#ICYMI - Wrestling with Physics, with Neil deGrasse Tyson

In case you missed this episode on the Playing with Science channel…. What’s the best wrestling move? Can you wrestle in zero gravity? Hosts Gary O’Reilly and Chuck Nice hit the mats as we sit down with astrophysicist and wrestling expert Neil deGrasse Tyson to answer fan-submitted questions about the science of wrestling.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  I'm Gary O'Reilly.

• 0:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I'm Chuck Nice.

• 0:03Speaker 00

  And this is Playing with Science.

• 0:08Speaker 00

  A Cosmic Queries episode, and one you have been demanding for so long now. We just had to give you what you've been asking for, which is a wrestling show with none other than your favourite personal astrophysicist.

• 0:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I don't know if I'm their favourite, but I'm definitely their personal astrophysicist.

• 0:27Speaker 00

  You're our favourite.

• 0:28Chuck Nice?

  We're gonna call you the Great Grappler.

• 0:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There was someone who publicly said I was their favourite astrophysicist, and it was Hillary Clinton.

• 0:34Chuck Nice?

  Hillary Clinton called you her favourite astrophysicist?

• 0:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I said, Hillary, how many astrophysicists do you know?

• 0:39Chuck Nice?

  And she was like, you?

• 0:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You, that was it, so, yeah.

• 0:42Chuck Nice?

  Nah, she knows quite a few, I'm sure.

• 0:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I don't know.

• 0:44Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, believe me.

• 0:46Speaker 00

  She's gonna keep you elevated on that pinnacle. So before we get into our listeners' questions, and there have been so many, and thank you, can you just give us a very basic overhaul of wrestling for people like myself who know there's two guys, a mat, and that's me tapping out?

• 1:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Two guys with a skin-tight singlet on.

• 1:08Chuck Nice?

  That's why I watch.

• 1:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The two reactions were different.

• 1:15Chuck Nice?

  You had me at singlet.

• 1:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, yeah, I don't make a big deal of this, but I used to wrestle.

• 1:21Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 1:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, I wrestled. I was undefeated in high school.

• 1:24Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 1:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Captain of my team.

• 1:25Chuck Nice?

  Wow. You went to a nerd school, though.

• 1:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I went to a nerd school, so...

• 1:30Speaker 00

  Way to go.

• 1:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Damn, Chuck, I had him going for a while.

• 1:35Chuck Nice?

  Nah, but you wrestled in college, too, right?

• 1:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I went to college, and then I found out that there are people who...

• 1:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I went to college in the North East, and we wrestled people from the Midwest.

• 1:46Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 1:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm talking about some corn-fed wrestlers.

• 1:51Chuck Nice?

  Ooh, them big farm boys.

• 1:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Farm boys hauling cows.

• 1:53Chuck Nice?

  Yes, exactly.

• 1:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But Elsie needs to go to the other pasture, I got her.

• 1:57Chuck Nice?

  Exactly. They came into the match with a cow over their shoulders, just like, where should I put this?

• 2:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, it was like, okay. So I actually was, I had a losing record for three of my four years of college.

• 2:09Chuck Nice?

  Whoa, wow.

• 2:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I, but it was for me, I enjoyed the sport, whether or not I was winning. And when you lose, it's like, you lost. You can't blame anybody else. It's not, oh, you didn't catch the pass that I threw you.

• 2:20Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 2:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Or you slipped on a thing, or you were in pain, it's all you.

• 2:24Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 2:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's only you.

• 2:26Chuck Nice?

  It's just you out there.

• 2:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I loved the purity of...

• 2:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Of the accountability of that sport.

• 2:32Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 2:33Speaker 00

  Teach you much as a person, as a human being? Other than a sportsman, as an athlete?

• 2:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Did I what as a?

• 2:39Speaker 00

  Did it teach you?

• 2:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Teach me?

• 2:41Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:41Chuck Nice?

  Did you glean any lessons from wrestling that you took into your life? Uh, as a philosophy?

• 2:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm the, oh, oh.

• 2:48Chuck Nice?

  Ooh.

• 2:48Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 2:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ooh. I'm the only person I grew up with. Who's never actually been in a fight. One hundred percent of everyone I grew up from elementary school through middle school. Cause that's where it kinda matters.

• 3:03Chuck Nice?

  That's where, yeah.

• 3:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Everyone, uh, guys, have, has been in a fight and I've never been in a fight.

• 3:08Chuck Nice?

  Is that because you wrestled them instead of fighting them?

• 3:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I.

• 3:10Chuck Nice?

  Come here. Full Nelson.

• 3:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, if full Nelson is not legal in wrestling.

• 3:16Chuck Nice?

  It is not.

• 3:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No. So.

• 3:18Chuck Nice?

  Half Nelson, no?

• 3:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, totally half Nelson. And there's a power half Nelson.

• 3:21Chuck Nice?

  Whoa. Power half Nelson?

• 3:24Speaker 00

  That sounds a lot like full Nelson.

• 3:27Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 3:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Um, so, so.

• 3:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  For me, wrestling. Was a place to deposit. All of my sort of testosterone energy that might otherwise manifest. In guys just being cantankerous.

• 3:42Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 3:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In the real world. Like, for example, you've been at an intersection and somebody cuts somebody else off.

• 3:48Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 3:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And if someone starts screaming, it's gonna be some guy who didn't want to.

• 3:51Chuck Nice?

  Hey, I'm walking over here.

• 3:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know.

• 3:53Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, we're not for long, buddy.

• 3:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, so, in those moments, I'm just calm and peaceful.

• 3:59Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 4:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And, oh, you wanna cut me fine. You must be in a bigger hurry than I am.

• 4:03Chuck Nice?

  That's how I feel when I'm carrying a gun.

• 4:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Chuck.

• 4:08Speaker 00

  No.

• 4:08Chuck Nice?

  I'm very, very calm when I'm carrying a gun. I'm very calm.

• 4:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Smith and Wesson beats four of us every time.

• 4:14Chuck Nice?

  People are just like, you better watch yourself, buddy. And I'm just like, thanks. And you, you have a great day too.

• 4:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so.

• 4:23Speaker 00

  Didn't take long to go there, did it?

• 4:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, I know. So, I'm just saying, I was, I, I, I think of myself as a peace-loving, calm person. I don't know if having wrestled pulled that out of me. I don't know.

• 4:34Speaker 00

  The bit about not being able to win every bout, take, did you take that with you through, to the rest of your academic career to say, okay, so these setbacks, how do I equate this now?

• 4:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  To me, they weren't setbacks, they were learning experiences.

• 4:48Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 4:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There you go. And, um, in this, I know that sounds cheesy, but it's true. The person did something faster than I could react to. They had a move that combined with another move that I didn't see coming. They, and it's like, whoa, that's good. That's good. And when I see some wrestler. I call this one the egg beater.

• 5:11Speaker 00

  Did you name any of your moves?

• 5:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, I did. I have, yeah, yes. Sweet. Do you want that now?

• 5:16Speaker 00

  No, no, we'll get to it.

• 5:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We'll get to it. We've got plenty of time.

• 5:18Speaker 00

  Um, yeah.

• 5:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know, the night is young. But I'm, I'm very, I'm, I'm interested to know. Yeah, yeah. So, I, I had a, a move that I never actually executed, but it had a name and I, one day I want to do it. Sweet. I'm too old to put. Volunteer. Well, I could totally do it on Chuck. I'm talking about in a real situation. Thanks for that vote of confidence.

• 5:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I meant no, no disrespect to your. No, I was, Chuck, I meant no disrespect. I was just pointing out the obvious.

