10:50,400 He then did some experiments with ramps and things that proved it 201 00:10:50,400 --> 00:10:53,840 to be true. What's heavier, a ton of gold or a ton of feathers? 202 00:10:53,840 --> 00:10:57,400 Exactly, that kind of thing. But he's saying is half a ton... 203 00:10:57,400 --> 00:10:58,520 BILL: What's that? 204 00:10:58,520 --> 00:11:01,800 Half a ton of gold... Gold and feathers? 205 00:11:01,800 --> 00:11:04,640 It sounds like an Elton John party request. 206 00:11:04,640 --> 00:11:07,600 Of course, the answer is that one of them IS heavier, 207 00:11:07,600 --> 00:11:09,720 because gold is measured in troy weight, 208 00:11:09,720 --> 00:11:12,240 rather than avoirdupois, they're different. 209 00:11:12,240 --> 00:11:14,520 So a ton of gold is different to a ton of feathers. 210 00:11:14,520 --> 00:11:18,080 Sorry! LAUGHTER 211 00:11:18,080 --> 00:11:19,360 ..I believe. I'm sorry. 212 00:11:19,360 --> 00:11:22,760 What Galileo said was that half a ton of coal falls at the same speed 213 00:11:22,760 --> 00:11:26,400 as a ton of coal. That's the point. Falls at the same speed. 214 00:11:26,400 --> 00:11:27,920 If you let go at the same time, 215 00:11:27,920 --> 00:11:30,280 they'll both hit the ground at the same time. 216 00:11:30,280 --> 00:11:32,680 How do you get a ton of coal in the air? Indeed. 217 00:11:32,680 --> 00:11:34,440 Galileo's reasoning was thusly wise. 218 00:11:34,440 --> 00:11:38,840 He said that if you had a heavy object and you believed Aristotle, 219 00:11:38,840 --> 00:11:41,160 it falls fast and the lighter one slow. 220 00:11:41,160 --> 00:11:44,400 So, suppose you attach the light one to the heavy one. 221 00:11:44,400 --> 00:11:48,040 Well, the heavy one falls faster than the light one 222 00:11:48,040 --> 00:11:51,840 so it would make the light one fall faster. 223 00:11:51,840 --> 00:11:54,120 Or the light one would hold the heavy one up 224 00:11:54,120 --> 00:11:58,280 cos it's going slower. So by attaching them together, 225 00:11:58,280 --> 00:12:01,640 you would make it go both faster and slower. That's impossible. 226 00:12:01,640 --> 00:12:05,120 The only explanation is that they both travel at the same speed. 227 00:12:05,120 --> 00:12:09,160 He then proved it. On Apollo 15, Scott, the astronaut, 228 00:12:09,160 --> 00:12:11,440 thought he'd try and see if Galileo was right 229 00:12:11,440 --> 00:12:13,520 and we have a clip of him doing it. 230 00:12:13,520 --> 00:12:16,560 I'll drop the two of them here and hopefully 231 00:12:16,560 --> 00:12:19,560 they'll hit the ground at the same time. 232 00:12:19,560 --> 00:12:26,200 How about that? Mr Galileo was correct in his findings. 233 00:12:26,200 --> 00:12:27,480 Isn't that cool? 234 00:12:27,480 --> 00:12:31,800 Astronaut David Scott proving Galileo right with a hammer and a feather. 235 00:12:31,800 --> 00:12:34,880 But Galileo established it by the power of his own thought. 236 00:12:34,880 --> 00:12:38,040 Newton worked out the laws of gravitation and published them 237 00:12:38,040 --> 00:12:41,360 in 1687, which was just 100 years before les freres Montgolfier, 238 00:12:41,360 --> 00:12:45,880 the brothers Montgolfier, astounded the world with the first balloon ascents. 239 00:12:45,880 --> 00:12:50,520 It was only one year after that that dashing Old Etonian George Biggin 240 00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:53,480 and Letitia Sage were in a hydrogen balloon 241 00:12:53,480 --> 00:12:56,720 and they took off from Southwark and I want to know 242 00:12:56,720 --> 00:12:59,280 how far did George Biggin go? 243 00:12:59,280 --> 00:13:01,040 Not to Biggin Hill, surely? 244 00:13:01,040 --> 00:13:03,520 BUZZER: 'Wait for it!' 245 00:13:03,520 --> 00:13:05,000 All the way. 246 00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:08,360 Eh-h! Oddly enough, that may be the right answer. 247 00:13:08,360 --> 00:13:11,560 It was one of the most extraordinary things you could imagine. 248 00:13:11,560 --> 00:13:13,880 A balloon ascent was an astonishing sight. 249 00:13:13,880 --> 00:13:16,240 150,000 people turned out to see the first one. 250 00:13:16,240 --> 00:13:19,280 The Italian who brought ballooning to England 251 00:13:19,280 --> 00:13:23,640 was called Lunardi. He put these two people in and thought it was probably too many, 252 00:13:23,640 --> 00:13:26,720 so he jumped out just as it was taking off and left this couple 253 00:13:26,720 --> 00:13:29,840 on their own, these complete first-time balloonists. 254 00:13:29,840 --> 00:13:31,480 Were they tethered? 255 00:13:31,480 --> 00:13:34,960 No. They took off... Did they just keep going then? 256 00:13:34,960 --> 00:13:38,120 It became one of the sensations of the age because... 257 00:13:38,120 --> 00:13:41,960 The Mile-High Club... They were the first members of the Mile-High Club. 258 00:13:41,960 --> 00:13:47,680 They were seen, as they were going over Piccadilly, she was seen on all-fours. 259 00:13:49,080 --> 00:13:53,440 Was it a glass-bottom balloon then?! 260 00:13:53,440 --> 00:13:57,960 She claimed later she was fastening up the opening of the balloon... 261 00:13:57,960 --> 00:14:02,080 Yeah, that old chestnut! "Me, officer? No, officer. 262 00:14:02,080 --> 00:14:05,280 "Opening in the balloon, officer." Sandbags... 263 00:14:05,280 --> 00:14:07,600 They got as far as 14 miles, as far as Harrow, 264 00:14:07,600 --> 00:14:11,000 shouting down using a speaking trumpet to people below, 265 00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:14,440 who must have been rather astonished. Slack-jawed yokels 266 00:14:14,440 --> 00:14:17,160 from the village of Finchley. 267 00:14:17,160 --> 00:14:18,760 "Work, you idle buggers!" 268 00:14:20,960 --> 00:14:24,800 There became a great scandal about it and it became the issue of the age, 269 00:14:24,800 --> 00:14:26,360 whether or not you could do it. 270 00:14:26,360 --> 00:14:29,920 One of the most remarkable social records of that age 271 00:14:29,920 --> 00:14:34,200 is the wager books. The betting books of the great London clubs, 272 00:14:34,200 --> 00:14:37,320 particularly Brooks's and White's. 273 00:14:37,320 --> 00:14:41,400 People used to bet on anything. The books still exist in their handwriting. 