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Math 5: Numb3rs in Lett3rs & Fi1ms

(Mathematics in Literature and Cinema)

Instructor: Mark Kozek, email: mark.r.kozek {at} dartmouth.edu.

COURSE

HANDOUTS & MISCELLANEA: (updated 12/1, non-public links have been removed)

Most Recent HW Handout:

· HW #11, due Friday, Nov. 15.

· HW #10, due Monday, Nov. 11.

Handouts:

· The final paper.

· The blurb about the thesis (for your final paper).

· Leading a discussion.

· Math problem grading rubric.

About different geometries and dimensions:

· Hinton’s “What is the Fourth Dimension?”.

· “Four-dimensional polytopes: Alicia Boole Stott’s algorithm.”

· Flatland-related excerpts from The Shape of Space.

· “Little Girl Lost” a teleplay from The Twilight Zone.

· Byrne’s edition of Euclid’s ELEMENTS (Books 1-6).

· Banchoff’s Beyond the Third Dimension.

About PI:

· “Pi and Four Fingers” about pi in The Simpsons from Numberphile.

· The Brothers Chudnovsky.

· Deriving pi with polygons.

· Searching in pi.

· 10 Trillion digits of pi.

· Pi, a poem by Wislawa Szymborska.

· “Pi: From Archimedes to ENIAC and Beyond” by Jonathan Borwein.

· From Contact by Carl Sagan.

· “The admirable number pi” by David Tammet.

Links:

· “No TV show has liked math more than Futurama”, Wired, Nov 15, 2013.

· “Gaps between primes” about the twin prime conjecture from Numberphile (extra footage).

· “The beauty of bounded gaps” about the twin prime conjecture from Slate.

· List of OUR favorite mathematicians and characters (from HW#6).

· Favorite mathematicians and characters (from 2011 course).

· Grace Hopper on 60 Minutes Rewind.

· “Why are there still so few women in science?” from The New York Times Magazine.

· m(Arcadia) Manil Suri explains the mathematics in Arcadia.

· Homer Simpson vs. Fermat’s Last Theorem from Numberphile.

· Simon Singh on Fermat’s Last Theorem from Numberphile.

· The Proof (documentary about Fermat’s Last Theorem).

· “The Simpson’s Secret Formula” from The Observer.

Discussion Outlines, Resources and other References:

1. Oxford Murders: Discussion group 1, group 2.

2. Logicomix: Discussion group 1, group 2.

3. Stranger Than Fiction: Discussion group 1, group 2, group 3.

4. Uncle Petros and Goldbach’s Conjecture: Discussion group 1, group 2.

5. Pi: Discussion group 1, group 2, group 3.

6. Flatland (the Lindgren-Banchoff annotated edition): Discussion group 1, group 2, group 3.

7. Pleasantville: Discussion group 1, group 2, group 3.

INSTRUCTOR: Mark Kozek, Kemeny 311, email: mark.r.kozek {at} dartmouth.edu.