• 5:50Speaker 00

  Okay, classes of this match.

• 5:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, so, so to lose is to learn. It's not to, to see some wrestlers get angry and, and, and, you know, kick the chair when they came up. They might be angry with themselves perhaps, but still, I'm, I view them all as learning experiences, as do rocket launch people. Okay? If the rocket explodes on the launch pad, they say, oh, how did you handle that failure? No, that was a launch rich in learning. Right. We learn so much. As long as you have enough diagnostics in the launch, cameras and sensors and things. What you don't want to do is ever make the same mistake twice.

• 6:29Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 6:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 6:31Chuck Nice?

  That's a problem.

• 6:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's interesting.

• 6:32Chuck Nice?

  You know what? That's failure.

• 6:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's failure.

• 6:34Chuck Nice?

  That's failure.

• 6:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Thank you, sir.

• 6:36Chuck Nice?

  Making the same mistake twice is failure.

• 6:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And.

• 6:38Chuck Nice?

  Anything else is a learning experience.

• 6:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Making a mistake that's never been made before, and I can move the earth.

• 6:44Chuck Nice?

  That's it. Take it every time.

• 6:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And if you live a life where you never make a mistake, you are not on the frontier of anything.

• 6:52Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 6:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's a similar comment from, was it A.J. Foyt or Mario Andretti, one of the great.

• 6:59Chuck Nice?

  The racing driver.

• 7:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Racing drivers.

• 7:01Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 7:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It is, I'm paraphrasing.

• 7:03Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 7:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If you're in control of the car, of your car, you're not in the race.

• 7:08Chuck Nice?

  You've got to be in the limit.

• 7:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You've got to be. If you are in total control of your car, you are not in the race.

• 7:14Chuck Nice?

  Yeah. It's driving on the edge that makes you win.

• 7:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Correct.

• 7:17Chuck Nice?

  Just that little, we don't know how this could go.

• 7:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 7:20Chuck Nice?

  So it's interesting, a lot of coaches.

• 7:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I think some skiers feel, you go down some slope and you don't, there's a tree there, a rock, a thing, and you're making, and so do off-road bikers, you know, the.

• 7:30Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, yeah, motocross.

• 7:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Motocross, right, right. Every instant is a decision you're making so that you don't die.

• 7:35Chuck Nice?

  Yep.

• 7:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Or you don't topple.

• 7:37Chuck Nice?

  That'll focus your attention. Like the guy on the old Wide World of Sports. I believe they called him the agony of defeat.

• 7:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, that was his name.

• 7:44Chuck Nice?

  Yep, it was his name, agony of defeat.

• 7:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The thrill of victory.

• 7:48Chuck Nice?

  And the agony of defeat. And then they showed that guy coming off the.

• 7:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 7:54Chuck Nice?

  So coaches.

• 7:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, by the way, just a little bit of physics in that.

• 7:57Chuck Nice?

  And that ski jumper?

• 7:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  May I?

• 7:59Chuck Nice?

  Yes, so it's a ski jumper who.

• 8:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The fact that he kept sliding.

• 8:03Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 8:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Was a good thing. We don't have the proper understanding of injury in an accident.

• 8:11Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 8:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay?

• 8:13Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 8:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  On YouTube, there's a series strung together, I'm sorry, this is not about wrestling, but you took me there.

• 8:18Chuck Nice?

  We're wrestling with physics now. Go ahead.

• 8:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's a string of videos, and it's called, "And They Walked."

• 8:26Chuck Nice?

  Oh, wow.

• 8:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so these are nasty, these are car race wrecks.

• 8:30Chuck Nice?

  Really nasty wrecks.

• 8:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay? And every case.

• 8:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The, the, you know, they're going 200 miles an hour, right? And the car tumbles, bursts into flame, it just keeps going. Keeps going a quarter mile down the track, comes to a rest, the guy. Gets out. Gets out. Right. Why does it get out? Because it took a quarter mile to change speeds from 200 miles an hour to zero. Right. What kills you is not how twisted the wreck is, although it can kill you if you're not in a roll bar. Mm-hmm. What kills you is how quickly you decelerate to zero. Right.

• 9:02Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 9:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's what kills you. Yeah. That's what. Quarter mile, no problem. Wall. Wall, problem. Problem. Problem. Right. That's why you look at people's comments when Dale Earnhardt died. Hmm. Okay, tragically, he was, uh, his car hit in the side of the man and stopped instantly. Instantly. When I saw that, I said, he's dead. Right. He's not walking from that. Yeah. He went from 200 miles an hour to zero in, in. In one instant. In an instant, okay? That's what you're not gonna survive. Wow. So, but it didn't look bad. Mm-hmm. Cause you didn't see the tangled, twisted wreck and tires spinning, uh, bouncing down the, the, the way. Hmm. So, and it's why high jumpers land on pillows instead of on cement. That makes sense.

• 9:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cause it delays how long it takes you to slow down your speed to zero. Right, and of course, there's not an inexhaustible supply of high jumpers.

• 9:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, sports, that, you know, that's why you want absorbing, that's, this was a feature in the Volvo car. The Volvo has crumple zones. Crumple zone. Okay, so you don't just stop instantly. Right. The energy gets dissipated over that time of the crum, and within the crumpled, um, uh, uh, structure of the car itself. Nice. Now, how do we get there? What, what?

• 10:21Speaker 00

  Okay, so.

• 10:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Why'd you change, why did you distract me?

• 10:24Speaker 00

  I, I seem to have, I've, I've gained a blame somewhere along the line here. The burden of blame.

• 10:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Gained a blame, I like that.

• 10:30Speaker 00

  Has come to my, to my attention.

• 10:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 10:32Speaker 00

  So, we've gone from crumple zone to a mat, a wrestling mat, right? Which then has its own little.

• 10:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, so good, why don't we, that's a nice segue. So, I'm old enough to remember when the mat was really this cotton surface with a tarp over it, basically. So you got a lot of skin burns on that.

• 10:51Chuck Nice?

  Sure.

• 10:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And then they perfected this rubberized, um, texture that now is, is what you find on all mats. It's maybe an inch or two thick.

• 11:00Chuck Nice?

  It's not very.

• 11:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And it rolls out, no it's not, but it's very well designed.

• 11:03Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 11:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So...

• 11:05Speaker 00

  You don't want to be nice, sorry, I'm pretty tense. You don't want it to be a real comfort zone when you get thrown to the mat.

• 11:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, you want to be like, you know, Tempur-Pedic.

• 11:12Chuck Nice?

  Yeah. Actually, I want to, yeah, I want you to throw me down and I want to be like, okay, it's nice here. I'm gonna take a nap.

• 11:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Let's rest.

• 11:19Chuck Nice?

  I'm gonna nap.

• 11:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, yes, so you, there is a, it's one or two, maybe one and a half inches, I forgot the exact dimension, but, um, it comes out in big rollers, you roll it out, tape it together.

• 11:27Chuck Nice?

  Yep.

• 11:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And what's good about it, is you get traction on it, but you can also slide across it. It's the best combination of the two. This was one of the problems with the early turf for football.

• 11:39Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 11:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right? You don't want it to stop you on the spot, because then you'd rip out your knees.

• 11:43Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 11:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You want to have a little bit of give, but not too much give, like what actual turf gave. There's an optimal combination of those two that minimizes injury.

• 11:51Speaker 00

  We're on about the fourth generation of those.

• 11:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, sure.

• 11:54Speaker 00

  Right, let's get to some questions, uh, your, our listeners will be through.

