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Hi, math fans.
This is Molly welcoming you back to season two of Mysteries About True Histories.
Get ready for more math, more history, and of course, more mysteries.
Okay, that jaunt to Paris with Josephine Baker was nice and all, but let's get down to business.
No more distractions.
Uh-huh.
I have the POG job posting right here.
Special delivery person needed, cash upon completion, must be comfortable with light time travel.
This is our ticket to becoming moles, which is how we infiltrate the POGs.
No kidding.
What?
Max, you're the smelliest kid in school.
I know.
Soccer is the silliest sport on the planet.
Couldn't agree more.
Have you heard a single word I said?
Of course I have.
I'm smelly.
Soccer is silly.
It's time to infiltrate the moles.
No more distractions.
So why are you so distracted by Minecraft?
Because I'm almost at the end of the overworld.
The end of the overworld?
That's impossible.
Minecraft is infinite.
Nuh-uh.
The overworld may feel infinite.
After all, it's not like you can walk to the border in one day.
But it's really a 60 million block by 60 million block square.
How big is one block?
One meter.
Whoa.
So the overworld is 60 million by 60 million meters, which is... 3.6 quadrillion square meters.
Um, what's a quadrillion?
It's a number with 15 zeros.
10 to the 15th power.
Whoa, that's a big number.
It's so big, it's rarely used outside mathematic or scientific domains.
Or Minecraft.
Right.
Here's something interesting.
The surface of Earth is about 510 trillion square meters.
That means the Minecraft overworld is 36 times 10 to the power of 15, divided by 510 times 10 to the power of 12, around seven times bigger than the surface area of Earth.
Whoa, that's awesome.
Are you sure you're almost to the end?
Definitely.
I've been walking for days.
Um, how fast do you walk in the game?
I don't know, probably about four or five meters per second.
Let's go at the faster pace, five meters per second.
If the overworld is 60 million by 60 million meters from the center to any border would be half of 60 or 30 million meters.
At five meters per second, That would take six million seconds, which is approximately 1667 hours or 70 days, or two months and eight days.
Okay, your point is?
Have you been walking in Minecraft for 70 days straight?
No.
Well then, I hate to burst your bubble, but you're nowhere close to the end of the overworld.
So, you can take a break from Minecraft and let's get back down to Molecraft.
Molecraft.
Clever.
Hang on, I'm almost to the end.
We just went over this.
You're nowhere near the end.
No, I meant the end dimension.
I'm gonna try to kill the Ender Dragon.
Hey!
Minecraft isn't going anywhere.
Or who knows?
Maybe it is if we don't stop the pogs.
Really?
Stay distracted and find out.
Fine, fine.
Let's call the number.
Now we're talking.
Hello?
Weird.
His voice is all distorted.
Hi, my friend and I saw your help, wanted to add and we'd like to apply for the special delivery job.
Great, we can use the help.
So what do we have to do to get this mold livery job?
I'm not sure.
The mystery employer said he'd get back to us.
Holy smokes, I just got a text from him.
As part of the application process, you'll need to complete a series of basic tasks.
Okay.
I've never applied for a job before, but that seems pretty strange.
Did he say anything else?
No, and there are no dots showing he's typing.
What tasks does he want us to do?
What'd he say?
No questions.
Um, that's creepy.
Do you think he can hear us?
I don't know.
What I do know is it's after school and I need a snack.
Come on.
Whoa, did we just time travel somehow?
Where are we?
The time radio reads Oldevee Gorge.
Two million years ago?
But we didn't even set it.
All we did was walk outside.
Did our mystery employer hack the time radio?
Someone did.
This job interview is getting creepier and creepier.
Not to mention, the flyer said light time travel?
Two million years is light?
And where is Old Dovey Gorge?
It's in modern-day Tanzania.
It's an anthropological site in the present.
In 1959, archaeologist Mary Leakey discovered a skull fragment here belonging to an early hominin.
A what?
Hominin.
It's the scientific family in the lineage of human evolution.
I see.
The earliest hominins broke off from chimpanzees and bonobos around 6 million years ago.
Around 2 million years ago, the human genus Homo appeared.
The first of many early Homo fossils, Homo habilis, were discovered here.
So what you're saying is, we're standing where some of the very first humans were known to live?
Well, members of the human genus.
It takes at least another 1.7 million years for modern humans to emerge.
2 million minus 1.7 million equals 300,000.
So, modern humans have been around for 300,000 years?
According to the fossil record.
Pretty cool, right?
It is, but why are we here?
And wouldn't you know it, another text.
It says, no questions, you are here to bury a box.
A box?
What box?
I said no questions, the leather box behind the boulder.
Found it!
The hole must be as deep as the volume of the package.
Now that's really creepy.
Why?
Those instructions don't remind you of something?
Um, not really.
Remember when we first tried out to be problem solvers?
Aunt Murgatroyd had us bury a box in Vernon Woods.
That's right!
Uh, I'm sure it's just a coincidence.
Maybe.
All right, we need to measure the box and dig a hole.
I'd prefer not to use my hands this time.
What's this chipped stone?
Whoa, that must be an Aldawan stone.
A what?
The oldest tool used by a species in the human genus.
They are used for cutting, chopping, and scraping.
How about measuring and digging?
Sure.
Let's see.
The box is four stones long, three stones wide, and two stones high.
The formula for volume is length times width times height.
Plugging in the measurements, we get four times three times two.
4 times 3 equals 12.
Times 2 equals 24.
We have to bury this box 24 stones deep?
Come on.
I'm not sure we should bury it at all.
Why?
If we don't, we can't become moles.
