Maths at: The Number 23

Did you know that:

• the Earth tilts at 23 degrees on its axis? (Well it's actually closer to 23.5 and degrees are an arbitrary unit of measurement);
  
• 2 divided by 3 is 0.666 recurring? (Although if you round it properly it would be 0.667, which is the Devil's next door neighbour);
  
• if you rearrange the letters in "The Number Twenty Three" you get "This is all Hogwash"?

Isn't numerology incredible?

This week we watched Joel Schumacher's 23rd film: "The Number 23", starring Jim Carrey. And we ask, perhaps, the most important question of all - was this film actually a secret sequel to Ace Ventura Pet Detective?

We're through the looking glass here people!

 If you're interested in watching The Number 23 then please recondsider watching Paddington (one or two, they're both good.)

Your regulars, Thomas and Ben are joined by Hannah Veale and you can either tickle your eyeballs and/or your ear drums. We're so good to you.

Further reading: 

• How do you spot a conspiracy theory?
• James Grime demonstrating Benford's law in an everyday paper.
• ???
  

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Follow us on twitter @PodcastMathsAt, as well as @ThomasEWoolley and @benmparker. Hannah has one of those new-fangled instagrams.

Math at the Movies: x+y

Well, this was a pain in the backside to edit. The film is so tawdry and dull that we kept getting lost on tangents. Fear not though faithful listener, Thomas has edited the two hours of guff down to a single hour of solid... bronze.

Today's discussion points include: 

• How should you flip a mattress?
• Does the culture you grow up in influence how you learn maths?
• BUMFIT!

From our mouths to your ears, enjoy!

 

If you want to watch x+y, you can follow the link below.

Further reading links:

• As per usual some artistic license was taken with this true story, this website provides the fact behind the fiction;
• Fancy testing yourself with real IMO problems?
• What is the difference between IMO problems and research mathematics?

Subscribe via iTunes.
Follow us on twitter @PodcastMathsAt, as well as @ThomasEWoolley and @benmparker.

Maths at the Movies: Interstellar plus SPECIAL GUEST

This week we watch Interstellar.

We are very excited to be joined by the expertise of

Cat Harris

Whereas Thomas and Ben are just about good enough understand their own mathematical fields Cat has a wide range of disciplines under her belt spanning both physics and movie effects. We couldn't ask for a better guest!

If you're interested in watching Interstellar you can follow the Amazon below.

Further reading links:

• The hour long Interstellar documentary;
• The Interstellar book;
• All you could ever want to know about Sex in Space;
• Dissolving the dead with alkaline hydrolysis.

Subscribe via iTunes.
 
Follow us on twitter @PodcastMathsAt, as well as @ThomasEWoolley, @benmparker and @cat_harris_fx

Watch along with MATM: Interstellar and SPECIAL GUEST!

Next Friday we will be critiquing the maths and physics of Interstellar.

What's more, because this is the 10th episode (and because Ben and Thomas aren't physicists) we will be joined by a SPECIAL GUEST.

Not only is she a Cambridge physics graduate, but she now works in film digital effects. Who could ask for more?

Why not watch along with us? You can buy a digital version of the film through Amazon by clicking on the image below.

Maths at the Movies: The Oxford Murders

This week we discuss we discuss The Oxford Murders:

• Thomas laughs at the word bra;
• Liz wants a prime number named after her;
• Ben just wants his coffee bringing to him;
• And we all think about mathematically defining pasta shapes.

Yup, it's a case of a bad movie, with very little to talk about. At least it made for a fun recording!

If you're interested in watch The Oxford Murders, then you're weird, but you can buy the DVD from Amazon below.

Further reading links:

• Self descriptive numbers
• Online integer sequences database
• Fermat's last theorem
• Magic square and noughts and crosses

Subscribe via iTunes.
Follow us on twitter @PodcastMathsAt, as well as @ThomasEWoolley and @benmparker.