• 11:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And the first of that turf was called?

• 11:58Chuck Nice?

  Astro.

• 11:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Astro turf, and you know why?

• 12:00Chuck Nice?

  Because it was developed.

• 12:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because.

• 12:05Chuck Nice?

  Space age material.

• 12:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I don't know where it first appeared, but the first place I knew it appeared was Houston, Texas.

• 12:09Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 12:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And Houston is the first word spoken from the moon.

• 12:13Speaker 00

  Of course.

• 12:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because, of course, Houston.

• 12:16Chuck Nice?

  Well, see, Houston Astros, Houston, we have a problem.

• 12:18Speaker 00

  Houston Rockets?

• 12:20Chuck Nice?

  Houston Rockets.

• 12:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is where you get these names, because Houston is the Johnson Space Center, is the command center for the manned space program of NASA.

• 12:28Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 12:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Affects the names of everything.

• 12:30Chuck Nice?

  Whitney, Houston, we have a problem.

• 12:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Said. Uh, who's her boyfriend?

• 12:35Chuck Nice?

  Uh, Bobby Brown.

• 12:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Bobby Brown, yeah, yeah.

• 12:38Speaker 00

  All right, question number one. Rene Douglas, Douglas, from Pittsburgh, from Patreon. Can you describe what wrestling in microgravity would be like? What rules would be needed to be adjusted? What rules would need to be adjusted and how?

• 12:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I love that. Okay, so microgravity is misnamed.

• 12:58Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 12:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's just zero gravity.

• 12:59Chuck Nice?

  Zero gravity.

• 13:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You could just call it what it is. It's, it is.

• 13:02Chuck Nice?

  Constant free fall.

• 13:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, you're constant free fall around the earth.

• 13:05Speaker 00

  All right.

• 13:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And when you're free fall.

• 13:07Speaker 00

  Every day's a full day, thank you.

• 13:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's zero G. So, so much of what makes wrestling work as a sport is knowing where someone's center of gravity is.

• 13:17Chuck Nice?

  Hmm.

• 13:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Taking them off of that center of gravity and watch them topple.

• 13:21Speaker 00

  Uh huh.

• 13:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In a way that you control so that you get their back to the mat. And I didn't finish giving the basics of wrestling, but what should be obvious to everyone is your goal is to get their back to the mat. For any amount of time at all, basically, and then you win. Okay, so, so it's so much is what are you doing against the force of gravity or with the force of gravity?

• 13:43Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 13:44Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 13:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's the combination of those two, and the more you can exploit that, then the more potent a wrestler you are. In zero G, it's not clear how you would design such a sport that way. So if I grab you and sort of pull you in one direction, there's no friction against another surface and you'll just sort of rotate back the other way.

• 14:06Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 14:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right? You'll be this tumbling, uh.

• 14:10Chuck Nice?

  Ball of flesh.

• 14:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ball of flesh.

• 14:12Chuck Nice?

  You're just entwined with one another.

• 14:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, and I could sort of push you, and then if I push you away, then you just float away forever.

• 14:19Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 14:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You're not coming back.

• 14:20Chuck Nice?

  You both float away, like.

• 14:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You both float away from each other.

• 14:23Chuck Nice?

  Both float away from each other, right?

• 14:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, right, right. So part of the gravity, the need for gravity is, gravity is what gives you friction against the mat. Think about it.

• 14:33Chuck Nice?

  I am.

• 14:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You have, if I made you lighter and lighter and lighter, you have less and less friction against the mat. Like if you want to move furniture, but you're not strong enough to pick it up entirely.

• 14:43Chuck Nice?

  Put it on a slider.

• 14:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Or you just lift it up mostly.

• 14:47Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 14:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And then you can slide it, right? You've reduced the friction between the furniture and thing. Enough so that you can slide it without having to lift it entirely with all your muscles. So if it is not touching or has any weight on the surface at all, then there's not, you can just move it.

• 15:03Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 15:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so I don't know that, I don't think you can have wrestling.

• 15:07Chuck Nice?

  So then you would have to have some gravity, like maybe on the moon then? So that's one-sixth of gravity.

• 15:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, on the moon, yeah, so you need a bigger ring.

• 15:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, because I take you and I pick you up, you know, I could throw you farther.

• 15:23Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 15:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But, but it's in pro wrestling, they throw each other. In sort of actual wrestling, no. Sort of intercollegiate and Olympic wrestling.

• 15:31Speaker 00

  Would you have to then confine the space and not just have a single mat? You would have to have like a cube of which?

• 15:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, you mean a cage match.

• 15:40Speaker 00

  Kind of, yeah.

• 15:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, I just think you, I mean, right, no, no, here's the thing. In a wrestling match, there's a circle.

• 15:45Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 15:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  As long as what is basically your center of mass with your opponent is inside the circle, you can have limbs sticking outside the circle and it's not a problem.

• 15:54Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 15:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And if I'm in control and I'm about to pin you and you try to wiggle your way out the circle, I'd bring your ass back in the circle.

• 16:01Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 16:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right? And the referee won't allow you to escape if I'm still in control with you and I'm in the circle and you're not. They'll still give it to me to pin you or to complete my move against it.

• 16:12Chuck Nice?

  So, okay, got you. So my, so see that.

• 16:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, so a wall is not the right concept.

• 16:17Speaker 00

  I was just thinking of multi-walls for a mat. So you were going up, you were going left or right, down and whatever. That was my football, but.

• 16:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, oh, oh, oh, I see what you're saying. It is zero G.

• 16:29Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 16:29Chuck Nice?

  So you would have circle above, below, and on each side.

• 16:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So if you did push yourself away, you'd hit the wall, bounce back, and you're back in business.

• 16:36Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 16:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  As you came back into the middle. Okay, that's very clever. Have to think about that.

• 16:40Speaker 00

  That's a first for me. Thank you.

• 16:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It would be, it would be, uh, walls in all direct, in all directions, yeah.

• 16:46Speaker 00

  That'd be kinda cool.

• 16:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Be kinda cool.

• 16:48Chuck Nice?

  But then you'd have to add like some kind of, uh, I don't know, I don't know, like sword.

• 16:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Here's what you need, a sword, a ray gun or something.

• 16:55Chuck Nice?

  You gotta have something.

• 16:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, I got one, I got it.

• 16:57Speaker 00

  All right.

• 16:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You have handles around the side.

• 17:00Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 17:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So I can grab a handle, grab you, I can swing you.

• 17:04Chuck Nice?

  Nice.

• 17:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Nice.

• 17:06Chuck Nice?

  I like this.

• 17:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Handles. Then I gotta place, so then it's not about friction, it's just about you holding on.

• 17:10Chuck Nice?

  Just holding on.

• 17:11Speaker 00

  We've gone from tipping point now to a point of leverage.

• 17:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Correct. Where there are no tipping points because there is no net gravity force.

• 17:18Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 17:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 17:19Chuck Nice?

  That'd be kinda cool, because then you could actually slam someone.

• 17:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Then I gotta get you, and I gotta get you closer.

• 17:23Chuck Nice?

  Close enough to the handle, so I can get the.

• 17:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And if I don't get you close enough, I can't pull my move.

• 17:27Chuck Nice?

  Right, exactly.

• 17:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Very good, Gary.

• 17:29Chuck Nice?

  Hmm.

• 17:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Very, very nice.

• 17:30Speaker 00

  All right. I've become teacher's pep. Right, on that note, we'll take a break, and I will, I will glow for about all of one second.

• 17:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Before we take that break, let's just get people excited, um, to know that the sport has expanded.