274 00:14:41,400 --> 00:14:45,880 There is one here. Lord Cholmondeley has given two guineas to Lord Derby 275 00:14:45,880 --> 00:14:47,720 to receive 500 guineas 276 00:14:47,720 --> 00:14:53,640 whenever his Lordship "plays hospitals" with a woman in a balloon 1,000 yards from the Earth. 277 00:14:53,640 --> 00:14:58,840 For "plays hospitals with" I think you can insert your own...word. 278 00:15:08,040 --> 00:15:11,520 So, there you have it. Did he pay up then? Is that in the book? 279 00:15:11,520 --> 00:15:16,360 We don't... "1,000 yards!" "Oh, you were only 900 yards." 280 00:15:16,360 --> 00:15:18,600 It's true, they had no way of measuring. 281 00:15:18,600 --> 00:15:24,120 What did they use for an altimeter? They dropped things and saw how long it took to hit the floor? No. 282 00:15:24,120 --> 00:15:28,160 Barometers existed. There was different pressure at different levels. 283 00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:32,880 It was quite accurate. A barometer was quite a hefty piece of kit, was it? 284 00:15:32,880 --> 00:15:37,880 Yeah, you'd have to hang it up and tap it with the stem of your pipe. 285 00:15:37,880 --> 00:15:42,000 As with flight, as soon as a new technology like this emerges, 286 00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:43,800 as we saw with aeroplanes later, 287 00:15:43,800 --> 00:15:48,440 there are various targets, you want to be the first person to do this... 288 00:15:48,440 --> 00:15:51,920 We've seen the first person to "play hospitals" onboard a balloon, 289 00:15:51,920 --> 00:15:54,800 but one of the great things is to cross the... Channel? 290 00:15:54,800 --> 00:15:58,400 ..Channel, exactly. With aeroplanes... M25? 291 00:15:58,400 --> 00:15:59,520 Not the M25! 292 00:15:59,520 --> 00:16:03,640 The Channel was an extraordinary business. There was a Frenchman, 293 00:16:03,640 --> 00:16:06,520 called Blanchard, and his American backer. 294 00:16:06,520 --> 00:16:09,720 But they hated each other and they loved their own countries. 295 00:16:09,720 --> 00:16:13,360 So, the Frenchman... Can you imagine a Frenchman not playing fair? 296 00:16:13,360 --> 00:16:16,200 Hard to imagine(!) Try and picture it. 297 00:16:16,200 --> 00:16:19,600 He carried lead weights on a belt, this Blanchard, 298 00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:24,200 so that he could claim to the American, "There's only room for one of us, unfortunately. 299 00:16:24,200 --> 00:16:26,280 "I will have to do this record alone!" 300 00:16:26,280 --> 00:16:29,440 The American saw the weight and made him take off his ballast 301 00:16:29,440 --> 00:16:32,880 and then they accidentally dropped each other's national flags 302 00:16:32,880 --> 00:16:37,240 out of the balloon. And then the balloon started to drop over the Channel too early 303 00:16:37,240 --> 00:16:43,040 and so they threw out their food, their instruments, all... Obviously, the sand bags. 304 00:16:43,040 --> 00:16:44,960 Then they took their jacket off, 305 00:16:44,960 --> 00:16:50,040 they took their trousers off, then they peed and pooed out of the basket. 306 00:16:50,040 --> 00:16:53,640 They're approaching cliffs and they're dropping, so they have a poo 307 00:16:53,640 --> 00:16:55,800 and they just get over it, like that! 308 00:16:55,800 --> 00:16:58,200 They land in the trees and the record is made. 309 00:16:58,200 --> 00:17:02,840 It's not a very dignified way to break a record, with your trousers round your ankles. 310 00:17:02,840 --> 00:17:07,000 No. "We've nearly done it! The press are here to meet us." 311 00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:09,800 "Oh, dear." 312 00:17:11,240 --> 00:17:13,440 One last push. 313 00:17:13,440 --> 00:17:15,120 AUDIENCE GROAN 314 00:17:15,120 --> 00:17:17,680 Anyway, that's Mr Biggin and Mrs Sage. 315 00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:20,840 They went, as Barry correctly said, all the way, 316 00:17:20,840 --> 00:17:25,840 from St George's Fields to Harrow. We won't have any truck with gossip here on QI. 317 00:17:25,840 --> 00:17:29,800 So, what do you say to a gossypiboma? 318 00:17:29,800 --> 00:17:32,080 BUZZER: 'Wait for it!' 319 00:17:32,080 --> 00:17:34,560 Mind your own business. 320 00:17:34,560 --> 00:17:36,440 KLAXON Ohhh. 321 00:17:38,840 --> 00:17:44,760 We predicted that, I'm afraid. You've got a nice score building up, Barry. It's good. 322 00:17:44,760 --> 00:17:46,440 Gossypiboma. 323 00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:51,840 Bo..bo.. Boma? Is it a creature? I know what it is. Do you? 324 00:17:53,840 --> 00:17:57,440 It's something a surgeon leaves behind inside you after an operation. 325 00:17:57,440 --> 00:18:00,600 Oh, Barry, that is brilliant, that is the right answer. 326 00:18:00,600 --> 00:18:03,000 APPLAUSE 327 00:18:05,880 --> 00:18:09,200 That's exactly what it is. It's cotton or lint or sponge... 328 00:18:09,200 --> 00:18:12,560 Or a mobile phone... Or indeed a mobile phone. 329 00:18:12,560 --> 00:18:16,320 It comes from the Latin for cotton, gossypi, like a piece of cotton. 330 00:18:16,320 --> 00:18:19,680 Cotton wool is the most basic one. In America, 1,500 cases a year 331 00:18:19,680 --> 00:18:26,040 of things being left inside... Really?! That's cos a lot of people eat fridge magnets in America. 332 00:18:27,040 --> 00:18:29,200 Cos they look like cookies or chocolate. 333 00:18:30,640 --> 00:18:34,000 When they try and open 'em, all the tools just... 334 00:18:35,400 --> 00:18:37,240 ..shoot off the tray and... 335 00:18:37,240 --> 00:18:39,080 It's a damn good theory... 336 00:18:39,080 --> 00:18:42,640 And they stick to the sides of mobile homes. 337 00:18:42,640 --> 00:18:47,160 54% of foreign bodies are left in the abdomen or pelvis, 338 00:18:47,160 --> 00:18:52,440 22% in the vagina, 7.5 % in the chest, 17% in other places, 339 00:18:52,440 --> 00:18:54,600 like the spinal canal, brain and face. 340 00:18:54,600 --> 00:18:56,600 Do you think they do it for a bet? 341 00:18:56,600 --> 00:18:58,440 What, the surgeons? 342 00:18:58,440 --> 00:19:01,640 Yeah. Then they get more work, don't they? Getting it out again. 343 00:19:01,640 --> 00:19:04,400 They probably get sued, though, I would imagine. 344 00:19:04,400 --> 00:19:07,400 There was one chap who had a six-inch metal surgical clamp 345 00:19:07,400 --> 00:19:12,160 taken out and they realised he'd already had an operation to take out a clamp. 