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Okay, math fans, in case you're just joining us.
This season, Molly and I have been promoted within the Problem Solvers.
We've also changed schools but, most importantly, we're trying to stop a new group of bad guys called the Power Hungry Pogs, who are even more devious than the Troublemaking Trolls.
So far we've discovered.
The pogs use moles to infiltrate different groups, so they can take over from the inside.
And while we haven't been able to uncover any moles just yet, we've got a growing list of suspects.
Hopefully it's just a matter of time until we figure out who the moles are and what the pogs are up to.
On Mysteries About True Histories.
Hey, you!
What are you doing with that?
Ah!
Molly, you scared me.
Mr. Conklin?
Who?
Mr. Conklin.
He was our math teacher from our old school.
And a troublemaking troll.
Ex-troublesome troll.
Uh-huh.
If that's the case, why are you here at the London Science Museum?
Yeah, what are you up to, Conklin?
And while you're at it, what are the troublesome trolls up to?
Hold on, did you say trolls?
That's right, as if we didn't have enough to worry about.
Okay, Astro Knight campers, everyone pair up with a buddy and follow me this way to the planetarium.
Oh boy, they're headed this way.
What do we do, Max?
Um, act natural?
Come, children, this way.
Excuse me?
Are you four waiting for an engraved invitation?
Come on, pair up and come this way.
Max, will you be my buddy?
Um, I guess... Let's go.
Stop dilly-dallying.
I don't want to hear from your parents that they wasted their money on this sleepover.
I guess we're going this way.
Hey, where'd Mr. Conklin go?
I saw him slink off when the teacher came.
I guess you and I are buddies now, Molly.
Right.
Well, the good news is nobody suspects we don't belong here.
We can use this night at the museum sleepover to hide in plain sight.
Yeah, I guess that is a good thing.
And a good strategy.
Oh, boy.
We travel all the way across an ocean to come to the London Science Museum to find and disable the fourth POG server.
But instead of that we're now part of a group sleepover and we get to hang out with your old teacher, who happens to be a troublemaking troll.
Whatever that is.
You catch on quick, Charlene.
Mm-hmm.
I'm not gonna lie, you guys live a weird life.
Something tells me it's going to get even weirder.
Everyone take your seats.
And you, what are you doing?
You should know better.
I shouldn't have to chaperone a chaperone.
Oh, but I'm not... I mean, you're right.
As a chaperone at this event, I will strive to be more diligent.
Sorry, Mrs... It's Miss Cartwright.
But you can call me Jenny.
Thanks, Jenny.
Quiet, kids.
Ugh, he's more of a creep than a troll.
He sees us!
You're right, Molly.
This hiding in plain sight stuff is an effective strategy.
No offense, Mr. Conklin, but can't you just go away?
I could, but I'm not going to.
Enjoy the show.
Okay, now I really want to know what the trolls are up to.
And I want to know what Conklin is up to.
Shh, it's starting.
Space, the vast unknown.
Hey, Maul, I bet we're the only ones in this room who have actually been to outer space.
What?
You've been to space?
Shh!
Quiet!
Galaxies.
Systems.
Planets.
Some of which are not unlike our own.
When will we be able to visit those planets?
And what will we find?
We need to find a way out of here so we can shut down the POG server.
I know.
I was just thinking the same thing.
What's the plan, Max?
We should be able to sneak off.
There's like 60 kids in here.
Yeah, and only four of us.
Five.
You're not with us.
But I'm your chaperone.
I don't love it, but he does have a point.
It'll be a lot easier to get out of here and explore the museum with a school chaperone.
Seriously?
You want this creep hanging out with us?
Excuse me.
I'm not a creep.
A former troll, maybe, but not a creep.
Excuse me.
Okay.
Okay.
5 of us, 60 of them.
60 divided by 5 is...
12.
I have my times tables memorized up through 12.
Do not ask me about 13s, though.
But hold on.
If we want to figure out what fraction of the group we make up, there are 60 of them plus 5 of us, so it's 65 total divided by 5.
That I don't have memorized.
OMG, I can't believe I missed that.
Good catch, Max.
I must be slipping.
Not to mention, that doesn't include Jenny or the other chaperones.
We are but tiny specks in these vast cosmos.
