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Breaking the Code (1986) |
 | Hugh Whitemore (playwright) |
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This biography of Alan Turing is a "character study" of this
fascinating mathematician. Although we do see some mathematics (including
an especially nice description of Gödel's Theorem and its mathematical
significance)... (more) |
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The Cold Equations (1954) |
 | Tom Godwin |
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This classic science fiction story is a favorite of English teachers
because, even after all of these years, it has the ability to get the
attention of and provoke discussion amongst otherwise apathetic... (more) |
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Cyberchase (2002) |
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| Educational Broadcasting Corporation |
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Three kids go inside "cyberspace" to help the maternal Mother Board
fight the evil Hacker. Each episode, in addition to learning about
computers, the kids have to develop their mathematical skills to... (more) |
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Doctor Who (Episode: Logopolis) (1981) |
|
| Christopher Bidmead |
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This famous "last Tom Baker" episode of the popular
BBC show "Doctor Who" involves a city of whispering mathematicians
whose computations keep the universe running smoothly.
"The next broadcast story... (more) |
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The Dreams in the Witch-House (1933) |
|
| H.P. Lovecraft |
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In this story, Walter Gilman, a mathematics graduate student at Miskatonic
University
in Arkham, Mass, rents a room in the famed haunted "Witch House" of Keziah
Mason,
a witch who legend says escaped... (more) |
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Family Ties (Episode: My Tutor) (1985) |
|
| Jace Richdale (Screenplay) / Sam Weisman (Director) |
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I'm writing to bring your attention to a television episode for
possible addition to your mathematical fiction website. The television
show is "Family Ties" and the episode is entitled, "My Tutor".... (more) |
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The Fringe (Episode: The Equation) (2008) |
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| J.R. Orci (Screenplay) / David H. Goodman (Screenplay) |
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The ``Fringe Team'' (an FBI agent, a mad scientist and his son) investigate a series of kidnappings in which the victim is hypnotized with red and green lights. In each case, the victim was about to... (more) |
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Futurama (1999) |
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| David S. Cohen (David X. Cohen) / Ken Keeler / Jeff Westbrook |
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Another Matt Groening cartoon TV show (like the Simpsons) that includes many mathematical "in jokes". The website simpsonsmath.com/futuramamath includes discussion of these jokes and the mathematical... (more) |
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Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979) |
|
| Douglas Adams |
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Everyone ought to read this trilogy of four (or is it five now?) books that brilliantly combine science fiction with the drollest of British humor. Despite my high regard for it, I've not added it to... (more) |
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I of Newton (1970) |
|
| Joe Haldeman |
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In this short story a mathematics professor accidentally summons a demon
by cursing while working on a problem involving integration. The devil
brags
that he is able to disprove Fermat's last theorem,... (more) |
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The Infinite Worlds of H.G. Wells (Episode: The Truth about Pyecraft) (2001) |
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| Chris Harrald (Script) / Clive Exton (Script) / Herbert George Wells (story) |
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Please correct me if I'm mistaken here, but it seems that the 2001 TV miniseries The Infinite Worlds of H.G. Wells took the story ``The Truth about Pyecraft'', which has no math in it, and made the main... (more) |
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The Last Enemy (2008) |
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| Peter Berry (Screenplay) / Iain B. MacDonald (Director) |
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BBC TV series featuring an anti-social mathematician showing signs of obsessive compulsive disorder who discovers and takes down an evil government plot in the dystopian near future. I have not yet... (more) |
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Lewis (Episode: Whom the Gods Would Destroy) (2006) |
|
| Daniel Boyle (Screenwriter) |
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[I may need assistance from some British site visitors on this one!] An e-mail from Charles Freudenthal has suggested to me that the pilot episode of the TV Series "Lewis" (a spin-off of the popular Inspector... (more) |
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Math Patrol (1977) |
|
| TV Ontario |
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"Math Patrol was a 15-minute long educational TV series produced in the late 1970s by TV Ontario about the adventures of a secret agent named "Sydney" who dressed up as a kangaroo with a blue trenchcoat.... (more) |
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Mathmakers (1978) |
|
| TV Ontario |
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Canadian television show (circa 1978) about making a television show.
Humorous story lines illustrate mathematical concepts.
"The program was developed and produced by TVOntario in 1978. Each
episode... (more) |
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MathNet (1987) |
|
| Childrens Television Workshop |
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A children's TV show in which mysteries are solved using
mathematics. The suspects and victims always ask the investigators
"Are you the police?" To which they reply "No, we're
mathematicians!"... (more) |
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NUMB3RS (2005) |
|
| Nick Falacci / Cheryl Heuton |
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This TV crime drama (premiered January 2005) follows the adventures of a pair of brothers, one a mathematics professor and the other an FBI agent, as they combine forces to solve mysteries.
Cool effects... (more) |
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Recess (Episode: A Genius Among Us) (2000) |
|
| Brian Hamill |
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This episode of Disney's Saturday Morning cartoon "Recess" is clearly a parody of the film "Good Will Hunting". I hope this doesn't lower anyone's opinion of me...but I personally liked it better than... (more) |
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Simpsons (Episode: Homer3) (1995) |
|
| John Swarzwelder / Steve Tomkins / David S. Cohen |
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In this segment from an episode of "The Simpsons" cartoon, Homer finds a
portal to the third dimension while trying to hide from his
sisters-in-law. This is a joke on the fact that they are usually... (more) |
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The Simpsons: Girls Just Want to Have Sums (2006) |
|
| Matt Selman |
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In this episode from the 17th season of the hit cartoon The Simpsons, the principal of Bart and Lisa's school makes a sexist comment (clearly a reference to the controversial comments from Harvard President... (more) |
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Threshold (2006) |
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| Bragi F. Schut/ Brannon Braga / David S. Goyer / Dan O'Shannon |
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This science fiction TV series featured a sarcastic dwarf mathematician character. According to Mathematics Goes to the Movies, mathematical highlights included a 4-dimensional alien object intersecting our world in the first episode, references to "isomorphic group therapy [sic]", "monotonic null sequences" and "quadratic reciprocity" in the second, and a strange statistical study in the 11th.
(more) |
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