346 00:19:12,160 --> 00:19:17,800 He'd had two left in him and when they took the one out, they never thought to look for another one. 347 00:19:17,800 --> 00:19:20,640 Extraordinary behaviour. Train set... 348 00:19:20,640 --> 00:19:24,880 What would you imagine were the main risk factors? Why is it likely to happen? 349 00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:29,280 There is a protocol whereby you count all the equipment, so why would it happen? 350 00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:34,400 They do good work and they think, I want someone to recognise my work, 351 00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:36,680 so I'll leave my forceps in here. 352 00:19:36,680 --> 00:19:40,400 Apparently... People will go, oh, this is the work of Dr Bonner. 353 00:19:40,400 --> 00:19:42,240 This is clearly a Bonner. 354 00:19:42,240 --> 00:19:45,920 The reason they give is emergency operations that have not been planned, 355 00:19:45,920 --> 00:19:48,200 and unplanned changes in the operation. 356 00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:51,200 And patients with higher body mass index. 357 00:19:51,200 --> 00:19:53,440 Fat people. They lose their stuff... 358 00:19:53,440 --> 00:19:55,200 They put it down and... 359 00:19:55,200 --> 00:19:56,760 It's sucked in, I don't know? 360 00:19:56,760 --> 00:19:59,360 "There's a nurse in there!" 361 00:20:01,040 --> 00:20:03,440 "Thank God you're here!" 362 00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:06,520 This is where we need Hugh Laurie on the show. 363 00:20:06,520 --> 00:20:09,800 He would explain, exactly. He would explain... 364 00:20:09,800 --> 00:20:13,440 if the script was put in front of him. He's a gibbering idiot without it. 365 00:20:13,440 --> 00:20:15,520 No! He isn't! 366 00:20:15,520 --> 00:20:17,960 APPLAUSE 367 00:20:17,960 --> 00:20:20,240 No, no, no. 368 00:20:20,240 --> 00:20:23,240 There are specific words, the most common is gossypiboma, 369 00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:26,720 which comes from the fact that it's cotton, the Latin gossypium 370 00:20:26,720 --> 00:20:31,920 is cotton. But if it's a surgical instrument, it's called a "foreign-body granuloma". 371 00:20:31,920 --> 00:20:36,200 Oh. Yes. The cheek of the surgeons is that they call it retaining, 372 00:20:36,200 --> 00:20:38,880 as if somehow it's the patient's fault. 373 00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:44,280 "The patient retained this object while unconscious on the slab. 374 00:20:44,280 --> 00:20:47,080 "Nothing to do with us." 375 00:20:47,080 --> 00:20:49,120 "His pancreas grabbed it." 376 00:20:49,120 --> 00:20:52,400 "He wouldn't give it back. We had no choice but to leave it there." 377 00:20:52,400 --> 00:20:54,120 There you are. Anyway... 378 00:20:54,120 --> 00:20:57,760 I'm disturbed by this picture, it's really disturbing me. 379 00:20:57,760 --> 00:21:02,360 It's like backstage at a puppet theatre. "Glove puppets, quickly!" 380 00:21:02,360 --> 00:21:04,840 It's a lady with invisible breasts. 381 00:21:04,840 --> 00:21:08,160 LAUGHTER 382 00:21:08,160 --> 00:21:11,480 We like the thought of it. Well, anyway, 383 00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:14,880 a gossypiboma is a piece of cotton left inside you by a surgeon. 384 00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:19,240 What's the use of an underwater weighing machine? 385 00:21:19,240 --> 00:21:22,320 BUZZER: '12 stone, 4 ounces.' 386 00:21:22,320 --> 00:21:24,000 There you are! 387 00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:29,280 I weigh a bit less underwater. Speak your weight. 388 00:21:29,280 --> 00:21:31,960 Why do you have an underwater weighing machine? 389 00:21:31,960 --> 00:21:34,480 Whales? Whales' weighing station. Oh! 390 00:21:34,480 --> 00:21:37,440 KLAXON 391 00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:39,600 He said the "whale weigh" station. 392 00:21:39,600 --> 00:21:42,280 This is fabulous, you're thinking... 393 00:21:42,280 --> 00:21:47,280 I just hope I get the worst marks because losing is the new winning. 394 00:21:47,280 --> 00:21:49,840 I have to say, you're bidding fair. 395 00:21:51,600 --> 00:21:56,960 Don't they weigh your mass body fat by floating you in a tub...? 396 00:21:56,960 --> 00:22:00,840 Yeah. And what is a body mass index, do you remember? 397 00:22:00,840 --> 00:22:05,160 Your height divided by your weight... Your weight divided by your height, squared. 398 00:22:05,160 --> 00:22:07,960 More or less. But it's very faulty. 399 00:22:07,960 --> 00:22:13,120 If you were very muscular, the BMI would argue that you were overweight 400 00:22:13,120 --> 00:22:16,200 and obese and far too fat and you could be immensely fit. 401 00:22:16,200 --> 00:22:20,480 Also, if you're a marathon runner and you have that slow twitch muscle as they're called, 402 00:22:20,480 --> 00:22:24,960 then you'd be starving and considered malnutrited or whatever the word is. 403 00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:28,200 So when they want to make really, really accurate measurements 404 00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:33,040 of body mass index, they go underwater. It's considered the gold standard for body fat measurement. 405 00:22:33,040 --> 00:22:36,720 What percentage fat should you be under not to be obese? Chubby. 406 00:22:36,720 --> 00:22:39,200 20? Under 20. Brilliant. How did you know that? 407 00:22:39,200 --> 00:22:41,120 20. No, you're fine! 408 00:22:41,120 --> 00:22:44,360 No, that's just a baggy thing. 409 00:22:44,360 --> 00:22:46,120 LAUGHTER 410 00:22:46,120 --> 00:22:49,240 With women, should women have more or less body fat? More. 411 00:22:49,240 --> 00:22:52,760 More, yes. They can be th... 300. 412 00:22:52,760 --> 00:22:54,200 LAUGHTER 413 00:22:55,280 --> 00:23:00,240 30%. 30%... I saw one in Budgens the other day that was definitely 300. 414 00:23:00,240 --> 00:23:05,240 All she had in her basket was a massive, massive bar of chocolate. 415 00:23:05,240 --> 00:23:07,920 Really serious expression on her face. 416 00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:10,960 When I'm in Norfolk, there's nothing I like better than 417 00:23:10,960 --> 00:23:14,320 having a good old bicycle ride round the Broads. That's not true. 418 00:23:14,320 --> 00:23:15,520 You and I do it together. 