Watch along with MATM: The Oxford Murders

Don't do it.

The Oxford Murders is terrible.

(Thomas is very sorry for choosing it).

However, should you want to waste 104 minutes of your life you can buy the DVD from Amazon by following the link below.

 

Such a waste of talented people!
Such a waste of mathematical logic!

We didn't read it... but the book might be better?

Maths at the Movies: Flatland

This week we take a walk in the lower dimensions as we talk about Flatland: The Movie.

• How much is your life worth?
• Could 2D animals exist?
• Did George Orwell rip this story off by adding a third dimension?

All of these questions and more are interrupted in our Flatland: The Movie podcast.

Join us in our search for the third dimension and beyond!

If you're interested in watching Flatland: The Movie  you can follow the Amazon link below.

Further reading links:

• galleries of beautiful fractal images;
• learn more about maths in the courtroom;
• the the company behind the film have made a number of educational resources and other films;
• why not read the book the film is based on?
• This links takes you to one of Martin Gardener's review of Planiverse, Alexander Dewdney's fully thought out and scientifically accurate version of Flatland.

Subscribe via iTunes.
Follow us on twitter @PodcastMathsAt, as well as @ThomasEWoolley and @benmparker. 

Watch along with MATM: Flatland

It's been a long time coming, but we're finally back on track. Next Friday will be our 8th episode where we discuss and watch Flatland: The Movie.

Once again we have a star-studded cast of voice actors including Martin Sheen, Kristen Bell and Michael York.

You can buy a DVD copy from the company behind the film, or Amazon does stock imported US versions. However, they are quite expensive and will take a little while to arrive.

For those of you who do not want to seek an illegal online streaming copy (which we do not condone here at Maths At) there is always the possibility of reading the book by Edwin A. Abbott, which sticks pretty close to the movie, except for one or two plot points. The book also goes into much more detail about the Flatland universe.

Be there or be square.

Maths at the Movies: Moneyball

In this (Hallowe'en themed?) episode we watch the movie Moneyball.

The story of a young mathematician, played by Jonah Hill, struggling to be heard amongst the angry men that make up baseball. And I think Brad Pitt was in there somewhere as well.

• Can Jonah produce a winning team by redefining how statistics are used?
• Why does Thomas keep saying the phrase "dick swinging"?
• Where did Ben get a hold of those baseball sounds?

All of these questions and more are not answered in our Moneyball podcast.

If you're interested in watching Moneyball you can follow the Amazon link below.

Further reading links:

• a really interesting sabermetrics talk at google;
• the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon;
• pi after shave.

Subscribe via iTunes.
Follow us on twitter @PodcastMathsA, as well as @ThomasEWoolley and @benmparker.

Watch along with MATM: Moneyball

Brad Pitt is a sexy man. He's done action, comedy, drama and more. A true acting force to be reckoned with.

Join us as we watch him sit around in chairs and talk to men:

• Young men;
• Old men;
• Sporty men;
• Angry men;
• Mathematical men.

All the men you could ever want in a film are right here for your viewing pleasure.

Yup, it's Moneyball: baseball, men and apparently some maths? We've really got to stop Ben choosing the films!

If you want to watch along with us then can buy a digital version of the film through Amazon by clicking on the image below.

Maths at the Movies: pi

This week we watched pi.

Sadly there were no tigers, boats or Dev Patel in this movie.

Nope, this film was an avant garde, mood piece, seething with questioning the meaning of truth and its place in the lives of humans and the universe.

In other words pretentious.

However, none Darren Aronofsky's nonsense matters. What you should be listening for is Ben's rendition of "Euclid's people" a song of his own creation sung to the tune of "Common people" by pulp.

You've got to hear it to believe it.

If you're interested in watching pi you can follow the Amazon link below.

 

Further reading links:

• play go online;
• find your birthday in pi;
• more pi facts than you can shake a stick at;
• weird ways of calculating pi;
• known digits of pi over time.

