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Troubled familiesThe government says it has identified 120,000 troubled families who are responsible for a disproportionate share of society's ills. It's set up a "Troubled Families Team"... to deal with them. But in fact the government has counted extremely deprived families and then announced that it has counted extremely disruptive families instead.Nursing numbersThis week government ministers have been arguing with the Royal College of Nursing about job losses in the NHS in England. It seems they've also been arguing between themselves. We unravel the numbers.The mathematical consequences of unneutered catsIf one unneutered female cat was allowed to go about her business, how many cats would she and her descendants have created in two years? Would you believe that it was as many as 370,000, as a new advertising campaign claims? Neither would we.Greek taxis. Again.The former Greek finance minister has said he thinks the Greek rail system is so inefficient it would be cheaper to send each passenger by taxi. We examined his idea and found it was almost - but not quite - true. But many listeners sent us their thoughts about other ways of looking at the problem. So, this week, we revisit our calculations.
Troubled familiesThe government says it has identified 120,000 troubled families who are responsible for a disproportionate share of society's ills. It's set up a "Troubled Families Team"... to deal with them. But in fact the government has counted extremely deprived families and then announced that it has counted extremely disruptive families instead.Nursing numbersThis week government ministers have been arguing with the Royal College of Nursing about job losses in the NHS in England. It seems they've also been arguing between themselves. We unravel the numbers.The mathematical consequences of unneutered catsIf one unneutered female cat was allowed to go about her business, how many cats would she and her descendants have created in two years? Would you believe that it was as many as 370,000, as a new advertising campaign claims? Neither would we.Greek taxis. Again.The former Greek finance minister has said he thinks the Greek rail system is so inefficient it would be cheaper to send each passenger by taxi. We examined his idea and found it was almost - but not quite - true. But many listeners sent us their thoughts about other ways of looking at the problem. So, this week, we revisit our calculations.
| Series: | More or less |
|---|---|
| Episode | 5 |
| First transmission date: | 2012-05-18 |
| Original broadcast channel: | BBC Radio 4 |
| Published: | 2012 |
| Rights Statement: | Rights owned or controlled by The Open University |
| Restrictions on use: | This material can be used in accordance with The Open University conditions of use. A link to the conditions can be found at the bottom of all OU Digital Archive web pages. |
| Duration: | 00:25:00 |
| + Show more... | |
| Producer: | Richard Knight |
| Presenter: | Tim Harford |
| Contributors: | Tim Harford; S. A (Simon A.), Coates; Ruth Alexander; John Bradshaw; Fiona Woods; Ruth Levitas |
| Publisher: | BBC Open University |
| Subject terms: | Economics; Mathematics; Statistics |
| Production number: | AUDA790B |
| Available to public: | no |