419 00:23:15,520 --> 00:23:17,840 LAUGHTER 420 00:23:17,840 --> 00:23:21,640 Such larks we have, don't we? Forgot me hat again, don't believe it. 421 00:23:21,640 --> 00:23:24,680 Home in time for lemonade and buns. 422 00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:27,640 Isn't it funny, the faster I get, the more I stay stable, 423 00:23:27,640 --> 00:23:30,640 but if I go very slowly, I wobble and fall off? I wonder why. 424 00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:36,400 He said, "I know, Stephen, let's make that a question on the next QI." 425 00:23:36,400 --> 00:23:41,920 So that's what I'm doing. Why, when you slow down, do you become less stable on a bike? 426 00:23:41,920 --> 00:23:46,520 What is the physics of that? I have a better question. Why do you have a Hitler haircut? 427 00:23:46,520 --> 00:23:52,360 Why is Alan wearing a hairnet? You need to put a little moustache under that nose. 428 00:23:52,360 --> 00:23:53,880 That would be frightening. 429 00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:57,200 Yeah. I dressed as Hitler once. I did a school play, 430 00:23:57,200 --> 00:24:01,120 I played Arturo Ui, The Resistible Rise Of Arturo Ui. 431 00:24:01,120 --> 00:24:05,720 I was Ui and I actually dyed my hair black, cut it in the Hitler style, 432 00:24:05,720 --> 00:24:08,480 for the authenticity of the role, not cos I'm a Nazi! 433 00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:12,800 And my mum said, "Oh, now, that DOES look nice." 434 00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:14,440 LAUGHTER 435 00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:17,040 "You look very smart." 436 00:24:17,040 --> 00:24:18,840 I looked like Hitler! 437 00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:25,280 Mum couldn't see any fault in that. "Well, you look very smart. You should keep it like that." 438 00:24:25,280 --> 00:24:28,720 Oh, mothers! Why do we wobble? 439 00:24:28,720 --> 00:24:33,280 I wobble because I'm scared to death when I'm on a bike. I wobble 440 00:24:33,280 --> 00:24:36,400 even when I'm going very fast. What kind of bike is it? 441 00:24:36,400 --> 00:24:39,040 Is it a penny farthing, by any chance? 442 00:24:39,040 --> 00:24:40,240 LAUGHTER 443 00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:44,560 It's whatever I can find in the street and hasn't got a lock on it. 444 00:24:44,560 --> 00:24:46,760 You bastard, was it you, then? 445 00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:49,680 That happened in Cambridge, it was sad. 446 00:24:49,680 --> 00:24:54,960 They tried this nice, noble idea that they would have city bikes with a special number on 447 00:24:54,960 --> 00:24:59,640 and you saw one leaning on a lamppost, you got on it and you bicycle to wherever you want to be 448 00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:02,840 and left it outside and there were common exchange bicycles. 449 00:25:02,840 --> 00:25:07,440 The perfect socialist dream, the Utopian ideal of free bicycles... 450 00:25:07,440 --> 00:25:12,280 Two days, I think it lasted, before... A truck arrived from Oxford. Yeah! 451 00:25:12,280 --> 00:25:18,880 The odd thing about it, bicycles are a pretty ancient invention by modern transport standards, 452 00:25:18,880 --> 00:25:21,840 but it was only in 1970 that the physics of them was understood. 453 00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:27,240 Is it there's more force working on you if you're going slowly? 454 00:25:27,240 --> 00:25:32,960 So you're being pulled from other sides... People thought it was gyroscopic pull, 455 00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:35,320 or a centrifugal one, in some way. 456 00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:38,760 But it was demonstrated by a fellow called David Jones in 1970 457 00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:41,000 that in fact it's not that, it's torque. 458 00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:45,560 The other thing, it's called the caster effect, like a supermarket trolley. 459 00:25:45,560 --> 00:25:50,800 The fact that the back wheel is a trailing wheel, it self-centres, it rights the whole thing, 460 00:25:50,800 --> 00:25:54,280 as it trails along. I always get the trolley with the stiff wheel. 461 00:25:54,280 --> 00:25:59,760 They're horrible. Ugh! Airports and supermarkets, I always get that trolley. 462 00:25:59,760 --> 00:26:01,440 Get that, yeah... 463 00:26:01,440 --> 00:26:03,080 I veer into old ladies with it. 464 00:26:03,080 --> 00:26:05,160 Crash into displays. 465 00:26:05,160 --> 00:26:07,760 I do that and blame it on the wheel. 466 00:26:10,680 --> 00:26:13,440 "Pfft! Oh! Sorry. Bad wheel." 467 00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:20,040 So, here's a thing. If you want to go left, you turn the handlebars of your bike slightly to the right. 468 00:26:20,040 --> 00:26:23,360 Motorcyclists know this as a rule, but... 469 00:26:23,360 --> 00:26:28,160 Counter-steering. Counter-steering, exactly. It's very quick, it's done automatically, 470 00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:31,800 people don't know they're doing it. That's why kerbs are so difficult. 471 00:26:31,800 --> 00:26:36,520 If you're close to a kerb, in order to steer away from the kerb, you have to steer into it first. 472 00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:41,720 Otherwise you fall over. It's weird. It's an automatic thing people do. There's a way of testing it. 473 00:26:41,720 --> 00:26:45,640 You're coasting along, take your left hand off... OK? 474 00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:48,000 And you push the handlebars with your right. 475 00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:52,120 With this, you can only force the handlebars left, obviously. 476 00:26:52,120 --> 00:26:53,760 But you go right. 477 00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:56,600 So the reason why bicycles are stabler when they go fast 478 00:26:56,600 --> 00:27:00,480 is nothing to do with gyroscopes, it's all to do with torque and castering. 