• 17:43Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And in recent years, there are now women who now wrestle.

• 17:46Speaker 00

  Good.

• 17:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In exactly all the rules that we have.

• 17:49Chuck Nice?

  Glow? The gorgeous ladies of wrestling?

• 17:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Wrestling.

• 17:53Chuck Nice?

  No.

• 17:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I don't.

• 17:55Chuck Nice?

  Maybe not.

• 17:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Of course, there's been professional women's wrestling.

• 17:57Chuck Nice?

  Oh, okay.

• 17:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm talking about in.

• 17:58Chuck Nice?

  Oh, you're talking about real wrestling? I shouldn't say real wrestling, I'll offend some people.

• 18:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So that's on the horizon for the Olympics and, and other things, so.

• 18:05Chuck Nice?

  Female Olympic wrestling?

• 18:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, yes. So that's an inclusive, um, the inclusion factor went up for wrestling rather than down as it's been in so many other sports.

• 18:14Speaker 00

  Interesting, because the next Summer Olympics will be in Tokyo?

• 18:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I don't know, uh, there might be exhibition, you know, they usually.

• 18:19Speaker 00

  Yeah, they test drive, they test drive the sport.

• 18:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Test drive, test drive.

• 18:22Speaker 00

  The home of sumo wrestling.

• 18:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh.

• 18:24Speaker 00

  In Japan, so maybe we'll see something like that.

• 18:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I've not, ever seen a female sumo wrestler.

• 18:29Chuck Nice?

  And lord, let's hope we never do.

• 18:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Chuck.

• 18:32Speaker 00

  We are going to take a break, and Chuck and I will have a discussion. Um, please stay with us, we'll have more.

• 18:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We'll chuck into the 21st century.

• 18:39Speaker 00

  Dr. Tyson and ourselves about wrestling when we get back.

• 18:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right.

• 19:01Speaker 00

  Welcome back to Playing with Science. This is a Cosmic Query with your questions for Dr. Tyson,

• 19:08Speaker 00

  your personal astrophysicist.

• 19:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But I also happen to wrestle, that's why I'm on this show today at all.

• 19:13Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 19:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 19:14Speaker 00

  And a favorite of many, although he's too modest to say such a thing. Right, let's get in with the questions.

• 19:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Just a couple more rules about wrestling.

• 19:22Speaker 00

  Yes, well then.

• 19:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You begin standing up and you get points for taking...

• 19:27Speaker 00

  A takedown?

• 19:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  For a takedown, you get points for... You get a point if you escape. If you take me down and you have me in a hold, but then I escape, I get a point for escape. Takedown is two points. There might be some point changings in recent years. I haven't been as close to the sport as I once was. But then you get points if I expose your back to the mat, even if I don't pin you.

• 19:49Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 19:49Chuck Nice?

  Ah.

• 19:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Just because it's your vulnerability factor that I get points for.

• 19:53Speaker 00

  That's pretty cool.

• 19:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So that's good. If I'm in control of you for much longer than you're in control of me, I get points for that.

• 19:59Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 20:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's called riding time.

• 20:01Speaker 00

  Alright.

• 20:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And...

• 20:02Speaker 00

  So this is far more strategic than you would immediately imagine.

• 20:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If I'm not a big pinning person, maybe I'm a takedown artist, I can take you down and let you escape.

• 20:10Chuck Nice?

  Right, because I want to take you down again and get another point.

• 20:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I will always have twice as many points as you.

• 20:14Chuck Nice?

  Alright.

• 20:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right? So we start out two to one, but now it's four to two, and then it's eight to four, and it's 10 to five. And if I... In college, if I get more than... I forgot what the number... Points more than you, they end the match on a... Because it's a...

• 20:31Chuck Nice?

  It's a possibility for you to catch up.

• 20:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, not impossible, but just it's I'm dominating you and why bother to continue?

• 20:36Chuck Nice?

  Oh wow, that's terrible.

• 20:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 20:38Chuck Nice?

  Ugh. It's like the rule where the kid could... With the kids, what's that rule? The Little League rule where the kids...

• 20:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 20:44Chuck Nice?

  They can only win by... It's like 40 points, we call it a game.

• 20:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  40 points?

• 20:48Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, you guys are...

• 20:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's not that much.

• 20:50Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 20:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  40 points? It's a Little League rule. It's like a Little League rule.

• 20:54Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 20:56Speaker 00

  Come on, let's get some more questions.

• 20:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, go. Let's go some questions.

• 20:57Chuck Nice?

  Alright, here we go. This is Kevin Brangar Granjian. Wants to know this.

• 21:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  From where?

• 21:05Chuck Nice?

  Uh, he's from Facebook and he says, "What does leverage play in Greco-Roman style? What role does leverage play? And what are the differences between some of the showy WWE and the grappling style of the Greco-Roman wrestlers?"

• 21:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, excellent. So, um, what I've noticed in pro wrestling, there's a lot of upper body moves. You know, legs are in there occasionally, but you see they're grabbed, they're tossed, they, you know, legs are sort of auxiliary, the, their helper.

• 21:37Chuck Nice?

  They don't look as good, they don't look as flashy.

• 21:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's, it's not, uh, Greco-Roman wrestling is a branch of wrestling where you don't use your legs at all.

• 21:44Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 21:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay? What that means is, at a given weight class, you're not wasting poundage in your legs. So these guys got these pencil legs.

• 21:55Chuck Nice?

  And super.

• 21:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And super upper bodies. They look like tubes of toothpaste, toothpaste being squeezed at the bottom. And then it's always going up to the top. Yeah. Tell that to their face, yeah.

• 22:05Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, really.

• 22:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so Greco-Romeing, Greco-Roman, it's, it's all about takedowns, um, it's about not using your legs.

• 22:14Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 22:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So there's a lot of sort of acrobatic things you do with your, your arms, your neck, your torso.

• 22:20Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 22:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I wrestled a guy who was highly trained in Greco-Roman, and if he hooked up my arms.

• 22:29Chuck Nice?

  You were done, huh?

• 22:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That was done, I was done. So now. Once he got control of my arms, since I can't do anything with my legs, other than stand, uh, I had no recourse, and then he just took me down and pinned me.

• 22:41Chuck Nice?

  So what is, what is?

• 22:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So the question of leverage.

• 22:44Chuck Nice?

  Leverage.

• 22:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Leverage is in everything, whether or not it's, I mean, it, it's not about one variant of wrestling versus another. Leverage is everything, and as Archimedes once stated. Mm-hmm, going back to Greco-Roman. God, help, every. Thank you. Great having an educated person in the, in the, a classically trained person.

• 23:04Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 23:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  As opposed to just me. Exactly, yeah. I picked up so much. Archimedes, um, "Give me a place to stand, and I will move the world." He was referring to a lever.

• 23:16Speaker 00

  Right.

• 23:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If you had a big enough lever arm, you can do this. You know that thing they slide under a car and jack it up?

• 23:22Speaker 00

  Right.

• 23:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, do you see the length of that lever arm that's doing it with?

• 23:25Speaker 00

  It's super long.

• 23:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's super long. If that were shorter.

• 23:27Speaker 00

  Wouldn't work.

• 23:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You just have to be stronger.

• 23:30Speaker 00

  Have to be stronger.

• 23:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Or heavier.

• 23:32Speaker 00

  Right.

• 23:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's why lever arms are not a few inches long. They're like many, many feet.

• 23:35Speaker 00

  Right.

• 23:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, in wrestling, if I have to put, if you're here and I want to put you there, and we're on the ground, I can't just pick you up. I have to somehow pry you into that position.

