Popular Culture and Mathematics
Here we will list your recommendations of movies, TV shows, documentaries, books, and other pop-culture incidences about mathematics and mathematicians. Please submit your contributions using the form at the bottom of each page at the class website. Newest entries first.
∑ 2021-10-13: A fun book I'd recommend (if you like math) is The Universal Book of Mathematics: From Abracadabra to Zeno's Paradoxes by David Darling (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2004), a one-volume encyclopedia with more than 1,800 entries covering math concepts, theorems, and mathematicians and also includes some puzzles and games.
When I looked up the traveling salesman problem there was a see also reference to the Hamilton circuit of minimum weight in a weighted complete graph, which led me to a brief mention of the Hamilton path and then to the knight's tour, which is "a classic chess puzzle: to find a sequence of moves by which a knight can visit each square of a chessboard exactly once." (It can be done and Euler found a tour that visits two halves of the board in turn.)
Another book you might want to take a look at is Simon: The Genius in My Basement by Alexander Masters (New York: Delacorte Press, 2012), a biography of sorts about Simon Norton, a mathematical prodigy. (https://www.amazon.com/Simon-Genius-Basement-Alexander-Masters/dp/0385341083) His obituary appeared in The Guardian and was written by the author of the book: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/feb/22/simon-norton-obituary
On a lighter note, I suggest the following:https://youtu.be/ReOQ300AcSU
Homer Simpson vs. Pierre de Fermat--Numberphile.
∑ 2021-10-12: NEW Movie (October 2021): "Adventures of a Mathematician", about Stan Ulam (find him in the index of our textbook). Available now to rent ($6.99) at Prime Video, or see it in November at 2021 Virtual Maine Jewish Film Festival. Deals mainly with the period of his work on nuclear weapons.
∑ My family watched "The Man Who Knew Infinity" (about Ramanujan and Hardy). I highly recommend it. DVD available at Ptld. Public Library. Film went into just enough number theories.
∑ Video about a quilt based on the sieve of Eratosthenes:
http://gallery.bridgesmathart.org/exhibitions/2021-joint-mathematics-meetings/kponto
∑ Two numberphile videos about prime numbers, both of which show mathematicians having fun with numbers..
James Grimes "Infinite Primes" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctC33JAV4FI provides another look at the proof that there are an infinite number of primes and about halfway through this seven minute video mentions Euclid’s different definition of a prime number.
Matt Parker's "Squaring Primes" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMkIiFs35HQ presents an entertaining look at the “fact that all prime numbers, when you square them, are one more than a multiple of 24.” He comes up with his own proof and then shows another, easier way.
The Errol Morris book about what is true: Believing is Seeing: Observations on the Mysteries of Photography
Another Tom Lehrer math song: “ Lobachevsky” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXlfXirQF3A
∑ Here is a recent article about films dealing with maths and mathematicians. Covers most of the well-known movies.
∑ The play "Arcadia", by Tom Stoppard, is a fictionalized version of the life of 19th century mathematician, Ada Lovelace.
∑ A documentary from PBS (I think) about Fermat's Last Theorem:
https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/fermats-last-theorem/
∑ As requested by another student, I'm posting a link to Tom Lehrer's "New Math" - not one of his best, but fun. Most of his songs are REALLY fun!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6OaYPVueW4
∑ Fiction: here's where perfect numbers first came to my notice:
The Housekeeper and the Professor, by Yoko Ogawa
(The blurb at Amazon makes the book sound like soap opera and less interesting than I found it.)
