Math Goes to the Movies

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by Burkard Polster and Marty Ross

Type: Film Reviews
Subject: On Films > Film selections
Keywords: sciences, film selection
Publishing date: 2012
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Language: English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 304 pages
6 x 9 ¼ inches (15.5 x 23.5 cm)

ISBN

978-1-4214-0484-4

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Book Presentation:
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 pored through the cinematic calculus to create this 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
• The Mirror Has Two Faces

The authors use these iconic movies to introduce and explain important and famous mathematical ideas: higher dimensions, the golden ratio, infinity, and much more. Not all math in movies makes sense, however, and Polster and Ross talk about Hollywood's most absurd blunders and outrageous mathematical scenes. Interviews with mathematical consultants to movies round out this engaging journey into the realm of cinematic mathematics.

This fascinating behind-the-scenes look at movie math shows how fun and illuminating equations can be.

About the authors:
Burkard Polster is an associate professor of mathematics at Monash University and author of A Geometrical Picture Book and The Mathematics of Juggling.

Press Reviews:
Written in a breezy, humorous style. If you like math and movies and are looking for a fun read, check it out.
―David Joyner, MAA Reviews

[A] thorough and entertaining survey . . . This behind-the-scenes look at movie math shows how fun and illuminating equations can be.
―Lunar and Planetary Information Bulletin

Math Goes to the Movies is a wonderful read.
―Richard J. Wilders, MAA Reviews

Movie and television aficionados who have a mathematics background will enjoy this book.
―Choice

Math Goes to the Movies comes packed with math and film insights alike, and is recommended for a wide audience.
―Midwest Book Review

Not only is it very easy to read, it is also a pleasure, owing to the authors' warm humour. I heartily recommend this book to any mathematician who is interested in the way that their discipline and its practitioners are presented to the wider cinema-going public.
―Christopher Hollings, Mathematics Today

This is an entertaining grab bag of mathematical and movie titbits that will delight mathematically minded movie buffs.
―Robyn Arianrhod, Gazette of the Australian Mathematical Society

Math Goes to the Movies abounds in mathematical tidbits that even the most observant filmgoer might have never noticed or at least might not have remembered.
―The Math Intelligencer