479 00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:03,720 When you're cycling, the more revolutions, the better. 480 00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:06,520 So imagine the red dawn has come upon us, gentlemen, 481 00:27:06,520 --> 00:27:09,440 and we've overcome the hated oppressors and we're happy 482 00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:13,240 and we've got guns and we shoot straight up in the air as you do. 483 00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:16,440 Whee! Yee-ha! Is this a good idea? 484 00:27:16,440 --> 00:27:19,920 I dunno, I've often thought where do those bullets go? 485 00:27:19,920 --> 00:27:23,840 They come down and hit people right on the top of the head. 486 00:27:23,840 --> 00:27:27,080 Does that often happen? Yes. Unfortunately it does. 487 00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:28,520 What goes up must come down. 488 00:27:28,520 --> 00:27:32,080 It won't happen to the guy who shoots, cos when it gets to the top 489 00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:36,040 the smallest amount of wind will... It will go about a mile away. 490 00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:39,520 Not a mile, but they did an experiment on a floating platform 491 00:27:39,520 --> 00:27:43,360 where they fired 500 straight up in the air. Only four landed on the platform. 492 00:27:43,360 --> 00:27:47,120 The rest splashed... Four dead... I think they covered themselves... 493 00:27:47,120 --> 00:27:49,560 496 splashed. 494 00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:53,360 A typical 7.62mm round fired vertically would reach a height of... 495 00:27:53,360 --> 00:27:55,640 What do you think? Half a mile? 496 00:27:55,640 --> 00:27:58,640 Longer. 2.5km nearly. 497 00:27:58,640 --> 00:28:01,320 Straight into the couple shagging in the balloon. 498 00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:03,440 LAUGHTER 499 00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:05,440 Of course, of course! 500 00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:09,080 STEPHEN LAUGHS 501 00:28:09,080 --> 00:28:11,520 Talk about coming full circle! 502 00:28:11,520 --> 00:28:15,760 So it would take some 17 seconds, then another 40 seconds or so 503 00:28:15,760 --> 00:28:19,600 to return to the ground at a speed of about 70 metres per second. 504 00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:22,680 So this gigantic thing would penetrate and smash the skull, 505 00:28:22,680 --> 00:28:26,000 very, very dangerous cranial injuries. 506 00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:29,440 You won't believe this. I sort of don't believe it myself 507 00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:32,440 and yet I know it's true. It's counter-intuitive. 508 00:28:32,440 --> 00:28:34,520 In this hand here, I've got a bullet. 509 00:28:34,520 --> 00:28:37,120 In this hand level with it, I've got a gun. 510 00:28:37,120 --> 00:28:42,400 I fire the gun and let go at the same time. Which bullet hits the ground first? 511 00:28:42,400 --> 00:28:44,320 The one that you dropped. 512 00:28:44,320 --> 00:28:47,800 That one? Yeah. No. They both hit the ground at exactly the same time. 513 00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:50,000 Bollocks. I know! 514 00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:51,400 LAUGHTER 515 00:28:51,400 --> 00:28:55,880 I knew you'd say that. They both have exactly the same force acting on them. 516 00:28:55,880 --> 00:29:00,360 Gravity. Yes, but the momentum would defy gravity, wouldn't it? 517 00:29:00,360 --> 00:29:05,520 It would just describe a different thing. The speed of the bullet? 518 00:29:05,520 --> 00:29:07,440 It could go 2km, that bullet. 519 00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:09,320 But incredibly fast. 520 00:29:09,320 --> 00:29:12,480 And then hits the ground... 521 00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:14,600 It would have to do it at the speed of light. 522 00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:17,600 Has this information come from Wikipedia? 523 00:29:19,680 --> 00:29:22,640 Are there any scientists here who will back me up on this? 524 00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:24,720 MALE VOICE: Yes. See? Some yeses. 525 00:29:24,720 --> 00:29:26,800 Or any assassins? 526 00:29:27,840 --> 00:29:29,920 It does seem incredible, but it is true. 527 00:29:29,920 --> 00:29:33,640 You drop a bullet, at what height? 528 00:29:33,640 --> 00:29:37,480 Well, you're standing. Your height. You're standing. 529 00:29:37,480 --> 00:29:41,160 And you fire a bullet. That bullet from the gun will go into the ground. 530 00:29:41,160 --> 00:29:45,600 Both at the same level. There are things that could stop it. If the bullet went 5 miles per second, 531 00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:48,560 it would leave the atmosphere and never fall to Earth. 532 00:29:48,560 --> 00:29:49,760 If it went far enough, 533 00:29:49,760 --> 00:29:53,280 the curvature of the Earth would mean it had further to fall. 534 00:29:53,280 --> 00:29:56,920 But assuming the gun doesn't have that range, 535 00:29:56,920 --> 00:30:00,480 what I'm saying is true. Is there any practical application? 536 00:30:00,480 --> 00:30:06,080 Well, there's enormous practical applications in the laws of physics 537 00:30:06,080 --> 00:30:07,800 that say this must be the case. 538 00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:10,800 I suppose there's a double assassination. 539 00:30:10,800 --> 00:30:13,240 You kill a person and an ant. 540 00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:19,320 Yeah, there's a source of personal pride to the assassin. 541 00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:22,720 It would be. The offing of some insects at the same time. 542 00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:25,960 So, if you're going to stop a bullet, the very worst way to do it 543 00:30:25,960 --> 00:30:29,320 is with the top of your head. Nonetheless, viva la revolucion. 