BBC: Story of Maths

[CraigS]

So, while we're on the topic of BBC documentaries, here's another major find (apologies if its already known):

The Story of Maths, presented by Marcus du Sautoy. (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+story+of+m aths&aq=0) (Start with Part 1/4 Episode 1 and follow the links).

Ok .. so the topic of mathematics is pretty dry, but I find this documentary is so well made, its almost enough to inspire one to turn to the 'dark side' and think about becoming well … OMG .. a mathematician … :eyepop: !!

(As an aside: Marcus du Sautoy (OBE) is the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. In October 2008, he was appointed to the Simonyi Professorship for the Public Understanding of Science, succeeding the inaugural holder Richard Dawkins).

The series is quite lengthy, but it traces the history of maths from ancient Egypt all the way through to modern day. I've waded through most of it and I find each episode totally fascinating, and for me, it serves as a reminder of the usually long-forgotten breadth, depth and immense importance mathematics has in our daily lives. I learned many things of which I was blissfully unaware, by watching this one.

For my 2 cents worth, I'll give it another 9.5/10 rating … its just superb !

Cheers

[sjastro]

Surely there is not a bit of ribbing going on here Craig.;)

I wonder if the series goes deep enough to include.

(a) The greatest mathematician of all time who actually never existed Nicholas Bourbaki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Bourbaki).
(b) Why mathematicians are terrified by the letter Z. (Unfortunately very true.:))

Regards

Steven

[CraigS]

Right on cue, Steven ! ;) :)
Me ?? .. Rib mathematicians ??? … Never !!! … :innocent:


Well, I haven't come across Nicolas_Bourbaki in the series … sounds like yet-just-another-cult-of-extremist-mathematicians to me, eh ? :P :)

But more seriously, very interesting ! … I was also unaware of the contributions of Gauss, the (various) Bernoullis, and before that, the contributions from India to trigonometry, infinity and negative numbers (by mainly Brahmagupta - also an astronomer).

Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī from the Middle East, came up with solutions to linear and quadratic equations (in about 825 AD) and it took until the 12th Century for Europe/England to catch up with his work .. these works also gave rise to the term 'Algebra' …. amazing and yet still fairly obscure stuff !

There are many more little known facts, (from our Western civilisation perspective), presented in the Series, which makes it all the more fascinating.

Incredible stuff !

Cheers

[BPO]

Aaah, maths... Probably the most important of subjects (certainly in science), yet the one people are least likely to study...

Thanks for the link!

[sjastro]

Just one of your run of the mill extremist mathematician groups like the Gaussists, Brahmaguptaists and al-Khwārizmīsts.:P



The most important contribution from Arab mathematicians was the preservation of ancient Greek mathematics. While Western Europe sank into the dark ages, Greek knowledge was lost, only to be reintroduced back into Europe by Islamic conquest through Spain.



We are only familiar with western mathematicians through our Eurocentric viewpoint, yet some of the greatest mathematicians were from the East.

Regards

Steven

[CraigS]

It also seems that the actual numeric symbols .. 1, 2, 3, 4, etc all came from the Middle Eastern/Arabic mathematicians and eventually triumphed over Roman Numerals (or Egyptian symbols).

The Chinese, (the 'Far East', that is), influence shouldn't be underestimated either, (IMO). These guys were applying mathematics towards practical uses way before the rest had even figured out the basics. Y'know, one could even credit them with the honour of calling them 'Engineers' because they were so adept at applied mathematics ! :P :)

I didn't catch why 'Z' is feared by mathematicians (??). It can't be Z-transforms which worry 'em … (these being the bread-and-butter of digital signal processing techniques ?)

Cheers

[sjastro]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourbaki_dangerous_bend_symbol

Regards

Steven

[CraigS]

Ha … cool .. interesting … I didn't know of that one.

Thanks, Steven.
:)
Cheers

[CraigS]

Well … I'm happy to say that I finally got through to the end of this series, and I'm also happy to announce that indeed, Nicolas Bourbaki, DOES get a mention … in the very last episode !

What a great series … and what a bunch of towering giants these guys were!

I would have to say, that had they not pursued their passion for mathematics, our present day views of the infinite, what's possible and what's not, would remain completely unknown, and I seriously doubt whether any of us would have any chance of separating reality from delusion, when peering through a telescope.

A simply superb series.

Cheers

[sjastro]

An example of a towering giant was the Irish mathematician William Hamilton who was referring to 4 dimensional spacetime nearly 70 years before Einstein came across the idea.

[CraigS]

Yep .. the originator of Hamiltonian Mechanics ! And it seems he did it all on his own .. with no academic institutional support ! Amazing !
They seemed to leave him out of the BBC series for some reason :shrug:

David Hilbert was a one of a kind too, eh?
Of his original 23 problems he set for the mathematics community (in 1900), it seems there are still 3 left unresolved (including the Riemann Hypothesis) … the real "School Master", eh ?

Cheers

[sjastro]

He was also an "amateur physicist".

Many accredit him as being the true "architect" behind GR.
Not bad for an amateur.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_priority_dispute#Did_Hil bert_claim_priority_for_parts_of_Ge neral_Relativity.3F

Regards

Steven

[CraigS]

Interesting … I didn't know Einstein and Hilbert were that close in thinking !

It made me chuckle at the point in the documentary where Kurt Godel, almost to the same day/week as Hilbert's 23 question challenge was delivered, announced his proof of the Incompleteness Theorem !

I think they mentioned that Hilbert kind of ignored it (for the rest of his life) !

Godel tried to imply that it was no big deal, also .. but it clearly was a huge blow to the establishment (including Godel himself) !

What (literally), a classic, eh ?

Cheers

[sjastro]

Another feature of Hilbert is that he became known as "The Teacher of the Great". His students included Enrico Fermi, Robert Oppenheimer and John Von Neumann.

Fermi and Oppenheimer are well known for the development of the atomic bomb, Von Neumann also contributed but in a twist of irony being a mathematician he developed Game Theory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory).
Game theory was taken up by the American and Soviet military to examine nuclear war scenarios. Both sides concluded even with a first strike advantage mutual annihilation was the end result.

It has been said that Game Theory led to the indefinite postponement of World War III.
So much for people stating maths is useless.;)

Regards

Steven