• 23:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I have to find your tipping point, so that your center of mass is on the other side of you, rather than on this side of you, and then you will tip over. Everything is about levers. Everything. And I had long arms, so I had a good lever arm relative to other people. If you're a stubby-armed wrestler,

• 24:03Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 24:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  you're not really prying people around.

• 24:05Speaker 00

  Oh, you need a different sport. All right, another question. Will J. from Patreon. What is the most energy-efficient and practical wrestling move that I could learn if I only had time to learn one really well?

• 24:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, it's the, there's a, well, there's a fireman's carry, but that's if you're down, if you're standing, from a standing position.

• 24:29Speaker 00

  All right.

• 24:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  My favorite move, it's everybody's favorite move, it's just very hard to execute against another wrestler who also knows this move.

• 24:35Speaker 00

  Right.

• 24:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay? Uh, you're standing, let's say you're gonna dance with the person. So, your hands are palm to palm, like, so your left hand is out palm to palm, your other hand is on their waist.

• 24:46Speaker 00

  Uh huh.

• 24:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay? So, I'm being explicitly descriptive here for people who will only hear this on the radio.

• 24:52Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 24:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay? If I now step across the two of us.

• 24:56Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 24:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay? Step across the two of us, and put my arm that's on your waist completely around your waist, put my butt, now, now my back is to you, and quickly raise my butt up into your hips.

• 25:12Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 25:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You are now off the ground.

• 25:14Speaker 00

  So this is-

• 25:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I'm holding on to your other arm.

• 25:16Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 25:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So I have you at your center of mass around your waist, and I've got your other arm, and all I have to do is twist and bend, and your back goes straight to the mat.

• 25:25Speaker 00

  Going down.

• 25:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You're going down, and I have control of you as you go down.

• 25:29Speaker 00

  Mmm.

• 25:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So it's a, it's a takedown into a pin.

• 25:33Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 25:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And you're, you're going down. And once you lose your foot contact to the mat.

• 25:38Speaker 00

  So what's this move called?

• 25:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, hip, I don't know. It's got, it's got, it's got a name.

• 25:44Speaker 00

  Does have a name. So Will J, it does have a name. And it will, it will consist of a lot of speed for you to move your.

• 25:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You have to get in there and do this quickly so that they don't try to then react. Right. Okay. And mind you, while you're doing this, your back is to them. You don't want that for too long because what they, if they figure out what's happening, they'll reach around and just grab you and they'll be behind you and they've got the advantage. Exactly. So you have to do this so quickly that you get them off the ground before they even know it. And then gravity takes care of the rest. This is a very intimate sport, this wrestling. I, I had a move, my favorite move, because I have long legs and long arms.

• 26:20Speaker 00

  Right.

• 26:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's a figure four scissor headlock. And yeah, we're, we're both down on the ground. They're, my opponent is face down.

• 26:30Speaker 00

  Right.

• 26:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because if they're face up, they're pinned. So they're face down.

• 26:33Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 26:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I have their, in my case, their left arm twisted backwards towards me. Right. Okay.

• 26:40Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 26:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And.

• 26:41Speaker 00

  You shouldn't smile when you say that.

• 26:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, no. And my elbow's in the center of their back.

• 26:45Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 26:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So they're not getting up because all of my body weight is in the center of their back. And their left arm is back. That's legal? No, I'm not, well, yes, it's legal.

• 26:56Speaker 00

  This is wrestling.

• 26:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm not yanking his arm off his butt. Your arm does that. Well, yeah, it does. It's what you do when you're doing, when you're swimming. Right. Okay, your arm pulls back. But you're saying you're pulling it towards you. It's. Yes, just because I don't want him to get up. Okay. Okay, so now watch. So what I do then is bring that arm around my waist. And I walk forward and that arm pries him up. And I take my left foot, wrap it around his head, and I just walk him over. And all of this creates a lever arm and he has, unless he'd lose, he can choose to lose his head. Right. But there's a rule in wrestling. Don't lose your head. Wherever, wherever you, wherever the head goes, the body falls. Well, that's, that's kind of a good rule.

• 27:38Speaker 00

  Unless, of course, you lose.

• 27:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 27:41Speaker 00

  In Rick's case, that, that rule is off.

• 27:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The rule is a different. It's not my fault. He broke the rules.

• 27:46Speaker 00

  Go ahead.

• 27:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Anyhow, yeah, so some, some moves are more efficient than others. So efficiency matters in your moves because I used to think wrestling was just one of the hardest sports. But I'm going to say it's the hardest sport. Hmm. And I base that on just empirical data.

• 28:04Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 28:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ask people. What's the hardest sport they've ever done? I invite you to do so.

• 28:09Speaker 00

  No, no, I'm with you on this.

• 28:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Just do so. And you'll get all kinds of answers. Uh, uh, cross-country skiing.

• 28:13Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 28:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, triathlon.

• 28:15Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 28:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, marathon.

• 28:17Chuck Nice?

  Ping pong.

• 28:20Speaker 00

  For some, yes, others, no. You were saying Dr. Tyson.

• 28:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Badminton. Golf.

• 28:26Speaker 00

  You're a bad influence.

• 28:27Chuck Nice?

  So terrible, so terrible golf.

• 28:29Speaker 00

  You're a bad influence, leave her alone.

• 28:30Chuck Nice?

  Toughest sport ever.

• 28:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Swimming. You'll get of all manner of answers.

• 28:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 28:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If they have wrestled. They will tell you wrestling. That is 100% of the cases I have asked. I've done it maybe 50, 70 times. I've asked people.

• 28:50Speaker 00

  It's interesting because...

• 28:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Even rowing, and I used to row. Rowed and take you out. Okay? I, one time I wrestle and I did not have enough energy to hold my pee.

• 29:01Chuck Nice?

  Wow. That's pretty tired.

• 29:02Speaker 00

  Thanks for sharing.

• 29:03Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 29:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A little TMI on that one. That was in high school.

• 29:06Chuck Nice?

  I gotta tell you, I've, I've, I've actually, uh, uh, I'm drunk enough where that happened.

• 29:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That happened and you weren't even wrestling?

• 29:14Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, I wasn't wrestling. Yeah, no, I just got drunk enough where I was like, I felt like I've been wrestling all day. Actually, I'm wrestling with this addiction. No, okay. All right.

• 29:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right.

• 29:23Chuck Nice?

  So here we go. Let's, uh...

• 29:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Another question.

• 29:24Speaker 00

  Yes, please.

• 29:25Chuck Nice?

  Call me Kristoff. Uh, on Instagram says, "Has Dr. Tyson finally perfected the double tidal lock moves?" This is somebody who...

• 29:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ooh, somebody knows my stuff!

• 29:34Chuck Nice?

  Oh!

• 29:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Somebody knows my stuff!

• 29:36Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 29:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, I don't think I've ever, have I written that once? I, he must have heard me talk about it at some point.

• 29:41Chuck Nice?

  Is this a move you were talking about earlier?

• 29:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's what, so there's a move, yeah, earlier in the show. So... So, the moon, you may know, always shows the same face to us.

• 29:51Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 29:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So there's a near side and there's a far side.

• 29:53Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 29:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The far side is mistakenly occasionally called the...

• 29:58Chuck Nice?

  The dark side.

• 29:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Which is not, it gets light, just like every other part of the moon.

• 30:01Chuck Nice?

  Not, not, yeah, it's only the dark side because that's the room you're in while you're smoking the marijuana as you listen to Pink Floyd.

• 30:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Exactly.

