The book is not yet published (October 10), so this is the first time anyone will have read anything from ‘The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets’. The response has been great, both in terms of twitter and the comments after the article. Shockingly, this turned out to be most read article on the entire Guardian/Observer website on Sunday.

The Simpsons’ secret formula: it’s written by maths geeks

When one of Britain’s best-known science writers went to Los Angeles to meet the show’s writers for a new book, he found a team dedicated to inserting gags about complex maths problems. And you thought it was just a cartoon… read more.