544 00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:32,280 Let's say we've now entered the city which we've secured, 545 00:30:32,280 --> 00:30:35,760 we've rounded up all the investment bankers, but a small group of them 546 00:30:35,760 --> 00:30:39,120 have holed up at the Welcome Break motorway service station 547 00:30:39,120 --> 00:30:44,720 at Scratchwood, which is the first one if you go north out of London on the M1. 548 00:30:44,720 --> 00:30:49,080 But we, the revolutionary cadre, the compadres, OK? 549 00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:52,680 We are in the City of London but we have to stop them. 550 00:30:52,680 --> 00:30:57,000 We've closed down all telecommunications, so we can't give instructions 551 00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:01,960 to other members of our brigade, we have to stop them from where we are, in the City of London 552 00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:06,720 and they're in Scratchwood. How's that going to happen? Eh? Fire something at them. 553 00:31:06,720 --> 00:31:08,120 A Ginsters pasty. 554 00:31:12,800 --> 00:31:17,480 Um, this is just a bizarre fact. Without knowing it, 555 00:31:17,480 --> 00:31:22,280 they've chosen the one place to get to where you can get to them with a gun that exists, 556 00:31:22,280 --> 00:31:25,080 here, now, today, not far from this studio. We're on the river. 557 00:31:25,080 --> 00:31:28,160 These weapons are on the river and they are pointed... 558 00:31:28,160 --> 00:31:31,040 HMS Belfast? HMS Belfast is the answer. 559 00:31:31,040 --> 00:31:35,200 She's a World War II ship and it has guns. 560 00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:37,440 It's the only one with these guns working. 561 00:31:37,440 --> 00:31:43,200 And they are pointed at Scratchwood. If you go onboard, as a tourist, which you can, 562 00:31:43,200 --> 00:31:47,080 there's a sign saying they're pointed at Scratchwood Services. 563 00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:51,560 I'd love to fire them. I would SO love to fire them. 564 00:31:51,560 --> 00:31:53,160 Come on! 565 00:31:53,160 --> 00:31:55,240 Weird, you may know this... 566 00:31:55,240 --> 00:31:58,600 It's just a weird World War II ship story as well. 567 00:31:58,600 --> 00:32:01,840 This is a US ship, it was known as the luckiest ship in the US Navy 568 00:32:01,840 --> 00:32:06,240 in the 1940s, cos it was the only ship that was utterly unscarred at Pearl Harbor. 569 00:32:06,240 --> 00:32:09,120 It was called the USS Phoenix. It was sunk in 1982. 570 00:32:09,120 --> 00:32:13,320 But it had changed its name. Do you know what to? HMS Belfast. 571 00:32:13,320 --> 00:32:18,160 It was named after a person of military rank. It had been sold to another country 572 00:32:18,160 --> 00:32:22,440 and named after General... Pinochet. Bel... Grano. General Belgrano. 573 00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:29,120 It was sunk by the British. It remains the only warship ever sunk by a nuclear submarine. 574 00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:34,200 It was sunk with most hands lost. Over 300 people. Over 300 people. 575 00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:38,200 That was known as the luckiest ship in the US Navy. Extraordinary history. 576 00:32:38,200 --> 00:32:42,360 You almost want to make a movie, it's just bizarre. Well, I never knew that. 577 00:32:42,360 --> 00:32:47,840 So, HMS Belfast may be docked in the City of London, but its guns are trained on Scratchwood Services. 578 00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:50,680 So it looks like those bankers ARE for the high jump, 579 00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:55,480 and talking of the high jump, why did Fosbury flop? 580 00:32:55,480 --> 00:32:57,640 Gravity. 581 00:32:57,640 --> 00:33:01,040 Why did he choose to flop? That's the Fosbury Flop, why? 582 00:33:01,040 --> 00:33:03,680 People previously would jump forwards over the bar 583 00:33:03,680 --> 00:33:05,080 and land in a sandpit. 584 00:33:05,080 --> 00:33:08,760 He jumped backwards over it and landed on a big dirigible. 585 00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:10,280 These are the previous ones. 586 00:33:14,640 --> 00:33:18,160 ..In 1968, old Fosbury appeared with this new move 587 00:33:18,160 --> 00:33:21,640 and he won the Olympic gold and now every high jumper does it. 588 00:33:21,640 --> 00:33:24,800 No-one will ever go back to any other way of doing it. 589 00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:28,000 There's a reason why it's so efficient, why it works so well... 590 00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:32,120 In the other ones, you have to get all of yourself at that height 591 00:33:32,120 --> 00:33:37,560 at the same moment, whereas he kind of took himself a bit at a time. 592 00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:41,040 You're right, it's where your centre of gravity is. 593 00:33:41,040 --> 00:33:44,360 And on the Fosbury Flop, your centre of gravity is actually under 594 00:33:44,360 --> 00:33:46,360 the bar. And on the other ones, 595 00:33:46,360 --> 00:33:50,400 it's where... That dotted line there indicates the centre of gravity. 596 00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:55,120 She's just realised there's no... thing to land on. 597 00:33:55,120 --> 00:33:58,800 Well, that's the other thing... "Ahhh!" 598 00:33:58,800 --> 00:34:05,400 The other thing about the Fosbury Flop is it did require a move from sand to rubber cushiony things. 599 00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:10,280 Yeah. If you do the scissors one, that sort of stepping one, 600 00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:13,240 your centre of gravity passes 30cm OVER the bar. 601 00:34:13,240 --> 00:34:17,800 So, having a lower centre of gravity, you get extra height in exchange for no extra effort. 602 00:34:17,800 --> 00:34:21,000 And also these records stay for a long time. 603 00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:24,800 The male one was set in '93 and the female in '87 and they still stand. 604 00:34:24,800 --> 00:34:28,200 So it looks as if we're reaching the limit of how high... 605 00:34:28,200 --> 00:34:32,000 Gravity's getting stronger. That could easily... Hmm?! 606 00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:35,440 And long jumps too, they stay for a long time, don't they? 607 00:34:35,440 --> 00:34:39,440 Who held their world long jump record from 1935 to 1960? 