• 30:07Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 30:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, Earth has tidally locked the moon.

• 30:12Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 30:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So that it rotates once...

• 30:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A month. Right. Okay? What we're saying is, as the moon moves around us, it is rotating at the exact rate, so that it's always showing the same side to us. But that sounds like what that means is not rotating. No. No. No, it actually has to rotate for that to happen. Think about it. If the moon is on one side of you, and you're looking at it that face, when it's on the other side of you, it'd have to turn around, face back the other way. Otherwise, you would be seeing the other side of the moon. Correct. There you go. Okay. The moon is trying to tidily lock us. Well, good luck to you, moon. I know. It's gonna lose before the sun ends. So, but it's trying. Right. Can't blame it for trying. No.

• 31:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, our day is slowing down slowly,

• 31:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  so that one day after the sun dies, a day on Earth would equal a month on, a, a, the, a moon month. So, in other words, the time it takes the moon to go around the Earth, that's how long it would take Earth to rotate. To spin around once. So, we would always show the same face to the moon. Oh. That's called a double tidal lock. A double tidal lock. Yes. So, I thought to myself, I want to invent a wrestling move called the double tidal lock. Interesting. Cosmically inspired. And so, I came up with a move, where you and I are face to face, and we lock arms. Okay? Okay. Now, you are as strong as I am. We are the same weight, and we're both fit. We both have one and a half percent body fat. So, this only works if you're fast, okay?

• 31:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And they can't know it's coming. So, you lock up the two arms, and we are like face to face, almost chest to chest. Okay. And the moment I do that, I then drag one side of you down and spin you to the mat. And as we rotate, we rotate facing each other as we descend. Hmm. But I have to make sure I am in charge and in control of you the entire time for that descent. Because you're not gonna wanna go down.

• 32:16Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 32:16Speaker 00

  So how do you, how do you ensure you have the control?

• 32:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I have to pull you, I have to pull you away from your center of mass.

• 32:22Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 32:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So that you're out of balance, and in order to get balance, you have to step forward, coming into my grip.

• 32:27Chuck Nice?

  So it's almost like the, your opponent is falling, you have them gripped.

• 32:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's a controlled fall.

• 32:32Chuck Nice?

  Controlled fall.

• 32:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And why do you fall?

• 32:34Chuck Nice?

  And while you fall, I rotate.

• 32:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes.

• 32:36Chuck Nice?

  You're face to face, and we rotate together, and you end up on your back.

• 32:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, that, that, you're.

• 32:40Chuck Nice?

  No, I'm saying the opponent.

• 32:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes.

• 32:42Chuck Nice?

  So you, you as the opponent will end up on your back.

• 32:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I got both of your arms.

• 32:45Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 32:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And with all my body weight pressing on your chest.

• 32:48Chuck Nice?

  Wow, that's a great move.

• 32:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right. Double title lock.

• 32:52Chuck Nice?

  The double title.

• 32:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's two faces facing each other and rotating.

• 32:55Chuck Nice?

  And they rotate together.

• 32:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 32:56Chuck Nice?

  And, and, and that's cool, because when it's over, you just get up and you go, you just got DTL'd, baby.

• 33:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  DTL with a double title lock. You just got served.

• 33:06Chuck Nice?

  You just got served.

• 33:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  By a, a, a concept of the universe.

• 33:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  By the way, Pluto and its major moon, Charon, are both, it's a double title lock.

• 33:15Chuck Nice?

  Charon! Okay.

• 33:17Speaker 00

  Were you able to execute that move at any point?

• 33:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, I tried it once, I wasn't quick enough at it, and I had to perfect it more, and by then I, by the time I really got into it.

• 33:27Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 33:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I had stopped wrestling.

• 33:29Chuck Nice?

  Got you. Okay. Oh, well.

• 33:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I can execute it if I tell you to.

• 33:34Chuck Nice?

  Play along?

• 33:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  To play along.

• 33:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, if you play along with me, it would work. But, but you, you said it correctly, I have to put you in a spiral fall.

• 33:43Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 33:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The only way I can do that is to constantly.

• 33:46Chuck Nice?

  Pull you for you.

• 33:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And, and pull you forward, so you're trying to keep your balance.

• 33:49Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 33:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And every next step, you're closer to the net.

• 33:51Chuck Nice?

  That's a cool move, actually. I, I kind of dig it.

• 33:53Speaker 00

  All right, we've got a question here from Cooper Holland, Hollyand, on Instagram. How come heavyweights are so boring, but little guys are always super slick and fun to watch?

• 34:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, okay, I haven't, so let me first disagree mildly with that.

• 34:08Speaker 00

  For sure.

• 34:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, the little guys are quick and not strong. And the big guys are strong but not quick. So ask yourself, at what weight class do you have the best combination of speed and strength? Right. I would put that, personally, 160s. You know, there's a metric and there's the poundage one, and it's not the same in collegiate as it is in Olympics, but I would say the guys that are in the 160-pound range, 160 and 170, they have the best combination of strength and speed. So for me, they're the most fun to watch.

• 34:47Speaker 00

  Do you ever get the outlier, the big guy with the speed?

• 34:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, there's some fast big guys, and they'll win every time. That's, or you get the really strong, small guy, and they're hard to... I call them the fire plugs. The fire plugs, oh yeah. The guy is like, he's 5'3", Right, right, right. And he's... And again, we're always exactly the same weight. Right. So there's a limit to how, so if you're, if you're really strong, you're shorter. Right. And if the taller, weaker wrestler doesn't know how to exploit their linkiness relative to your strength, then, then you're... It's always tough.

• 35:22Speaker 00

  So center of gravity against levers. Right? So, in NFL, they always talk, line of scrimmage, low guy wins.

• 35:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, however, when you're already on the mat,

• 35:31Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 35:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  everybody's center of gravity is low, so the center of gravity matters in a takedown more than it's gonna matter. Right. Yeah, yeah. Cool. All right, I guess we gotta take a break, huh?

• 35:40Speaker 00

  We'll take another break, yes.

• 35:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But you got a whole pages of questions there, okay.

• 35:44Speaker 00

  That's why we're coming back after the break, so as we can get more from Dr. Tyson, more of your questions, and more insight into the world of wrestling.

• 36:14Speaker 00

  Welcome back to Playing with Science, and a cosmic query show, this time with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, focusing purely on the wrestling, something he knows a lot about.

• 36:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, a little bit, I mean, I wrestled for eight years, so... Wow!

• 36:29Speaker 00

  It's eight years.

• 36:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's a long time to devote yourself. Four, yeah, seven years.

• 36:32Speaker 00

  Now, we were discussing...

• 36:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Eight, that was eight, because I had a little bit in graduate school, too. That's a lot, man.

• 36:36Speaker 00

  So, we were discussing earlier in the show about developments in the world of wrestling, and particularly with the women?

• 36:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, women are now wrestling, intercollegiate, and... Of course, this early, you don't have this, the full backdrop, the full repository of talent as you did for men, because men are doing it since middle school. So it'll take a while to build that, I think. But for the examples I've seen, I was stunned by how exciting and how interesting it was. There was an exhibition match held in Times Square, here in New York City. And where some international folks came in, some people who had wrestled in the Olympics. It was fun to see them, you get their autograph, and you get the exhibitions. So the women were there, and I, you know, the naive expectation, well, the women, and

• 37:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  you know, this is an upper body thing, and the women have their sports, you know, like the uneven bar in the gymnastics. No, not all sports are equally divided, right? Men don't do the uneven bar, the women don't do the rings, for example.

