Why Maths Doesn't Add Up
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| Subjects: Anthropology, Mathematics, Physics, Science, Space | ||||
But most of us have a problem with maths. Alan Davies is one such person. Award-winning comedian and actor, Alan spends his weekends watching football and going to bars. For him maths is intimidating, dull, and populated by men with poor social skills. For Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University, maths is the most exciting, creative subject under the sun. And he has a passion for sharing his love of the subject with the public. Their journey starts back at Alan’s school. He shows Marcus what little he can remember of his maths education. It doesn’t bode well. But Marcus is undaunted. Alan is introduced to the biggest questions in mathematics, including the holy grail of maths – proving the brain bending Riemann Hypothesis. It’s so complicated that even a million dollar prize has not induced a proof. Their journey takes them deep into mathematics’ more mysterious realms. They take part in an experiment that suggests there is a spooky relationship between the abstract world of the Riemann Hypothesis and the physical world of atoms and crystals. Is maths on the verge of discovering a universal theory of everything? Before Alan’s brain can recover, he is whisked off to the venerable Royal Observatory. At the home of time itself, Marcus and Alan explore the greatest, grandest question of all: what shape is our universe? It’s a question that foxed everyone from Aristotle to Einstein. But they discover the proposed solution is typical of mathematics: audacious, brilliant, beautiful. And a little bit weird. |
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