Mathematician Jordan Ellenberg breaks down Math films & TV shows

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of How Not to Be Wrong, a hugely entertaining exploration of the geometry that underlies our world

How should a democracy choose its representatives? How can you stop a pandemic from sweeping the world? How do computers learn to play chess? Can ancient Greek proportions predict the stock market? (Sorry, no.) What should your kids learn in school if they really want to learn to think? The answers to all these questions can be found in geometry.

If you're like most people, geometry is a dimly-remembered exercise, handed down from the ancients, that you gladly left behind in school. It seemed to be a tortuous way of proving some fact about triangles that was obvious to you in the first place. That's not geometry. OK, it is geometry, but only a tiny part, that has as much to do with the modern, fast-moving discipline as conjugating a verb has to do with a great novel.

In Shape, Sunday Times-bestselling author Jordan Ellenberg reveals the geometry underneath some of the most important scientific, political, and philosophical problems we face, from the spread of coronavirus to rise of machine learning. The word 'geometry,' from the Greek, means 'measuring the world.' But geometry doesn't just measure the world - it explains it. Shape shows us how.

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[davebayer]

My wife loved Jordan's book "Shape". Partner of a mathematician is a great target audience.

What Jordan is doing here is difficult. There is a long tradition of shining high-minded snark on popular depictions of mathematics; see for example the writings of Dan Rockmore. This genre is constrained in the same way as "conservative columnist" for WaPo, for one's conclusions need to satisfy a particular audience, and are mostly predetermined. When we read math papers, we use all of our powers to deduce what the author intended. That’s not the stance here.

I was the math guy for ABM. Not the first; the creative team could not reach an understanding with my dapper predecessor on how to balance the needs of math and cinema. My profession is ill-equipped to help here, for our only fiction writing experience is grant proposals.

Until Nash's breakdown, much of the math is taken from his papers. For example, in grad school Nash used all 24 Greek letters in a paper. As luck would have it, a widely circulated publicity still showed Russell Crowe staring through his dorm window with "0 < pi < 1" scrawled on the glass. Anyone who imagines that math requires great flexibility of mind would be dismayed to learn that mathematicians can be cripplingly conventional. This photo bothered colleagues who could only imagine "pi" meaning, well, "pi". A hilarious UC Berkeley email exchange wondered if the math consultant was trying to make Russell look stupid. I edited an interview on the DVD extras where Nash proudly explains this use of the Greek alphabet.

During Nash's recovery, the filmmakers asked that the math be a fictionalized approach to the Riemann Hypothesis. Nash himself asked me about the porch clipboard, a novel notation for continued fractions. In the library scene here, the blackboard is adapted from famous related work in the 1960s. Nash is being generous with the grad student who missed the memo on covering spaces. I had this exact conversation with Barry Mazur when I saw this connection between my courses at Harvard. Barry simply responded with utter joy, "It's all connected!"

As a failed painter, my favorite scene would be the board Nash erases. Before ABM, math in media was always four lines like a physics T-shirt. After ABM, one sees math as Jackson Pollock in ads everywhere.

[richardgonzalez]

I like how the simpsons leaves math jokes for people like him and the dynamite gag for people like me.

[Dayvit]

This is a really good idea by Penguin. Having the authors talk about their passion is a much better advertisement for their work than just talking about the book. If the author is interesting, we will want to read what they wrote. This guy was interesting.

[neclark]

This guy taught my discrete mathematics course 12 years ago. Best math lecturer I ever had!

[maskon]

I love how Jordan saw that A is to B mistake in Pi for what it was supposed to be. Aronofsky admits this very mistake in the directors commentary.

[nicosmind]

My favourite TV math scene is in Sesame Street, when the Count taught Big Bird how to count to 5. Now I didn't really buy it, birds can't speak English, and I didn't buy the acting, but boy was it passionate. It brought a tear to my eye

[johnobrien]

"Get me that butterfly!"
Comedy gold. 🦋

[AndySDoughnuts]

I found it funny how Jordan says mathematicians make mistakes with greater than (>) and less than (<) all the time and he got the signs the wrong way round in The Simpsons' clip.

[Aphercotropes]

IMO, Jeff Goldblum is always the best part of any movie he's in.

[broefkip]

I am extremely surprised about how much mathmaticians are involved in the movie industry.

[jeronimo]

I mean I totally love these "An expert rates different movie scenes regarding their field of expertise"-videos, but an expert saying that a movie scene is inaccurate and HE IS IN THE SCENE HIMSELF blows my mind. Even though I work in media and worked on fictional movies and understand how this stuff happens, it still blows my mind. Incredible :D

[tylerarnett]

I’m not mathematician but if they displayed math “perfectly accurately” wouldn’t that earn a 10/10 lol.

[bobsmith]

The most ridiculous thing about the Good Will Hunting scene was the students. No one in lectures was that bright-eyed & bushy-tailed, so raptly attentive, or so prim, proper or chipper. And the students weren’t all so homogeneous. I rate that scene an i/10 [sic]

[ABuffaloDub]

It’s been 10 seconds and I already like this guy

[WtbgoldBlogspot]

One interesting thing that A Beautiful Mind did get right is that 90% of hallucinations are auditory-only, and visual ones almost always start as auditory. Any time one of his hallucination characters appear, they're always heard off-screen first; they call out to him and then the camera turns and we see them.

[HotelierNYC]

LOVE this guy. With all his hyperactive energy and passion he kind of reminds me of Richard Dreyfus in Jaws.

[FMSkyLoL]

McKenna Grace is quite literally gifted in anything. Doing college already, plays a dozen instruments, is an amazingly skilled actress, can apparently sing now too and that she memorized the stuff in the movie Gifted proved that even more.

[christopherquigley]

It’s too bad that Good Will Hunting couldn’t get the math right. It’s a great movie. I would be interesting if there was some theory that we still haven’t proven to this day and Will managed to prove it over a weekend. I think if you are like me and didn’t even pay much attention to what was on the blackboard you would have liked the movie.

[BlackDog]

It was very interesting to listen to this professor talking in a foreign language

[WestExplainsBest]

Very pleased to see Penguin UK breakdown a core academic subject like this. Bravo!

Also great plug by Jordan to describe why we still need math ans math education today. Should a teaching scenes breakdown be next??