Why do you two always have to overcomplicate everything?
I'm leaving.
Excuse me, where's the bathroom?
I think I'm gonna puke.
Um, excuse me, Jenny.
A lot of the kids are getting a little motion sick, so I'm gonna chaperone them back to the main hall, okay.
Oh, okay.
How many are there?
Four.
4 divided by 60 means we're 7% of the students here.
That is, if we round up from 6.6666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666
Come on, Molly.
This one's not a math challenge.
It's an acting challenge.
Time to play sick.
The stars are making me dizzy.
Fine.
Oh, my head.
The whole room is spinning.
Oh, for the love of Pete.
Get these kids out of here.
I'm on it, Jenny.
This way, kids.
It worked!
Yeah, but I still wouldn't cast you guys.
Your acting is awful.
Oh, like you're Zendaya or something.
Can we get back to the server?
What about this troll?
Or is he a pog now?
Hello.
I am not a pog or a troll.
Fine.
Then what are you?
I am a former troll with a guilty conscience.
Told you he was a creep.
I'm not a creep.
Oh, yeah?
Then what does your conscience feel guilty about?
Things.
You know, things I did when I was a troll.
Like uninventing ice cream?
How dare you?
Everyone likes ice cream.
Yeah, that alone should be a lifetime of guilt.
You uninvented ice cream?
I'm lactose intolerant.
I can't eat it.
Bruh, I'm lactose intolerant too, but I still love my lactaid coconut milk cookie dough.
Okay, enough with the past.
What are you doing here now, Mr. Conklin?
I want to make up for my past mistakes and help you with your current problem.
What do you know about our current problem?
And what do you mean by help?
There's no way I'm trusting this guy.
No offense, Mr. Conklin.
I understand why you feel that way.
I betrayed your trust.
Even worse, I did it while I was a teacher.
And not just any teacher.
A math teacher.
Molly's right.
A math teacher should be all about order.
Instead, all you did was spread chaos.
Yeah.
Well said, Molly.
Thanks, I was just picking up the thread from you.
Okay, this is getting a little nutso.
Why is this dude here and what does he want?
I know about your pog problem, and I want to be part of the solution.
Are you saying what I think you're saying?
Yes.
I want to be problem solver.
Oh, no way.
Max, there's no way, right?
Um, well, we could use his mathy brain to help with... Hold on.
Max, even if we wanted Mr Conklin to be a problem solver which I'm not fully sold on it's not something we have the authority to do.
We're only conditional problem solvers ourselves.
Molly's right.
There is a whole process.
And obviously any final decision would be up to my Aunt Murgatroyd.
But... But?
For real?
There's a but?
Yes, there's a but.
I have got to hear this.
I think I know what you're going to say, Max.
If Mr Conklin wants to turn over a new leaf and use his considerable cleverness and off-the-chart smarts for good, why would we discourage that?
Exactly.
Anyone can change, even a troll.
You were a very good math teacher, Mr. Conklin.
Thanks, Katrina.
You were always my top student.
Hey!
One, one of my top students.
You too, Molly.
O-M-G.
Can we get back to what we came here to do?
Good idea.
Look, Mr. Conklin, Molly and I started out as probationary problem solvers.
So that's where you can start too.
And if things work out and you help us like you say you want to, then we'll put in a good word with the boss.
Deal?
Deal.
Really?
I can't believe that- He said he was in.
Let's go already.
Okay, okay.
Sorry.
All right, team.
We've got a math problem to solve.
Okay, we found the final server.
Check.
All we have to do is turn it off.
Check.
But we can't get to it because of this lattice multiplication and this weird problem 9 times 6,875.
Check and mate.
Yeah, I don't know how to do that either.
Wait, Charlene, you're a year ahead of us.
Didn't you say you did this in your grade?
Yes, but I'm not good at it, nor am I good at explaining it.
So now what?
I can explain it.
Of course.
Okay, here's what we do.
The top row is simply the number nine.
Down the left column, we just work vertically, putting each digit in their own spot.
Six, eight, seven, five.
Each corresponding square, as you can see, is split diagonally into two triangles, one for the tens place and one for the ones place.
Oh, I see where this is going.
Instead of multiplying 9 times 6,875, we multiply 9 times each individual number.
First 6, then 8, then 7, then 5.
