Home
Creators
Search Recent Missing Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Video pre-releases for 2026! (Patreon)

Published:
2026-02-21 19:26:22
Imported:
2026-02

Content

A belated Happy New Year! I'm aiming to give Patreons 24-hour early access to all of our main channel content this year. This is in addition to the behind-the-scenes content, early announcements of projects, and other perks you know and love.

My production team could not be happier that I'm trying to stick to tighter deadlines this year. As with all Stand-up Maths projects, if things unavoidably slip we will keep you in the loop. But I hope you enjoy your access to calling "dibs" on the first comment, and spotting corrections sooner than everyone else.

Enjoy the video!

Files

Kellogg's Mathematical Blunder.

Come see me on tour to get your mathematically dubious cereal boxes signed. https://standupmaths.com/shows You can also find me talking about other unreleased video topics at An Evening of Unnecessary Detail. https://festivalofthespokennerd.com/show/an-evening-of-unnecessary-detail/ Check out the full correspondence with Kellogg's on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/s/rRbfNVF4aa And MindYourDecisions video looking at the surface area problem: https://youtu.be/0qT_h84o7JI?si=y3ALapozUGMM2kpJ The paper determining spheres are the most volume-efficient 3D shape is available here: https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1978-84-06/S0002-9904-1978-14553-4/S0002-9904-1978-14553-4.pdf Huge thanks to my Patreon supporters. They are the delicious donut manifold that surrounds me. https://www.patreon.com/standupmaths CORRECTIONS None yet, let me know if you spot anything! Filming and editing by Alex Genn-Bash Additional filming by Truman Hanks Voiceover by Tom Osborne Written and performed by Matt Parker Production and cake baking by Nicole Jacobus Music by Howard Carter Design by Simon Wright and Adam Robinson MATT PARKER: Stand-up Mathematician Website: http://standupmaths.com/

Comments

Bartosz Błaszkiewicz

I like those pre-releases. If only you would be so kind as to provide a link to the video. Patreons video-viewing experience is even worse than YouTubes if you can believe that. Right now I have to start the video only to click the button to open in the youtube app. Not sure what it does to your statistics.

Andrew Russell

Kellogs definitely do make ring shaped cereal - honey loops

Andrew Russell

You're right, fruit loops are well known enough that Matt was probably being sarcastic?

Keith Moser

The pain as you ate (and continued to eat) that sugary stuff... My 5yo just asked for Fruity Pebbles which I tried and nearly spat out!

LifeSizeTeddyBear

OK, so you've done your bit to attempt to correct Kellogs ' use of maths. Now can you get your mate Adam Savage to correct his ad spot that is at the end of some of his videos talking about the new merch patches they have where he says they are octagonal patches, but they are actually hexagons?

Derek Chandler

They’re greeaat! Just not at maths. Or English. Creating sugary cereals that rot the teeth of children is their expertise.

Derek Chandler

I haven’t seen Adam Savage’s advert but I presume you’re referring to the Tested (DE)MERIT BADGEs. I concur they are definitely hexagonal. Not only that, they are hexagons, admittedly with rounded corners.

Steve Taylor

Surely the process of applying glaze results in a certain thickness determined by surface tension, viscosity, etc. So donuts going thru that machine would come out with more glaze mass

Derek Chandler

Matt did say “And for the record Kellogg’s don’t even make loops, of any form. I don’t know why they are going on about doughnuts, they don’t do any doughnut-shaped cereals.” Definitely sarcasm right there. Matt, you’ve learnt well from the British sense of humour. We can teach you no more.

Gregor Shapiro

If Kellogs would move the parenthesis so the area of a torus reads =(2π)²Rr or =2πR × 2πr it is correct.

Alex L

Their approach makes sense if their design process is "first we pick the flavor profile we want -- i.e., the ratio of the ingredients -- and then we make it look as visually appealing as possible to sugar-obsessed kids." (Porosity, I believe, refers to the air content -- a major ingredient, as you pointed out.) The tendency of sugary glaze to become transparent when thin makes this more important. This does, however, omit the question of the size of the spheres -- surely they realize a larger sphere would allow them to have a thicker layer of glaze? I suppose it would be too difficult to get stores to agree to shelf dodecahedral boxes containing one sphere each. Anyway, my interpretation is that someone involved in the product design made a PowerPoint presentation where they mentioned this part of the design (to show off "hey, we did our homework!") and a less math-literate marketer decided to run with the idea.

André Forcier

Side fact… we had the donut hole 1st. Tim Hortons has had them since 1976. 🇨🇦! The Americans got it from Canada. 😉

William Gardner

I think he meant to say that Frosted Flakes don't come in loops, in any form. The next sentence being about the shape of a flake reinforces that.

William Gardner

I'm confused why the formula for the surface area of a torus being 4π²Rr is a reason that pi is better than tau. Using tau it's 𝜏²Rr, which I find much better.

David Roberts

Why isn’t the donut making machine using hexagonal packing?

Ken Lowe

If the glaze was a constant thickness then the sphere would definitely be optimal -- less sugar!!

Mark Heron

I wonder how long it will take for the typo to be fixed. And by that I mean the superscript closing bracket in the video.

Luke

Yeah what is the recommended daily amount of sugar? And how much Kellogg's is that? Maybe that is the real math problem.

Matt Fisher

So for a given volume of bowl the sphere makes type two diabetes easier to achieve?

Joel Blackman-Mathis

Multiple times you commented on them mentioning the "mass" of cereal, and you took it as a given that 'a volume of cereal = a volume of cereal', but then also made the observation that the sphere of cereal was made of 1) sugar and 2) air. Isn't it possible that cereal shell requires more material than internal cereal structure, much like a 3d print? Theoretically, a structure with more surface area and less internal volume might take more resources to manufacture than a sphere? And then the end result ingredients would be 1) sugar 2) grain 3) air ? Maybe they were using the word "mass" scientifically correctly