608 00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:42,760 Not Jesse Owens? It was Jesse Owens. 609 00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:48,440 You're wrong by saying "Not Jesse Owens." You get a point for that. 610 00:34:48,440 --> 00:34:51,280 Is there a limbo competition like...? 611 00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:55,720 It would be a good idea... Olympic limbo. Should be. 612 00:34:55,720 --> 00:34:59,240 I love limbo. Are you allowed to flatten your nipples? 613 00:34:59,240 --> 00:35:01,360 Snip them off? 614 00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:02,720 With "duct" tape? 615 00:35:02,720 --> 00:35:04,040 AUDIENCE GROAN 616 00:35:04,040 --> 00:35:06,800 Tape them down. I lost... a limbo-dancing competition. 617 00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:10,200 I thought you were going to say you lost a nipple! Lost a nipple... 618 00:35:10,200 --> 00:35:14,080 I lost a nipple... It was a razor blade! We were playing in prison. 619 00:35:14,080 --> 00:35:18,440 Russian limbo. Ahhhh! 620 00:35:18,440 --> 00:35:20,600 You lost a limbo competition? 621 00:35:20,600 --> 00:35:21,760 I lost... 622 00:35:21,760 --> 00:35:26,520 You amaze me. Someone got lower than you? Somebody...imagine that! 623 00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:28,640 Someone more limber than me. 624 00:35:28,640 --> 00:35:32,880 Oh, good gracious. It was actually Lionel Blair. 625 00:35:32,880 --> 00:35:35,600 Obviously a dream. He won. No! 626 00:35:35,600 --> 00:35:41,000 It wasn't! "Me and Lionel Blair were having a limbo competition... 627 00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:46,320 "One of my nipples fell off." I'd had a bit of blue cheese before I went to bed. 628 00:35:46,320 --> 00:35:51,120 It was for charity. It was a charitable limbo-dancing competition, 629 00:35:51,120 --> 00:35:53,160 it was me, Sinitta and Lionel Blair. 630 00:35:53,160 --> 00:35:56,080 LAUGHTER 631 00:35:56,080 --> 00:35:59,160 Surely Sinitta cleaned up? You'd think, wouldn't you? 632 00:35:59,160 --> 00:36:05,160 Sinitta, Lionel, me... No. I was third, Sinitta, but Lionel... 633 00:36:05,160 --> 00:36:10,960 But he's a dancer to his fingertips. He's limber. He's also about 70! But he's limber! 634 00:36:10,960 --> 00:36:12,600 Anyway! So... 635 00:36:12,600 --> 00:36:18,000 The revolutionary thing about Dick Fosbury's flop was that the centre of gravity was under the bar, 636 00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:22,560 an innovation which means current world records are likely to stand forever. 637 00:36:22,560 --> 00:36:28,760 And so to a matter of the upmost gravity. The deadweight of general ignorance. Fingers on buzzers. 638 00:36:28,760 --> 00:36:30,880 Hallelujah, it's raining wine. 639 00:36:30,880 --> 00:36:35,200 How big would a cloud need to be in order to dispense for me 640 00:36:35,200 --> 00:36:38,240 my recommended daily limit of wine? 641 00:36:38,240 --> 00:36:42,040 BUZZER: '12 stone, 4 ounces.' 642 00:36:42,040 --> 00:36:44,360 LAUGHTER 643 00:36:44,360 --> 00:36:46,320 Does not compute! 644 00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:55,920 That's your answer, is it? Yes. OK. 645 00:36:55,920 --> 00:37:01,600 All right, the size of a car. Oddly enough, you're strangely using the same metaphor that we are. 646 00:37:01,600 --> 00:37:03,320 We're using a form of transport. 647 00:37:03,320 --> 00:37:06,920 A VW Beetle. Bus, train... Bus is the right answer. The size of a bus. 648 00:37:06,920 --> 00:37:11,160 A wine cloud would weep the same amount, 250ml, 649 00:37:11,160 --> 00:37:15,200 which is your recommended daily allowance of wine. 650 00:37:15,200 --> 00:37:20,240 This recommended daily allowance business is very interesting. 651 00:37:20,240 --> 00:37:24,440 In Britain, it's 21 units, whatever that means, a week, I think. 652 00:37:24,440 --> 00:37:27,160 In Poland, it's 12½ units. 653 00:37:27,160 --> 00:37:32,440 A tiny amount. But in Canada, it's 23¾, in America 24½, 654 00:37:32,440 --> 00:37:36,320 South Africa and Denmark, 31½ and guess where it's 35, Barry? 655 00:37:36,320 --> 00:37:38,200 Australia! 656 00:37:38,200 --> 00:37:41,000 Australia, Australia fair. Yeah. 657 00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:48,440 But, our limit is 21. There's a study that found that if you drank between 21 and 30, 658 00:37:48,440 --> 00:37:53,720 you would belong to a group of people that had the lowest mortality rate in Britain. 659 00:37:53,720 --> 00:37:58,840 So, in other words, we're being recommended to drink too little alcohol for our health. 660 00:37:58,840 --> 00:38:02,600 In fact, it's been worked out, you'd have to drink 63 units a week, 661 00:38:02,600 --> 00:38:07,440 or a bottle of wine a day, to face the same death risk as a teetotaller. 662 00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:13,240 I think you'll find that most people are actually making that up themselves, instinctively. 663 00:38:13,240 --> 00:38:19,560 Well, the odd thing is, the guy who came up with it has admitted they made the number up. 664 00:38:19,560 --> 00:38:22,200 He said, "We had to say something, so we said that." 665 00:38:22,200 --> 00:38:25,520 But is the assumption not that there are other lifestyle factors 666 00:38:25,520 --> 00:38:29,360 associated with the sort of person who likes a bit of wine? 667 00:38:29,360 --> 00:38:32,600 Having an accident is the main problem. But, nonetheless, 668 00:38:32,600 --> 00:38:37,720 statistically and actuarially, you are likely to live longer if you drink between 21 and 30. 669 00:38:37,720 --> 00:38:40,320 If you're a social animal, you're less stressed. 670 00:38:40,320 --> 00:38:44,840 The physical effects of alcohol may actually be beneficial in those amounts. 671 00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:49,280 Anyway, if clouds were made of wine, you would limit yourself to about a bus-full a day. 672 00:38:49,280 --> 00:38:53,200 An easy one. How many bullets are there in a gunslinger's revolver? 673 00:38:53,200 --> 00:38:54,600 Seven. Five. 674 00:38:54,600 --> 00:38:57,280 BUZZER: '12 stone, 4 ounces.' 