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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) |
 | James Mangold / Jez Butterworth/John - Henry Butterworth/David Koepp |
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I finally saw this final installment of the Indiana Jones movies and was surprised that there was a mathematical aspect to it. In hindsight, I realize that the reason I did not hear about it is that it... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-12-03 19:33:00 |
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Hamlet and Pfister Forms - A Tragedy in Four Acts (1992) |
 | Jan Minac |
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An absurd combination of comedy, advanced mathematics, and Shakespearean tragedy by Western University math professor Ján Mináč which was performed at the mathematical institute in Oberwolfach,... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-11-14 19:10:35 |
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Symposium (1974) |
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| R.A. Lafferty |
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This story consists of a philosophical discussion between characters with names like "Wye" and "Zed". A good bit of it is about mathematics and its foundations. For example:
"And, Zed," said O doubtfully,... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-09-28 22:01:28 |
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Eve Times Four (1960) |
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| Poul Anderson |
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An old "pulp" SF story about an accident which strands some space travelers on a deserted but habitable planet. One of them is a female mathematician:
Teresina was of the tall and willowy persuasion,... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-09-27 18:04:06 |
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Ossian's Ride (1959) |
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| Fred Hoyle |
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In the year 1970 (the future when this science fiction novel was written), the country of Ireland has tremendous financial success and power resulting from a string of amazing technological innovations.... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-09-13 20:44:28 |
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Futurama (Episode: 2-D Blacktop) (2013) |
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| 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... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-09-07 08:30:26 |
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Light (2002) |
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| M. John Harrison |
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This dark and violent space opera features many references to fractals and spaceships "which were made of nothing much more than mathematics, magnetic fields, and some kind of smart carbon".
Here is an... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-08-22 22:10:00 |
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Singer Distance (2022) |
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| Ethan Chatagnier |
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At the beginning of this novel, MIT math grad student Crystal Singer and a group of her friends are on a road trip to Arizona where they plan to carve a giant message to the inhabitants of Mars. Singer... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-07-31 23:02:35 |
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Hinton (2020) |
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| Mark Blacklock |
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Charles Howard Hinton was a controversial mathematician working in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Howard Hinton, as he was known, studied and wrote about "the fourth dimension" and is best known... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-07-20 10:44:51 |
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Beyond the Hallowed Sky: Book One of the Lightspeed Trilogy (2021) |
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| Ken MacLeod |
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While working on her PhD thesis involving the inflaton field, mathematical physicist Lakshmi Nayak receives a page of equations, apparently from her future self. When she fills in the gaps in the "proof",... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-07-12 14:36:11 |
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A Season of Flirtation (2023) |
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| Julia Justiss |
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Lady Laura Pomeroy's interest in mathematics makes her an unsuitable romantic interest in the 19th century:
Few gentlemen, himself included, could view as a prime matrimonial candidate a female who... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-07-12 13:55:15 |
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Presque Vue (2021) |
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| Tochi Onyebuchi |
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A character deals with the voice in her head (which seems to like to do math), her aging parents, and her daughter.
