Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World

by Matt Parker

My favorite recycled-phone-number story comes from the Ultimate Fighting Championship. The UFC is a mixed-martial-arts competition, which I am vaguely aware of only because the fighting ring is an octagon and directly referred to as such. I’d say calling a television show Road to the Octagon and then just showing a bunch of fighters is false advertising. And don’t get me started on how few higher polygons were in Beyond the Octagon. Welterweight UFC fighter Rory MacDonald noticed that whenever he walked out before a fight they would not play the walkout song he requested. His opponents were picking aggressive songs to get them in the mood, and these were being played, but his choices seemed to be disregarded. I imagine that trying to get in the zone before a fight is not helped by the unexpected blasting of MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This.” Other fighters were making fun of his music choices. This persisted until, one day before a fight, the producer came up to Rory and apologized for not being able to play the Nickelback song he had requested. Rory claimed he had never asked for such a thing and the producer showed him the text messages where he had. An old phone number of Rory’s had been recycled and accidentally given to a UFC fan who had been happily picking Rory’s music for him. It’s a great story about the limitations of number combinations and the first recorded time Nickelback caused someone to stop suffering.