675 00:38:57,280 --> 00:38:59,320 Six. 676 00:38:59,320 --> 00:39:02,000 KLAXON 677 00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:03,520 They're called six guns. 678 00:39:03,520 --> 00:39:07,520 There's 6 chambers. Don't they have six in and one in the spout? 679 00:39:07,520 --> 00:39:10,800 No, it's quite the other way round. Five. You're right. Why five? 680 00:39:10,800 --> 00:39:12,760 Gravity. 681 00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:16,440 SCATTERED APPLAUSE 682 00:39:16,440 --> 00:39:18,440 I used to know this, but I've forgotten. 683 00:39:18,440 --> 00:39:22,840 It's safety. Wyatt Earp, who could be regarded as something of an expert, 684 00:39:22,840 --> 00:39:26,040 said, "I've often been asked why five shots without reloading 685 00:39:26,040 --> 00:39:29,960 "were all the top-notch gun fighter ever fired with, when his guns were chambered for six? 686 00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:35,360 "The answer is safety." The hammer rested on the empty chamber, so you couldn't discharge by mistake. 687 00:39:35,360 --> 00:39:39,080 There was no safety catch. There, of course, the great Clint Eastwood. 688 00:39:39,080 --> 00:39:43,160 I did a thing in America once and there was an armourer, 689 00:39:43,160 --> 00:39:48,680 the guy who gives you the gun, takes it away, keeps you safe and gives you blanks, or whatever. 690 00:39:48,680 --> 00:39:54,000 He told me a fact. He'd been doing it since the '30s, working on Westerns. 691 00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:57,200 Only two actors he ever worked with, and he worked with them all, 692 00:39:57,200 --> 00:40:03,200 didn't blink when they fired a gun. This is a shot of Clint proving that he was one of them. 693 00:40:03,200 --> 00:40:07,160 The gun's going off and his eyes are open, as much as they ever were. 694 00:40:07,160 --> 00:40:08,880 He was one, he never blinked. 695 00:40:08,880 --> 00:40:11,520 John Wayne blinked, Anthony Quinn, Gary Cooper... 696 00:40:11,520 --> 00:40:12,680 BUZZER: 'Boing!' 697 00:40:12,680 --> 00:40:14,920 Who was the other? Kenneth Williams. 698 00:40:14,920 --> 00:40:17,680 LAUGHTER 699 00:40:17,680 --> 00:40:18,840 Carry On Cowboy! 700 00:40:18,840 --> 00:40:19,960 Yeah. 701 00:40:19,960 --> 00:40:22,400 STEPHEN IMPERSONATES KENNETH WILLIAMS 702 00:40:24,680 --> 00:40:32,480 The idea that those butch American armourers called Rusty and Randy had heard of Kenneth Williams! 703 00:40:32,480 --> 00:40:35,800 "It was your own guy, Kenneth God-damn Williams." 704 00:40:35,800 --> 00:40:39,520 It was actually... Westworld is probably... Yul Brynner. 705 00:40:39,520 --> 00:40:42,200 Yul Brynner. Yeah. Yul Brynner never blunk. 706 00:40:42,200 --> 00:40:45,880 So, anyway, the answer is they have five bullets, not six. 707 00:40:45,880 --> 00:40:47,360 So, to gravy. 708 00:40:47,360 --> 00:40:50,480 You know when you're cooking a steak and all that red juice flows out? 709 00:40:50,480 --> 00:40:52,760 What is it? Blood. Blood. 710 00:40:52,760 --> 00:40:55,600 Blood? KLAXON 711 00:40:55,600 --> 00:40:58,640 Oddly enough, it isn't. You'd think it was, wouldn't you? 712 00:40:58,640 --> 00:41:03,320 But it's not. It's another proteinous substance. Not haemoglobin, but myoglobin. 713 00:41:03,320 --> 00:41:06,360 It's the thing that's used to operate the muscles 714 00:41:06,360 --> 00:41:09,480 but it isn't actually the blood that's coming out there. 715 00:41:09,480 --> 00:41:13,120 It's not anything to do with blood then? No, it's called myoglobin. 716 00:41:13,120 --> 00:41:15,880 It's related. Is it artificial colouring? 717 00:41:15,880 --> 00:41:19,280 Nor is it artificial, it's real. It has two distinct functions. 718 00:41:19,280 --> 00:41:23,720 When muscles are used for short, fast bursts of energy, glucose from the blood provides the fuel. 719 00:41:23,720 --> 00:41:28,080 For sustained activity, myoglobin is used to oxidise the fat and that provides the energy. 720 00:41:28,080 --> 00:41:33,360 I didn't realise this programme was so educational. 721 00:41:33,360 --> 00:41:34,520 That's our promise. 722 00:41:34,520 --> 00:41:37,360 A lot of it's lies. 723 00:41:38,680 --> 00:41:43,240 What, the bullets? I know it seems...but absolutely... 724 00:41:43,240 --> 00:41:45,920 I'm going to test that out tonight. 725 00:41:45,920 --> 00:41:49,120 So, there it is, you can put it in the gravy. 726 00:41:49,120 --> 00:41:52,920 If you put "it" in "gravy," you get... Gravity. 727 00:41:52,920 --> 00:41:56,320 Gravity, exactly. So we go from gravity trains to the gravy train, 728 00:41:56,320 --> 00:42:01,120 the circle is complete. So it's time for the scores, ladies and gentlemen. 729 00:42:01,120 --> 00:42:06,600 Oh, I say, this is really interesting. We have a tie for the lead, ladies and gentlemen. 730 00:42:06,600 --> 00:42:08,840 Rich and Alan are +3! 731 00:42:08,840 --> 00:42:10,800 APPLAUSE 732 00:42:17,080 --> 00:42:21,840 In... In third place, with -8, Bill Bailey! 733 00:42:21,840 --> 00:42:24,160 APPLAUSE 734 00:42:24,160 --> 00:42:28,680 How can I be -8? 735 00:42:28,680 --> 00:42:34,760 But...failing to defy gravity the way Rich and Alan did and sinking like a stone, I fear, 736 00:42:34,760 --> 00:42:40,480 however, what a welcome and gorgeous pebble, what a shining, lustrous, gorgeous stone, 737 00:42:40,480 --> 00:42:43,600 at -36, Barry Humphries! 738 00:42:43,600 --> 00:42:45,840 APPLAUSE AND CHEERING 739 00:42:53,600 --> 00:42:57,480 That's your lot from QI. My thanks to Barry, Rich, Bill, Alan. 740 00:42:57,480 --> 00:43:00,520 I leave you with one last interesting thing about gravity. 741 00:43:00,520 --> 00:43:03,440 In the early days of television, it was widely believed 742 00:43:03,440 --> 00:43:06,680 that television sets weighed more when they were switched on. 743 00:43:06,680 --> 00:43:11,640 The main reason for this belief apparently came from reading the manufacturer's instructions, 744 00:43:11,640 --> 00:43:16,960 which warned people always to switch off their sets before attempting to move them. 745 00:43:16,960 --> 00:43:18,560 Good night. 746 00:43:25,520 --> 00:43:28,560 Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd 747 00:43:28,560 --> 00:43:31,600 Email subtitling@bbc.co.uk 9999 00:00:0,500 --> 00:00:2,00 www.tvsubtitles.net