If Ulduvi Gorge becomes a major anthropological site, whatever we bury here could become fossilized.
So?
So what if it's discovered later, like two million years later?
Have you heard of something called the butterfly effect?
Of course.
That's a theory that everything is connected somehow and that a small change here could cause large altered consequences somewhere else.
Exactly.
If a butterfly flaps its wings in New York, it could cause a hurricane in Japan.
I don't know if I believe in all that.
Really?
Didn't we experience the butterfly effect firsthand with the trolls and ice cream and soccer?
True, I guess.
But this is different.
We're two million years in the past.
Who knows what burying this box will do to the future.
Besides, if we don't bury it, we won't get the job and it'll just be another failed mole hunt.
Looks like we're stuck between an Alderaan store and a hard place.
Wait, what are you doing?
Digging the hole.
What about the butterfly effect?
The way I see it, we've been bouncing around the past for well over a year now, and nothing too drastic has happened.
Maybe it's harder to permanently alter the space-time continuum than we think.
Sure, but two million years is a long time for alteration.
But if we don't figure out how to stop the moles and pogs, they could take control of the future.
You're right.
Here goes nothing.
All done.
Burying a box 24 stones deep is no easy task.
What now?
Should we head back?
Anything new from the mystery employer?
Nope.
Let's go then.
I'll set the time radio.
Relax, Molly.
I'm going as fast as I can.
It takes a long time to spin the dial forward two million years.
Um, Max?
That wasn't me.
Huh?
Oh, boy.
It's a member of Homo habilis.
Mm-hmm.
Sup, dude?
Yikes.
I think we may have used his tools without asking.
That didn't sound happy.
Ah!
Hmm, still no answer from our mystery employer.
Hey, at least burying the box didn't change anything.
We dug a hole two million years ago with an Alduan stone.
Now I dig up a Minecraft shovel.
And best of all, we don't have tails like early humans did.
Finally, a text from the mystery employer.
He says, dig up the box.
Is he serious?
Yes, I'm serious.
Okay, I'll go dig up the box.
But when?
Oldify Gorge is a lot different now than it was two million years ago.
A lot can change in two million years.
The landscape, plants and animals.
There's even a museum here now.
So how are we going to find out where we buried the box?
Much less dig it up.
Look at this pamphlet.
Doesn't that scrap of leather kind of look like part of the box?
Holy smokes!
It's on display in the museum!
Are we really going to steal an artifact from a museum?
It doesn't feel right.
It's not an artifact.
We buried it, remember?
I know, but it's become an artifact.
I can't believe it was even fossilized.
That's what's so special about Olduvai Gorge.
The lava flows and ash deposits made perfect conditions for fossilization.
So how are we going to steal it?
I'm sure the museum is locked up tight at night.
For this job, we'll need to make like moles and hide in plain sight.
Or in this case, steal in plain sight.
Lucky for us, the box scrap is displayed on the main wall outside of a display case.
The only thing is the security guards and the Kraus.
We can use the crowd to blend in.
Even if someone sees us steal the scrap, we can hoof it and disappear with a time radio.
Then the only issue is the guards.
There are two rotating around the main room like the hands of a clock.
One is fast and one is slow, like the second and minute hands.
Except for every lap the fast guard walks, the slow one does one quarter of a lap.
Let's call the main display the starting line.
The exit is directly opposite the display case, or at one half a lap.
We need to find a window of time where each guard is as far away from the main display and the exit as possible so we can grab the box, scrap and get away.
So we need the guards as close to one fourth of a lap and three fourths of a lap when we move in.
Let's start with the fast guard.
When he gets to 1 fourth of a lap, the slow guard will still be too close to the display case.
But when he gets to 3 fourths of a lap, the slow guard will have completed 3 fourths of a 1 fourth lap.
3 fourths times 1 fourth is the same as 0.75 times 0.25.
Let's take away the decimals to make the multiplication easier.
.75 times 25 is the same as 75 times 20 plus 75 times 5.
75 times 20 is just 75 times 10 times 2.
That's pretty easy.
75 times 10 is 750 times 2 is 1500.
75 times 5 is just 70 times 5 plus 5 times 5.
70 times 5 is 350.
Plus 5 times 5 is 25.
For a total of 375.
1,500 plus 375 is 1,875.
Add back the decimal and we get .1875.
So when the fast guard has completed 3 fourths or 75 laps, the slow guard will have completed 1875 laps.
On the flip side, when the fast guard has completed 3 laps, the slow guard will be at 3 quarter laps.
But we need both guards near 1 fourth and 3 fourths.
Exactly.
As the fast guard approaches 3.25 laps, the slow guard will have completed 1 minus .1875 laps.
Um... .8125 laps.
So which scenario should we use?
The one where the fast guard is at 3 fourths laps or at 3 and 1 fourths laps?
It depends.
Do we want the fast guard approaching or leaving the main display when we grab the box scrap?
Approaching?
No, leaving.
Right.
That way his back is to us.
So three and one-fourth laps it is.
Here he comes around his third lap.
Ready?
Go!
Go!
All right, we buried the box at Olduvai Gorge two million years ago and then dug it up ten minutes ago.
A.K.A. stole it from a museum.
Think we got the job?
Let's find out.
Thank you for your application, but we went in a different direction.
Different direction?
What does that mean?
North, southwest?
It's a nice way of saying we weren't hired.
Oh, bummer.
Back to square one.
Speaking of squares...
This episode of Mysteries About True Histories was written by Dan Gold and voiced by Dexter Danger, Mayo Molly Smith and Adam Tex 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 Kolber, and is an Atomic Audio production.