Exactly.
Well done, Molly.
Okay, first up, 6 times 9.
54.
Okay, so I'm putting the five in the tens triangle and the four in the ones triangle.
Okay, everything is lined up.
Next.
Eight times nine?
72.
Seven times nine?
63.
And five times nine is?
45.
Good job.
Now what?
This lattice method, also sometimes called Hindu multiplication, because it was first conceived in India, seems to have been introduced in the 9th century by a Persian mathematician named Al-Khwarizmi, when he mentioned it in his book, The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing.
Wow, sounds like a real page turner.
Hey, Al-Khwarizmi is credited with being one of the founders of modern algebra.
This method was popularized in the 10th century.
Wow, look at you, Max.
I'm as good at history as I am bad at math.
Well, now we know what we're doing.
Let's solve it.
Okay.
Adding on the diagonals starting from the bottom up.
Somebody write these right to left.
On it.
Five in a triangle by itself.
Then three plus four is seven.
Next, two plus six is eight.
Four plus seven is eleven, so carry the one.
Five plus the carried one is six.
61,875.
It opened.
But the server is still running.
I didn't think this day could get any longer.
Now what do we do?
Any ideas, Teach?
Not at the moment.
Hang on.
I'm investigating.
I'm investigating.
Um, you guys, there's like something hanging off the back of the server.
It looks like a landline.
What's a landline?
It's a phone, Charlene.
Looks like the rotary phone I had growing up.
My grandma still has one.
Plugs into the wall.
It takes her three minutes to dial a number.
What's that strange note it's playing?
That's the dial tone.
Old tech is weird.
What do we do with it?
Are we supposed to call someone?
Hey, guys.
You know where the server serial number usually is?
Yeah?
Well, it's not a number on this one.
It's letters.
Oh, it's not just letters.
It's a name.
But who's Jenny?
No idea.
Me neither.
Huh.
Hold on.
Jenny is the name of the Astro Knights teacher.
You don't think she's related to this?
I mean, Jenny's a pretty common name.
I don't know.
I just met her.
Hold on.
There's some numbers, too.
Eight, six, seven, five, three, zero.
And I can't make out the last one.
It's a nine!
How do you know that?
Yeah, how can you see from all the way back here?
Do you have super sight or something?
No, it's from an old song.
Eight, six, seven, five, three, oh, nine.
Eight, six, seven, five, three, oh, nine.
What the heck?
That's it.
He's gone nuts.
No, I don't think so.
He knows something we don't.
Call it.
Dial 867-5309.
I'll do it.
Oops.
Oops?
Why oops?
I did a two instead of three.
This thing's weird.
How do I erase it?
You don't.
You have to start all over.
Ugh, this is going to take an hour.
It's like watching my grandmother order Chinese food.
Here, let me do it.
The song 8-6-7-5-3-0-9 was released in the 80s by Tommy Two-Tone.
The 80s, huh?
Aunt Murgatroyd loves music from the 80s.
Tommy Two-Tone?
Sounds fake.
That might have been a stage name.
The song was a cultural phenomenon.
Anyone who had that number would get calls constantly.
Oof.
That does not sound fun.
Yep.
And this was before you could see who was calling.
So you had to pick up the phone just in case it was important.
Oh, wow.
I'm glad that seems...
You did it, Mr. Conklin!
You shut down the POG's fourth and final server!
You saved the day!
Looks like it pays to have an old guy on the team, huh?
Well, that's one big problem solved.
So, now that we shut down all four servers, now what?
We still have to dismantle the POG's prediction calendar.
The what?
Hello?
Chaperone?
How are those sick kids feeling?
Let's get home first.
Then we can figure it out.
Excuse me?
Hi.
What's going on here?
What are you all up to?
Hi, Jenny.
Bye, Jenny.
Call me.
This episode of Mysteries About True Histories was written by Libby Ward and voiced by Dexter Danger, Mayo Molly Smith, Caitlin Gard, Rain Morris, Mike Previti and Kim Davis.
Original music by Brian Suarez.
Our associate producer is Max Kamaski.
Technical direction and sound design by Josh Hahn.
Mysteries About True Histories was created and produced by Adam Tex Davis and Jerry Colbert, and is an Atomic Audio production.