Subscribe via iTunes.

Watch along with MATM: pi

Apple?

Cherry?

Raspberry?

Unfortunately, none of these.

This Friday we'll be releasing our pi podcast. Darren Aronofsky's surreal, disturbing, art house, pretentious, feature debut about the descent into insanity of the Jewish Mathematician Max Cohen.

One of the reasons Thomas started this podcast was to talk about this film and to ensure that everyone hated it as much as him.

We don't recommend it, but if you want to watch along with us then can buy a digital version of the film through Amazon by clicking on the image below.

 

Maths at the Movies: The Imitation Game plus SPECIAL GUEST

In this episode we watch the movie The Imitation Game. 

Alongside your regular team of Thomas, Ben and Liz there was only one mathematician with the expertise who could take us through this movie with grace, wit and wisdom. And that mathematician wasn't available so we got 

Dr James Grimes 

instead.

Join us for episode five of Maths at: The Movies as we separate fact from fiction about the life of Alan Turing.

If you're interested in watching The Imitation Game you can follow the Amazon link below.

 

Further reading links:

• more than you would ever want to know about Alan Turing;
• Turing's biography by Andrew Hodges;
• more than you would ever want to know about James Grime;
• finding the truth behind the movies;
• comparing actors and their real-life counter parts.
• play with an online enigma machine;
• play with an online Turing machine.

Subscribe via iTunes.

Maths at the Movies: The Man Who Knew Infinity

In this episode we watch the movie The Man Who Knew Infinity.

And in this episode we learn that we shouldn't be mean to Dev Patel.

• You can admire Jeremy Iron's subtle performance of introversion;
• You can wonder if maths is like Jazz;
• You can even question whether Ramanujan really was as brilliant as he was claimed to be.

You can do all of this... as long as you're not mean to Dev Patel.

Join us for episode four of Maths at: The Movies as we delve deep into the biopic of Srinivasa Ramanujan.

If you're interested in watching The Man Who Knew Infinity you can follow the Amazon link below.

Further reading links:

• more than you would ever want to know about Ramanujan;
• Hardy's famous apology;
• puzzles based on Ramanujan's work;
• buy the book behind the film;
• Chinese multiplication;
• Generating -1/12 from adding the integers.

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Maths at the Movies: Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land

In this episode we watch the movie Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land.

Well, this was just weird.

Although the animation is beautiful, can you trust the company that told you that lemmings were suicidal to teach you mathematics?

Also we cover Donald Duck's terrible gun control and the billiards game that goes on forever!

Plus bees that make jam.

If you're interested in watching Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land, you can follow the Amazon link below.

Further reading links:

• coloured honey from French bees;
• the billiards diamond system;
• Le Corbusier's mathematical architecture;
• there was a book too?

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Maths at the Movies: Proof

In this episode we watch the movie Proof.

Did Gwyneth Paltrow really prove the theorem? What theorem was she trying to prove? How many vaginas does a Time Lord have?

All these questions and more are discussed in this weeks Maths at the Movies.

If you're interested in watching Proof you can follow the Amazon link below.

Further reading links:

• more about the amazing life of Sophie Germain;
• who was Erdos?;
• calculate your Erdos number;
• what are prime numbers good for?;
• the ideas behind the Four Colour Theorem;
• buy the book of the play.

Subscribe via iTunes.

Maths at the Movies: 21

In our first ever episode we watch the movie 21.

This film has it all: racism, sexism, disableism... and a smattering of mathematics.

Join us as we peel back the layers of gambling and card counting to reveal why you should never keep your money in your ceiling and why you'll never be as good a mathematician as Kevin Spacey.

If you're interested in watching 21 you can follow the Amazon link below.

Further reading links:

• more than you could ever want to know about the Fibonacci sequence;
• a basic strategy guide to blackjack;
• learn how to count cards from wikiHow or Scam School;
• a technical guide to the Newton-Raphson technique.

 Subscribe via iTunes.