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Lateral with Tom Scott
Lateral with Tom Scott

179: The 3-in-1 adaptor

March 13, 2026 • 52m

Summary

⏱️ 5 min read

Overview

Tom Scott hosts a lateral thinking quiz with guests Abby Cox (fashion historian), Matt Gray (YouTuber), and Izzy Lawrence (paleontologist/podcaster). They tackle five cleverly crafted questions involving everything from USB cables and the Rosetta Stone to Victorian-era mine testing with porridge and aniseed balls, culminating in a question about Olympic events that no longer use horses. The show blends history, science, and wordplay with playful banter.

USB Charging Cable and the Rosetta Stone

The first question involves a three-in-one multi-charging cable purchased at the British Museum gift shop in Bloomsbury, London. The guests quickly identify the location as the British Museum and work through the connection between the famous Rosetta Stone artifact and modern technology. The answer cleverly links the stone's function of translating between three languages to the cable's ability to connect three different types of charging ports.

  • The charging cable was purchased from the British Museum gift shop in Bloomsbury
  • The Rosetta Stone translates between three languages: Greek, Demotic Egyptian, and hieroglyphs
  • The cable design features the Rosetta Stone because it translates between three different connectors, just like the stone translates between three languages
" Because gyros, how do you pronounce it? That's revolutionary. It's a rotisserie. "

Concert Pianists and Safety Netting Technique

This musical question explores an unusual technique some concert pianists use when performing the dramatic ending of Chopin's Prelude in D minor. The guests work through understanding piano mechanics, including how strings resonate and dampers work, before discovering that pianists press adjacent keys silently to prevent accidentally hitting wrong notes when forcefully striking the final explosive low D notes.

  • The ending of Chopin's Prelude No. 24 is fortissimo (very loud) with three explosive low D notes
  • Pianists must lift their arm high and strike the key with maximum force, sometimes using their fist
  • To prevent clipping adjacent keys during the dramatic motion, some pianists quietly depress the two neighboring white keys with their other hand - a technique called 'safety netting'
" You don't want to end on a sour note if you're whacking one out in front of an audience. "

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