Math Goes to the Movies

Erscheinungsjahr 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4214-0484-4
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, 304 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 244 mm, Gewicht: 528 g

Mel Gibson teaching Euclidean geometry, Meg Ryan and Tim Robbins acting out Zeno's paradox, Michael Jackson proving in three different ways that 7 x 13 = 28. These are just a few of the intriguing mathematical snippets that occur in hundreds of movies. Burkard Polster and Marty Ross pored through the cinematic calculus to create this thorough and entertaining survey of the quirky, fun, and beautiful mathematics to be found on the big screen.

Math Goes to the Movies is based on the authors' own collection of more than 700 mathematical movies and their many years using movie clips to inject moments of fun into their courses. With more than 200 illustrations, many of them screenshots from the movies themselves, this book provides an inviting way to explore math, featuring such movies as:

• Good Will Hunting
• A Beautiful Mind
• Stand and Deliver
• Pi
• Die Hard
• The Mirror Has Two Faces

The authors use these iconic movies to introduce and explain important and famous mathematical ideas: higher dimensions, the golden ratio, infinity, and much more. Not all math in movies makes sense, however, and Polster and Ross talk about Hollywood's most absurd blunders and outrageous mathematical scenes. Interviews with mathematical consultants to movies round out this engaging journey into the realm of cinematic mathematics.

This fascinating behind-the-scenes look at movie math shows how fun and illuminating equations can be.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Polster, Burkard

Ross, Marty

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Filmwissenschaft, Fernsehen, Radio
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Enzyklopädien, Nachschlagewerke, Wörterbücher
• Mathematik | Informatik Mathematik Mathematik Allgemein Populäre Darstellungen der Mathematik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface

Part I: Movies
1. Good Math Hunting
2. The Clever Hand Behind A Beautiful Mind
3. Escalante Stands and Delivers
4. The Annotated Pi Files
5. Nitpicking in Mathmagic Land
6. Escape from the Cube
7. The Incredible Shrinking Room
8. Murder in the Hot House
9. A Word problem for Die Hards
10. 7x13=28
11. One Mirror Has two Faces, Two Mirrors Have.
12. It's My Turn for Some Serious Mathematics

Part II: Mathematics
13. Beautiful Math, or Better off Dead
14. Pythagroas and Fermat at the Movies
15. Survival in the Fourth Dimension
16. To Infinity, and Beyond!
17. Problem Corner
18. Money-Back Bloopers
19. The Funny Files

Part III: Lists
20. People Lists
21. Topics Lists

Movie Index

Über Autor(innen)

Polster, Burkard
Burkard Polster is an associate professor of mathematics at Monash University and author of A Geometrical Picture Book and The Mathematics of Juggling.

Burkard Polster is an associate professor of mathematics at Monash University and author of A Geometrical Picture Book and The Mathematics of Juggling. Marty Ross, together with Polster, writes Maths Masters, a weekly column published in Australia's Age newspaper, featuring fascinating and playful discussions of a wide range of mathematical topics.