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If you like math fun and movies I would recommend the series "Numbers" and the movie "A beautiful mind" as a dramatic portrayal of paranoia that some famous mat

by kghose 15y ago

If you like math fun and movies I would recommend the series "Numbers" and the movie "A beautiful mind" as a dramatic portrayal of paranoia that some famous mathematicians have developed. (The linked article is a bit light and in the end not so interesting for me, unfortunately.)

bitwize 15y ago
Numb3rs is, to me, a grown-up version of Mathnet, the math-heavy police procedural parody that accompanied each episode of Square One TV (a children's educational program oriented toward mathematics that aired on PBS in the 80s and 90s). The difference is, on Mathnet there are extended scenes of the characters actually doing math. That was the attractant for me...
- kghose 15y ago
  Thanks for pointing me to that! (https://www.google.com/search?tbm=vid&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1279&bih=687&q=mathnet https://www.google.com/search?tbm=vid&hl=en&source=h...)
- keenerd 15y ago
  I can only hope that some day Square One will air again. That show was crucial to me as a kid.
- pork 15y ago
  Numb3rs, to me, is a parody of math. You can argue whether it's a disservice to math or not when it's presented as a magical tool obfuscated by senseless jargon and technical term soup, which is what I found Numb3rs to be (and I'm a mathematician). It's sort of like the "zoom in on B3 and enhance" of math.
  - yummyfajitas 15y ago
    It's also a bunch of unnecessary math. \ FBI guy: "Hey little brother, we found this remote control car door opener. Can you and your hot grad student talk about math for a few minutes and then tell me who owned the car?" On tv: Brother: "Sure thing bro. Prime numbers and encryption 2 3 5 7 11 13..." Grad student: "I'm a hot female role model talking about elliptic curves." In real life: Brother: "Love to help, but I gotta finish this paper so I can get tenure. Why don't you just call Toyota?"
- Dove 15y ago
  Numb3rs is, to me, a grown-up version of Mathnet, Whereas Beautiful Mind is spectacularly accurate. I used to make a game with other grad students in the math department, identifying what was on the blackboards in the background. It was always real math.

by kghose 15y ago

bitwize 15y ago

Numb3rs is, to me, a grown-up version of Mathnet, the math-heavy police procedural parody that accompanied each episode of Square One TV (a children's educational program oriented toward mathematics that aired on PBS in the 80s and 90s). The difference is, on Mathnet there are extended scenes of the characters actually doing math. That was the attractant for me...

kghose 15y ago
Thanks for pointing me to that! (https://www.google.com/search?tbm=vid&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1279&bih=687&q=mathnet https://www.google.com/search?tbm=vid&hl=en&source=h...)
keenerd 15y ago
I can only hope that some day Square One will air again. That show was crucial to me as a kid.
pork 15y ago
Numb3rs, to me, is a parody of math. You can argue whether it's a disservice to math or not when it's presented as a magical tool obfuscated by senseless jargon and technical term soup, which is what I found Numb3rs to be (and I'm a mathematician). It's sort of like the "zoom in on B3 and enhance" of math.
- yummyfajitas 15y ago
  It's also a bunch of unnecessary math. \ FBI guy: "Hey little brother, we found this remote control car door opener. Can you and your hot grad student talk about math for a few minutes and then tell me who owned the car?" On tv: Brother: "Sure thing bro. Prime numbers and encryption 2 3 5 7 11 13..." Grad student: "I'm a hot female role model talking about elliptic curves." In real life: Brother: "Love to help, but I gotta finish this paper so I can get tenure. Why don't you just call Toyota?"
Dove 15y ago
Numb3rs is, to me, a grown-up version of Mathnet, Whereas Beautiful Mind is spectacularly accurate. I used to make a game with other grad students in the math department, identifying what was on the blackboards in the background. It was always real math.