I am grateful to Aidan Tompkins for bringing this short story to my attention, but... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-07-11 16:50:02 |
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Eternal (2021) |
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| Lisa Scottoline |
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While living under the fascist regime of Mussolini in pre-war Rome, a Jewish prodigy attends university mathematics classes taught by Levi-Civita and forms one vertex of a "love triangle". The romance and the impact of anti-semitism on academia receive equal attention in this serious work of historical fiction from an author better known for light fare. (more)
Last Changed: 2023-06-27 12:28:49 |
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The Code for Love and Heartbreak (2020) |
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| Jillian Cantor |
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In this young adult adaptation of Jane Austen's "Emma", a high school student unsuccessfully attempts to use her knowledge of mathematics to create a matchmaking app for her classmates. It is yet another... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-06-27 12:08:57 |
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Ada's Room (2023) |
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| Sharon Dodo Otoo |
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This novel follows a woman's soul through four reincarnations, beginning in Africa in the 15th century and ending in Europe during World War II. All four are named "Ada", and one of them happens to be... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-06-27 10:07:49 |
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Alone with You in the Ether: A Love Story (2022) |
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| Olivia Blake |
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A bipolar artist and an obsessive mathematician who meet by chance get to know each other (and themselves) better through the course of six conversations. Although the artist already has a boyfriend,... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-06-27 09:20:38 |
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The Phantom Scientist [Le Chercher Phantôme] (2013) |
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| Robin Cousin |
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This graphic novel takes place at at "The Institute for the Study of Complex and Dynamic Systems", which facilitates interactions between researchers in different disciplines. Although none of the researchers... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-05-13 10:03:38 |
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The Theory of (Not Quite) Everything (2023) |
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| Kara Gnodde |
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Mimi Brotherton is a Foley artist in London who creates sound effects for movies. There is not much mathematics in that, but three of the men in her life are mathematicians: her father, her brother, and... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-05-12 19:00:44 |
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Children of Time (2015) |
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| Adrian Tchaikovsky |
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The first book of the Children of Time series by Adrian Tchaikovsky (which is all that I have read) heavily features mathematics. In it, a brilliant but arrogant scientist's experiment to rapidly evolve... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-05-09 16:16:56 |
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The Amazing Spider-Man (Issues 555-557) (2008) |
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| Zeb Wells (writer) / Chris Bachalo (penciller) |
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The issue of Amazing Spider-Man entitled "Sometimes it Snows in April" introduces a disheveled mathematician named Benjamin Rabin who appears to be the victim of an attempted assault. He explains to police... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-05-09 15:32:49 |
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Stella Maris (2022) |
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| Cormac McCarthy |
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Readers of McCarthy's 2022 novel The Passenger learn quickly that its protagonist's sister was a mathematical prodigy who committed suicide. That isolated fact provides motivation for the remainder of... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-05-09 14:22:35 |
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A Calculated Man (2022) |
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| Paul Tobin (writer) / Alberto Alburquerque (artist) |
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An accountant for the mob, now in witness protection, must defend himself from his former employers, but with the power of math on his side he is quite capable of killing those who have been sent to eliminate... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-04-13 07:18:28 |
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The World We Make (2022) |
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| N. K. Jemisin |
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Readers of the first novel in the series, The City We Became, have already met Padmini Prakash. She loves pure math and hates New York City, but due to familial pressures is preparing to be a Wall Street... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-04-05 13:43:17 |
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The Time Ships (1995) |
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| Stephen Baxter |
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This sequel to H.G. Wells' classic "The Time Machine" updates the story with some quantum mechanics and general relativity that were not available to Wells in 1895.
Our narrator returns to the distant... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-03-06 09:35:03 |
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The Manga Guide to Regression Analysis (2005) |
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| Shin Takahashi / Iroha Inoue |
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Like other books in the "Learn with Manga" series, this one uses romance and manga styling to teach an advanced mathematical subject. Moreover, as in The Manga Guide to Statistics, the main character... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-03-05 20:06:43 |
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The Manga Guide to Linear Algebra (2008) |
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| Shin Takahashi / Iroha Inoue |
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Reiji wants to learn karate and he is in love with a girl named Misa. So, it works out perfectly when it turns out that her big brother who is the captain of the karate club agrees to let Reiji into the... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-03-05 19:54:24 |
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The Manga Guide to Statistics (2004) |
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| Shin Takahashi |
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Rui wants to learn statistics not because she is interested in the subject but because she has a crush on Mr. Igarashi, whom she hopes her father will hire as her tutor. When instead her father hires... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-03-05 19:42:12 |
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The Deluge (2023) |
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| Stephen Markley |
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One character in this tome-sized political eco-thriller is Ashir al-Hasan. Ash, as he is called by friends, is a a government data analyst. Although he also appears to be "on the spectrum",
he is not... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-02-14 09:16:53 |
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Calculating the Speed of Heartbreak (2023) |
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| Wendy Nikel |
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Normally, I don't like works of mathematical fiction that use mathematical terminology and notation to discuss romantic relationships. They often involve groan-inducing formulae like "Pat + Sandy = Love".
However,... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-02-08 14:17:54 |
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Astor Place Barber (2023) |
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| Audrey Nasar |
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A short piece that employs a humorous McGuffin to introduce the Barber's Paradox.
Both frequent site contributor Dr. Allan Goldberg and the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics think this is an example... (more)
Last Changed: 2023-02-05 12:57:19 |
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