Math goes to the movies
Title:
Math goes to the movies
Author:
Polster, Burkard.
Personal Author:
Publication Information:
Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012.
Physical Description:
xiv, 286 p. : ill.
Contents:
pt. 1. Movies. Good math hunting -- The clever hand behind A beautiful mind -- Escalante stands and delivers -- The annotated Pi files -- Nitpicking in mathemagic land -- Escape from the cube -- The incredible shrinking room -- Murder in the hot house -- A word problem for die hards -- 7 x 13 = 28 -- One mirror has tow faces, two mirrors have ... -- It's my turn for some serious mathematics -- pt. 2. Mathematics. Beautiful math, or better off dead -- Pythagoras and Fermat at the movies -- Survival in the fourth dimension -- To infinity and beyond! -- Problem corner -- Money-back bloopers -- The funny files -- pt. 3. Lists. People lists -- Topics lists -- Movie index.
Abstract:
Mel Gibson teaching Euclidean geometry, Meg Ryan and Tim Robbins acting out Zeno's paradox, Michael Jackson proving in three different ways that 7 x 13 = 28. These are just a few of the intriguing mathematical snippets that occur in hundreds of movies. Burkard Polster and Marty Ross have pored through the cinematic calculus and here offer a thorough and entertaining survey of the quirky, fun, and beautiful mathematics to be found on the big screen. 'Math Goes to the Movies' is based on the authors' own collection of more than 700 mathematical movies and their many years using movie clips to inject moments of fun into their courses. With more than 200 illustrations, many of them screenshots from the movies themselves, this book provides an inviting way to explore math, featuring such movies as: 'Good Will Hunting'; 'A Beautiful Mind'; 'Stand and Deliver'; 'Pi'; 'Die Hard''; and, 'The Mirror Has Two Faces'.
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