MATHEMATICAL FICTION:

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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Futurama (Episode: 2-D Blacktop) (2013)
Michael Rowe (writer) / Raymie Muzquiz (director)
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In the episode 2-D Blacktop from Futurama's tenth season, Professor Farnsworth invents a device that looks like a tesseract and takes his "hot rod" into the fourth dimension. When he collides with Leela's ship during a drag race on a giant Möbius strip, they end up in a 2-dimensional "flatland". In addition to referencing the classic mathematical fiction novel Flatland, they make intriguing observations about life in such a world (e.g. that creatures could not have a digestive tract like animals in our world do, because that would divide them into two unconnected pieces). The Professor uses his device again to return to 3-dimensions, passing briefly through an existence of fractional dimensional objects, fractals, before returning them home to New New York.

Many episodes of this science fiction cartoon series from Matt Groening include mathematical "in jokes". For an overview of mathematics in the series Futurama, see Sarah Greenwald's website Futurama Math and her recorded lecture lecture "Bite My Shiny Metal X".

More information about this work can be found at futurama.fandom.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 Futurama (Episode: 2-D Blacktop)
According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:
  1. Futurama (Episode: The Prisoner of Benda) by Ken Keeler (writer) / Stephen Sandoval (director)
  2. Simpsons (Episode: Homer3) by John Swarzwelder / Steve Tomkins / David S. Cohen
  3. The Simpsons: Girls Just Want to Have Sums by Matt Selman
  4. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott Abbott
  5. The Pexagon by D.J. Rozell
  6. The Adventures of Topology Man by Alex Kasman
  7. Spaceland by Rudy Rucker
  8. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
  9. Inside Out by Rudy Rucker
  10. Twisters by Paul J. Nahin
Ratings for Futurama (Episode: 2-D Blacktop):
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:
3/5 (1 votes)
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Literary Quality:
3/5 (1 votes)
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Categories:
GenreHumorous, Science Fiction,
MotifHigher/Lower Dimensions, Mobius Strip/Nonorientability,
TopicGeometry/Topology/Trigonometry, Chaos/Fractals,
MediumTelevision Series or Episode,

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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)