a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)
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A man with a PhD in mathematics and a master's degree in psychology kidnaps a woman he has determined mathematically and scientifically to be an ideal match for him, with the intention of forcing her to love him. As Adams writes in his summary of the film, the question is "are science and mathematical laws powerful enough to manufacture a relationship?"
Spoiler Alert . . . Spoiler Alert . . . Spoiler Alert . . . Spoiler Alert . . . Spoiler Alert . . . Spoiler Alert . . . Do not read beyond this point if you intend to see the film and want to be surprised by the plot twist in Twisted Seduction! One idea that we learn from mathematics is that a low probability event can be obtained with a high number of trials. So, for example, to be sure to make an amazingly accurate prediction (e.g. the winners of each match in a tennis tournament) you can just send different predictions to a large number of people. If you have sent all of the possible outcomes, then someone will have received that exact prediction and that recipient (not knowing about the others) may be convinced that you were able to predict the results. It turns out, it was this sort of math and not a mathematical model of attraction that the evil grad student in this movie employs. He has kidnapped many women, telling each that his algorithm identifies them as his perfect woman. Twisted, indeed. |
More information about this work can be found at www.imdb.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.) |
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Exciting News: The total number of works of mathematical fiction listed in this database recently reached a milestone. The 1,500th entry is The Man of Forty Crowns by Voltaire. Thanks to Vijay Fafat for writing the summary of that work (and so many others). I am also grateful to everyone who has contributed to this website. Heck, I'm grateful to everyone who visited the site. Thank you!
(Maintained by Alex Kasman, College of Charleston)