Slashdot Mirror
Simpsons Guide to Math
tu-tone writes "The LA times has done an article titled
"Simpsons analysts show how math figures into episodes"
based off of work done by two professors Andrew Nestler and Sarah J. Greenwald. The work is a
Guide to Appearances of Mathematics and Mathematicians on "The Simpsons"
. They even gave a talk on it at Harvey Mudd College. It's a fun read." There's a transcript of one of their presentations available.
In the (in)famous 3-D Simpsons when Homer wanders into the freaky 3-D realm, the equation floating in the background [e^(pi*i)=-1] is infact a form of Euler's equation, one of the most important equations in math. In it's traditional form, [e^(pi*i)]+1=0 it relates the 5 most important constants in math.
The Simpsons, as anyone who has seen even half of a season's worth of episodes knows, is full of constant social commentary, and many things get repeated. However, their math jokes always make me laugh, and never seem to get stale, IMHO. (Bill Amend's "Foxtrot" is the same way.)
;)
Several episodes besides those mentioned in the article contain mathematical formulas, etc. In the episode where Jay Sherman (of The Critic fame) comes to Springfield (the episode is entitled "A Star is Burns", #2F31 for anyone who cares), Homer has to decide which short movie made by fellow Springfieldians to vote on. Homer says "I've got some serious thinking to do", and then the camera pans to a shot of his brain, where two monkeys are doing natural logs and derivatives on a chalkboard!! (This of course was also a play on a previous brain-shot where two monkeys were doing nothing but picking fleas from each other)
They even manage to work in some references into those Butterfinger Shorts. My personal favorite was in a commercial for Butterfinger B.B.s, Bart's math book is entitled "Math For Underachievers"! Lisa tries helping him with math by asking "If you have 15 BB's, and I take 5, what do you have left?" Bart aptly replies "One less sister!" and raises a fist into the air. Even their shameless ads make me smile.
Their argument is this: for those in college right now, the Simpsons has been on television for almost all of their lives. This year's freshmen were in 1st GRADE when the Simpsons first came on the air. And, these kids LOVE the Simpsons. Lucky for Math professors, a wide range of mathematical topics are covered within the Simpsons. So, if you want to connect with your students, try finding a Simpsons clip that is connected to your current topic and use that as a launch pad for in class discussion.
I think you have to give these guys props, because they are actually trying to break through the wall that is between the professor and the average student so that the student might actually become interested in mat. Wow. Professors who care! This is cool.
I think this basically indicates that the Simpsons writers and animators are just as geeky as the /. readership.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
a review of the past two days of news on slashdot.
news that hasn't made it:
-flexible ceramics (hybrid polymers) created using nanoscale chemistry at cornell
-a 1mm microscope that can examine individual molecules from within a cell developed at uc berkeley
-nasa and purdue announce serious investment of time and money on advanced life support systems which will likely be the basis for extraterrestrial colonization
-#1 site critical of scientology yanked from google
what has made it:
-resident evil movie review
-simpsons guide to math
-self heating can
-"please help me start my project because i am too stupid to figure it out myself" ask slashdot
True, it does not say NRA4EVER, but they did do an eppisode (the one where Krusty losses everything to the IRS) where Bart an Krusty are sitting on the curb when a bus drives by. If you slow down the bus, it say's something along the lines of, "Right now you could be watching 'Mad About You' on NBC"
It's close, that makes it more cleverer b/c they did the math:
1782 ^ 12 = 1.02539783562263E+39
1844 ^ 12 = 1.54572062047814E+39 +
--------------------
2.57111845610078E+39
1922 ^ 12 = 2.54121025931480E+39
Lameness filter is powerfully lame.
There was a show on Black Holes on the Discovery Channel one day. They used the 3D episode of the Simpsons to illustrate how a black hole works.
I haveta admit, I carried away a lot more about black holes because of that episode. For example, I had always heard that 'time and space are curved', but could never really picture it until they explained it using footage from that show.
Us right brained people don't like books a whole lot. Math equations put us into screensaver mode. So when we get a visual like that, it suddenly clicks into place.
Kudos to Discovery Channel and the Simpsons for giving me the foundation ability to understand the more sophisticated theories about time and space.
"Derp de derp."
Actually, according to the bible, the value of pi is 3 exactly. Check out 1 Kings 7:23...
What 1 Kings 7:23 says:
"Then he made the molten sea; it was round, ten cubits from brim to brim, and five cubits high, and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference."
What it doesn't say:
"...a mathematical circle whose diameter is ten point zero zero cubits will have a circumference of thirty point zero zero cubits, thus saith the LORD, and those who tried to think otherwise were smited down by the tyrannical God of the Old Testament...."
1. The passage is describing the construction of a molten freaking sea, it's not a mathematical treatise on the nature of the circle.
2. Not only is this not a mathematical treatise, it's not even an engineering plan or construction document. It's just a loose description. "Thirty cubits" isn't a bad ballpark estimation of 31.4159... cubits when you're just describing the thing in layman's terms, especially when you don't know whether the "ten cubits from brim to brim" is an inside diameter, outside diameter, or center-wall to center-wall diameter.
3. Even if this passage were an engineering plan, no constructed, material "circle" is ever going to have a circumference of exactly pi times its diameter. There will always be a discrepancy by which it will be off, plus or minus, depending on the matter and its application, and the technological ability to fabricate it. The dimensions of a molten sea, for example, can be expected be off by more than, say, dimensinons of optical mirror components.
4. Sheesh. People will say anything.
Belloc
I got more rhymes than Jamaica got Mangoes.
The 2=1 proof depended on creating a non-obvious reference to 0/0=1, and then reducing down to 2=1.
Looking at it for a while, I relized that 0/0=x is the same as solving for 0=x*0 ... In other words, X can be anything (integer, real , complex...).
In first-year honors calculus, I realized that calculus is based on the same kind of construct, except for that you're solving for the limit of a/b=x as a and b approach zero -- in other words, dancing with the devil of 0/0.
The moral of my story:
Any references to prior art (I first came up with that pun in 1980)?Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.