• 37:40Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 37:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right?

• 37:42Chuck Nice?

  And men don't do the balance beam.

• 37:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The balance beam. So the things that are, they split up based on body type. So, fine, okay, I get that. In wrestling, you say, okay, this is a guy thing, because guys, no, the women, oh my gosh!

• 37:53Chuck Nice?

  The men wrestle in a weight class.

• 37:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In a weight class, there it is, so you just match two women.

• 37:56Chuck Nice?

  You just match people equally.

• 37:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And there it is, and they got the wrestling rules, and they're all the same rules.

• 38:00Chuck Nice?

  I'm gonna get my daughter into this right away.

• 38:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It was completely, I was completely taken by it. And so I'm just pleased to report that this is on the rise.

• 38:09Chuck Nice?

  Good.

• 38:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And...

• 38:11Chuck Nice?

  I'm going, I'm...

• 38:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In an era where we're separating the genders and things, this is just, are you the same weight? Go for it.

• 38:18Chuck Nice?

  Go for it.

• 38:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There it is.

• 38:20Chuck Nice?

  I can't wait to get my daughter involved, because what, I'm looking at that scholarship money right now. Get in, get in on the ground floor, man, you know, she's five, she starts wrestling now, by the time she gets college, she's a kid, oh yeah!

• 38:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, all right, so let's do lightning round, because you've got pages and pages of questions here, go.

• 38:35Speaker 00

  All right, we've got Ed...

• 38:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Do I have my bell? I don't have my bell.

• 38:38Speaker 00

  All right, no bell, ding ding. Right, EdBamaru82, listening in Tijuana, Baja, California, this is on Instagram. All right, quick question, if you had to organize a wrestling match somewhere in the universe, where would it be?

• 38:51Chuck Nice?

  Ooh, in the universe. Wow.

• 38:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so most places in the universe will kill you.

• 38:59Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 39:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So of all the places in the universe, I'd have to organize the wrestling match on Earth.

• 39:04Chuck Nice?

  So you could...

• 39:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I would, I would hold it in Death Valley. But in an air-conditioned place in Death Valley. Why? Because that's the lowest place on Earth's surface. We have the highest atmospheric pressure. Where every breath of air you take has more oxygen than any other breath. Than anyplace else. So, you get to wrestle more.

• 39:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's a higher concentration of air.

• 39:27Chuck Nice?

  Okay. I'm loving that answer.

• 39:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's the opposite of going to a mountaintop. A shorter breath.

• 39:32Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 39:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You go lower down.

• 39:33Chuck Nice?

  I'm loving that.

• 39:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Or, or go to some salt mine.

• 39:36Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 39:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A mile down and have wrestling matches there.

• 39:38Chuck Nice?

  Nice.

• 39:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You'll never be out of breath.

• 39:39Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, it's just.

• 39:43Chuck Nice?

  Everybody walking around, sound like Darth Vader.

• 39:46Speaker 00

  All right, come on Chuck, next question.

• 39:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right Chuck, next question, go, quick.

• 39:48Chuck Nice?

  All right, here we go. How can a shorter wrestler use physics to their advantage against a taller wrestler? That's Rob from Rhode Island.

• 39:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's great. A shorter wrestler, if you're quick.

• 39:57Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 39:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You can attack their legs. Very easily.

• 40:00Chuck Nice?

  Oh.

• 40:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  From the standing, starting position. You just get in there, and now I got you on my leg and I'm trying to get you off my leg and now.

• 40:07Chuck Nice?

  You off me?

• 40:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You've got, you've got the first advantage. And if you're low on my legs and if you grab one leg and trip the other leg, I go down.

• 40:14Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 40:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right?

• 40:15Chuck Nice?

  And add two points for me.

• 40:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because my balance is established by my two legs.

• 40:18Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 40:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And so, so, um, shorter wrestlers can get in deeper on a quick move. But once you're down, being short is no longer.

• 40:28Chuck Nice?

  It's not an advantage anymore.

• 40:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's harder to exploit that advantage.

• 40:31Chuck Nice?

  Everybody's the same size laying down.

• 40:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, there you go.

• 40:33Speaker 00

  All right. Vision, I like this name, Vision of Oz from Instagram.

• 40:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh huh.

• 40:37Speaker 00

  Which, I think we may have covered this, but let's go again. Which law of physics would you believe would affect wrestlers the most?

• 40:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Hmm. Okay, so for every action is an equal and opposite reaction.

• 40:49Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 40:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's one of Newton's three laws of motion.

• 40:51Speaker 00

  Yes, correct.

• 40:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, that one, I think, manifests the most. In, in wrestling.

• 40:57Speaker 00

  All right, next question Chuck.

• 40:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, go.

• 40:59Chuck Nice?

  Interesting, uh.

• 41:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, by the way, his other three laws, objects in motion tend to stay in motion unless acted on by an outside force.

• 41:06Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 41:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Um.

• 41:08Chuck Nice?

  Inertia?

• 41:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, so the inertia, yeah, it's the inertia one. And the other one is, is a, his formula, force equals mass times acceleration. Which is the correspondence between what, if you press on something, how will it begin to move? For having done so.

• 41:23Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 41:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And, um, but the action and equal opposite reaction, I think that's the most.

• 41:27Chuck Nice?

  It's the most in wrestling. All right, uh, this is Jordan Rathers from Instagram wants to know this. Uh, I saw recently that wrestling has one of the lowest rate of high schoolers going on to compete in college. Why do you think this is? P S, I think the double title lock has been invented already and is referred to as an inside trip.

• 41:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, interesting, uh, cause I'm not tripping the person.

• 41:50Chuck Nice?

  No, you're not.

• 41:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's interesting. I'm just spiraling them down. So thank you for that. I'll, I'll check, I'll look at the, some videos on that. To see how they get the person to, to come down. For me, I mean, tripping would be simpler than spiraling you down.

• 42:03Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 42:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cause I have to still make sure that you're losing your balance all the way. But if I just trip you, I take you down right on the spot.

• 42:09Chuck Nice?

  Exactly. That's no, that's no celestial dance then, is it?

• 42:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, it's not a dance.

• 42:12Chuck Nice?

  Tripping, no.

• 42:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I can grab you and trip you backwards and that's the pin.

• 42:15Chuck Nice?

  But the idea is to have both your arms locked at the same time.

• 42:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And you want a pirouette.

• 42:19Chuck Nice?

  And you, right.

• 42:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, the pirouette, I got this.

• 42:21Chuck Nice?

  And we're gonna do it to music.

• 42:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm keeping my double title lock on that.

• 42:23Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, we're gonna do it to music.

• 42:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, otherwise I'll trip you and we just down, when we lose the dance.

• 42:27Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 42:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Um, wait, wait, but the other one was what?

• 42:28Chuck Nice?

  The other one was, um, why do you think that, um, wrestling has the lowest rate of high schoolers going on to compete in college?

• 42:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I did not know that and I'm surprised because the college wrestlers I've seen, they've been doing that since, you know, sixth grade. So I, I don't know and I'd be disappointed to learn if that were really, really true.

• 42:48Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 42:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cause otherwise you gotta teach people afresh, you know, all anew.

• 42:51Chuck Nice?

  And by the way, it's a, it's not a, it's a great sport to get some college money for. You know, everybody wants to play, but I'm telling you, if you got a kid, everybody's trying to be a basketball player or a soccer player or a football player or a baseball player. The, the title nine and all that money, it's gotta be distributed e, uh, a certain way. Get your kid into fencing, get your kid into wrestling, get your kid into, like, seriously, that's what you wanna do.

