B2 Video | The Scientific Way to Cut a Cake - Numberphile

Accent: England - Modern Received Pronunciation

Subtitles: Yes.

Word List:

00:26 - pie chart

A Pie Chart

They call these camembert charts in France! Really!?

What do you call pie charts in your language?

Speaking of pies, the word ‘pie’ to me (as a Scot (and Brit)) conjures up mental images like these:

And in Scotland, we have the mighty Scotch pie:

Scotch Pies (the king of pies)

And who could forget the downright crazy (or genius, depending on who you ask) macaroni pie:

Scotland laughs in the face of the low-carb movement with the Macaroni Pie (yes, it's a real thing).

Sweet-toothed readers might have noticed that there are only two sweet pies in the above list. 

The UK has sweet pies too, but when I hear the word ‘pie’, the first images that come to mind are usually the savoury varieties. I imagine this mental association of pie = savoury is 90% true for other Brits too.

In the USA however, it’s a whole different story. 

They call it the land of the free, but for me, it’s the land of the sweet pie. 

They have their apple pie, cherry pie, lemon pie, key lime pie, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, and I could go on and on. 

American pies

If it’s sweet and it doesn’t have a pastry cover (like seven of the above 'pies'), then we might call it a ‘tart’ in the UK. But that’s a topic for another day.

03:01 - sponge

A sponge often forms the base for more complex cakes, but in its simplest form it can be eaten as a simple sponge, or ‘sponge cake’.

03:51 - The subtitles weren’t accurate here. He actually said “How shall we do day three Gab?”

04:35 - loner

noun

A person who is or prefers to be alone, especially one who avoids the company of others.

"He was always a loner - no one knew him well."

04:42 - came up with

To 'come up with something' means to produce or invent something, usually something intangible, like an idea or plan. 

"I came up with a great business idea."