MATHEMATICAL FICTION:

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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The Brady Kids (Episode: It's All Greek to Me) (1972)
Marc Richards (screenwriter) / Marc Richards (director)
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I had completely forgotten that there was a cartoon about the Brady Bunch until I ran across this while searching for mathematical fiction. But, it looks so familiar (the pet pandas, the cheesy animation, the musical numbers,...) I'm sure I watched it as a kid.

In this episode, Jan visits the math department of a nearby university to get help with her school project on Euclid. It turns out that the administrative assistant in the math department is none other than Diana Prince (a.k.a. Wonder Woman). By mistake, the Brady's magical pet bird (cf. The Parrot's Theorem) sends the kids and Wonder Woman back to ancient Greece where they meet Euclid and participate in the original Olympics.

The theme of the episode is "brains versus brawn", and math is clearly being used to represent the "brains" side of that dichotomy (while Wonder Woman is there to demonstrate that one person can have both). Unfortunately, Euclid is not portrayed as being particularly smart or helpful. He's just an annoying character who pops up occasionally to babble about arithmetic or the Pythagorean theorem.

I can't say I recommend this as a work of mathematical fiction, but it might fall into the "so bad, it's good" category where it is fun to watch just to see how awful it is.

More information about this work can be found at www.dailymotion.com.
(Note: This is just one work of mathematical fiction from the list. To see the entire list or to see more works of mathematical fiction, return to the Homepage.)

Works Similar to The Brady Kids (Episode: It's All Greek to Me)
According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:
  1. Donald in Mathmagic Land by Hamilton Luske (director)
  2. Recess (Episode: A Genius Among Us) by Brian Hamill
  3. The Simpsons: Girls Just Want to Have Sums by Matt Selman
  4. Prince of Mathematics: Carl Friedrich Gauss by Margaret B.W. Tent
  5. The Fairytale of the Completely Symmetrical Butterfly by Dietmar Dath
  6. Lovesong of the Electric Bear by Snoo Wilson (playwright)
  7. Partition by Ira Hauptman
  8. New Tales of the The Absent-Minded Master by Vladimir Levshin
  9. Emmy Noether: The Mother of Modern Algebra by Margaret B.W. Tent
  10. The Thesis of the Absent-Minded Master by Vladimir Levshin
Ratings for The Brady Kids (Episode: It's All Greek to Me):
RatingsHave you seen/read this work of mathematical fiction? Then click here to enter your own votes on its mathematical content and literary quality or send me comments to post on this Webpage.
Mathematical Content:
2/5 (1 votes)
..
Literary Quality:
1/5 (1 votes)
..

Categories:
GenreHistorical Fiction, Fantasy, Children's Literature,
MotifReal Mathematicians, Time Travel,
Topic
MediumTelevision Series or Episode, Available Free Online,

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Exciting News: The 1,600th entry was recently added to this database of mathematical fiction! Also, for those of you interested in non-fictional math books let me (shamelessly) plug the recent release of the second edition of my soliton theory textbook.

(Maintained by Alex Kasman, College of Charleston)