• 43:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What prep school did you go to, the fencing?

• 43:22Chuck Nice?

  Hey, I'm just saying. The sixth Duke of Earl will be fencing against.

• 43:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And the Duke is on scholarship.

• 43:32Speaker 00

  Right.

• 43:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Exactly.

• 43:33Speaker 00

  Says it because his parents aren't fools. Right, Chris Hartvigsen on Facebook, does bouncing off the ropes really add power to the people's elbow?

• 43:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, we're talking about pro wrestling now.

• 43:44Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 43:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, no, here's what happened.

• 43:46Chuck Nice?

  Talk about the rock.

• 43:46Speaker 00

  I'm talking tongues.

• 43:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, no, no, no, so the rope is a way for you to not lose the energy you had going into the rope.

• 43:54Chuck Nice?

  Ah. Ah.

• 43:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So the rope takes your energy into the rope and gives it back to you on the way out.

• 44:00Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 44:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No lost energy.

• 44:01Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 44:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And so there you have it.

• 44:02Chuck Nice?

  Because you have to put energy into it to bend the rope, it's like a bow and arrow. You gotta pull the bow back in order to get the arrow to go forward.

• 44:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And so all these sort of rubberized things help, uh, help the acrobatics of the professional, um, bout.

• 44:16Chuck Nice?

  Alright.

• 44:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 44:16Chuck Nice?

  Nice.

• 44:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Keep them coming, I'm on a roll here.

• 44:19Speaker 00

  Darren Ngaro on Facebook, what's the average energy output of a three to five minute match, heavy or light weight?

• 44:27Chuck Nice?

  In, in, in collegiate type wrestling, right?

• 44:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, oh, you know, I don't know.

• 44:32Chuck Nice?

  Alright.

• 44:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But when I wrestle for six minutes.

• 44:34Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 44:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm near dead.

• 44:38Speaker 00

  So a lot.

• 44:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, I, I, I, I'd have to calculate that and I, I don't, I've never done so, but...

• 44:43Speaker 00

  That's intense.

• 44:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Generally when we think of energy output, we think of you're on a treadmill.

• 44:48Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 44:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You're sweating, you're doing this thing. You're not thinking of this s- static force against force, not moving.

• 44:56Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 44:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because it can't move because there's a force against you that's exactly your strength. You're burning energy just not moving against that other person's force. And so it's a whole other kind of investment of body energy compared to the aerobic energy we think of when you're on a treadmill or on a rowing machine.

• 45:15Chuck Nice?

  Absolutely.

• 45:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so yeah, I, it's the, it's the most exhaustive six minutes I've ever spent doing anything in my life. So, I don't, we gotta figure out a way to quantify that.

• 45:26Chuck Nice?

  Cool.

• 45:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 45:27Chuck Nice?

  Alright, so Malik Umer Said says this from Facebook, what is the ultimate tensile strength of a human muscle? Interesting question.

• 45:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ooh.

• 45:35Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, it's a great question.

• 45:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ooh, so, um, I, I, I knew a guy who liked doing things like arm wrestling and you do the wrist thing where you try to, you, you interlock fingers.

• 45:51Chuck Nice?

  Fingers, wrist to wrist and try to bend back.

• 45:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And try to bring back the wrist. What he does is he locks... He is very good at locking his muscles. Hmm. And then he just tips you backwards and you're trying to use energy to to to to move his muscle, but he's locked them, okay? That's pretty cool. He's locked them. And then I said, uh, that feels dangerous to you. And he said, why? I said, because if you lock your muscles and I hit a tipping point in those muscles, you rip the muscle out of the out of the out of the joint. Ew. Right? It just rips rather than Oh. flexing. Yes. You lock the muscle and you rip the the the ligaments, the tendons. And in fact, he told me that actually happened to him. No, not to him, to another person he was doing it against. Wow.

• 46:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This this this wrist wrestling exercise. So. Why am I in pain? I know. I'm in pain. So I don't know, but I can tell you that muscle strength scales as the cross sectional area of the muscle itself. That's why bigger muscles are stronger than small smaller muscles. It's quite a simple equation there. There you go. All right. No, no, I can't quantify that, but I'm just saying. Um, do you remember any old time SNL fans here? Uh, they.

• 47:03Speaker 00

  Oh, yes, I think I know where you're going with this one.

• 47:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There was one where they were parodying the fact that everyone was doing drugs in the Olympics. So they were gonna have a new kind of Olympics where drug use was encouraged. Okay, so they go to the weightlifting part and the guy bends down to pick up the weights and then he goes for the deadlift. They said, oh, no, this is the second time someone has pulled their arms off. There's blood splurting out from his shoulder. It was pretty gross. That's pretty wild.

• 47:27Speaker 00

  Let's not encourage that.

• 47:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, we don't want to encourage that.

• 47:30Speaker 00

  So, uh, but that's about it, Chuck.

• 47:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, man, I can't believe it. Fun show, fun show.

• 47:34Speaker 00

  Yeah, and thank you, Dr. Tyson, for your insight into the world of wrestling.

• 47:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes. Oh, yeah, thank you. Yeah, I didn't know what this topic was when I came in today. I know. I would have done a little more homework.

• 47:44Speaker 00

  Well, we like to get you on your toes.

• 47:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, sorry.

• 47:46Speaker 00

  No, you don't be sorry.

• 47:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm wrestling and I'm an old man now. Yeah, well, listen, you're better than me. All I wrestle with is childhood issues.

• 47:55Speaker 00

  Right, on that note, thank you to everybody who...

• 48:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, well, one other thing before you end?

• 48:02Speaker 00

  One other thing, apparently.

• 48:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There was talk of getting rid of wrestling in the Olympics, because the viewing audience was not as high as it was for figure skating, or for all these other, or for other sports. And so I said, you know, I have to weigh in on this. I can't just let this go unchallenged.

• 48:19Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 48:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, I, and I hate pitting one sport against another.

• 48:26Speaker 00

  Bop.

• 48:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But, but I said, I've never seen synchronized swimmers on the side of a Grecian urn.

• 48:34Speaker 00

  That's pretty funny.

• 48:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Nor badminton, for that matter.

• 48:38Speaker 00

  Right.

• 48:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's all I said.

• 48:39Speaker 00

  Oh. Yes.

• 48:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I just said, I just said, I didn't see that. I haven't seen it. Maybe, maybe somebody made one with synchronized swimming. And I have missed it.

• 48:48Speaker 00

  Right.

• 48:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But on Grecian urns, you get the discus thrower, you get the wrestler.

• 48:53Speaker 00

  Right. I say what you do is just combine the two. Wrestling on ice. You see, you and I had the same thought. You and I had the same thought.

• 49:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It seems like it's time to end this program.

• 49:04Speaker 00

  Oh, yes, it was. Triple salchow, bam, right into a batter slam. Ooh, that had to hurt. Okay, so we've done it once again. We've reinvented the world of wrestling, and we shall continue to do such things in our following shows. Uh, thank you to everybody who had a question read out. Thank you to everybody who sent a question in, and we weren't able to get there. Thank you to Dr. Tyson, because it's been fabulous, always.

• 49:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We'd be, thanks for having me.

• 49:31Speaker 00

  Oh, you're welcome.

• 49:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You usually plug me in every now and then, but now I was, I was like the guest.

• 49:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  On the show.

• 49:35Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, all right.

• 49:36Speaker 00

  That's nice. So that's it. I've been Chuck Nice. And I've been Gary O'Reilly. And this has been Playing with Science. Until next time.