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The Mathematics of Futurama
mclearn writes "Did you know that the writers of Futurama have a collective set of degrees that would rival most think tanks? Here is a hilarious site on the mathematics of Futurama -- specifically this article (pdf). The same authors have also researched the mathematics of the Simpsons, mentioned on Slashdot long ago."
Since Farnsworth said at the horse track when his horse lost in a photo finish:
"No fair! you changed the outcome by measuring it."
It was that day that I knew that Futurama was for me, since I figure the vast majority of casual viewers watching it would not have a clue. The fact that they thew a quantum computing reference out there that would be above 99% of the viewers told me this show was different, and it was for me. It takes balls to do jokes that the majority of people won't get. And that earns my respect...
That and the numerous Rush references...
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
This all reminds me of the old saying that at its most advanced, mathmatics is indistinguishable from magic.
All those lovely Escher pictures similarly show the ways in which selective use of mathmatics & physics can create imaginary worlds that, while they could not necessaily occur in reality, "feel" realistic.
Another magical view of the future was the original Futurama Exhibit at the World's Fair .
> executive producer David Cohen has a B.S. in computer science from U.C. Berkeley
In one of the DVD commentaries, he talks about an Apple ][ videogame he programmed in assembly.
If I recall correctly, one of the main writters had a masters in mathematics.
It is interesting to listen to the commentary tracks on the dvd's. For example, in "Roswell that ends well", Fry (one of the main characters) ends up going back in time and accidently kills his grandfather. While consoling his grandmother, he ends up in bed with her and thus becomes his own grandpa allowing the future to remain "intact".
On the commentary tracks, they get into this large discussion about how they tried to find the steady state solution for the amount of DNA in Fry that was pure, and they ended up working on it for quite some time. In the end, they give an email address and ask the public for the solution.
Then they got into a large discussion on the causality of time and how they should only time travel forward.
Good stuff.
I agree. That is one of my favourites!
Bender also had the following framed on the wall in one episode:
10 HOME
20 SWEET
30 GOTO 10
1729
When Srinivasa Ramanujan, the great Indian mathematician, was ill with tuberculosis in a London hospital, his colleague G. H. Hardy went to visit him. Hardy, trying to initiate onversation, said to Ramanujan, "I came here in taxi-cab number 1729. That number seems dull to me which I hope isn't a bad omen."
"Nonsense," replied Ramanujan. "The number isn't dull at all. It's quite interesting. It's the smallest number that can be expressed as the sum of two cubes in two different ways." (Ramanujan recognized that 1729 = 13 + 123 as well as 93 + 103.)
Copied from here
I guess it was worth the 5 minutes I spent searching for it.
Get an advanced degree in mathematics or physics, and you will come up with the idea to put "St. Pauli Exclusion Principle" on a six-pack of beer in a cartoon, and only a few geeks who like to stay up and watch Adult Swim last night will get the joke.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Cancelled meaning they are no longer producing new episodes.
Unless you know something I don't (entirely possible).
I know there were talks about some other network picking up the show, but I don't know what became of it.
I've bought the first three seasons on DVD, and this is AFTER downloading all the episodes on the Internet!
The DVDs have better picture quality, of course, and bonus material, most of which I loved the commentaries; it must be the best job in the world to work with that crew!
I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
That's my favorite Futurama episode. I like the ones where Fry kicks ass (the Devil's Hands one is good too).
What a great show. It had a bad time slot and was probably too geeky for mainstream. In fact, I was part of the problem. I didn't even watch it very much when new shows were coming out. I had this "Simpsons wannabe" attitude and thought the show was OK, but nothing special. It was only years later that I discovered how great the show actually is.
3D animation, technical references galore, very funny.
I almost fell out of my chair when on that one episode there were a bunch of aliens (invaders or something?) coming out of a spaceship making all sorts of arcade references and such, then one goes "All your base are belong to us!"
The ratio of people to cake is too big
The article refers to 1729 being "a historically significant integer to mathematicians everywhere". If you're not a mathematician, 1729 is Ramanujan's number -- the smallest natural number that can be written as a sum of cubes in two different ways:
1^3 + 12^3 9^3 + 10^3
the ??? is easy to figure out: 4: Release dvd sets of all the seasons and generate renewed interest in show then bring back on air!
Wouldnt you like to be a pepper too?
They didn't all have beards, although that would have been great, they were all dressed in cowboy garb.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
The problem with resurrecting it on Cartoon Network is that Futurama's 2D-CG hybrid style is very, very expensive to produce (at least several million per episode). CN doesn't have that kind of money; just look at most of their homegrown shows. The only thing they've done that matches Futurama's quality is the Clone Wars cartoons, and that was a single half-hour of animation and almost certainly done with Lucas's financial backing.
That just seems amazingly doubtful. The pilot might have cost that much, to develop the style, etc., but to wrap simple cartoon textures on 3-D objects sounds pretty cheap these days. Far cheaper than paying animators to hand paint, arrange, and photograph thousands of animation cells...
You are in a maze of twisted little posts, all alike.
I was going to expend some mod points on this discussion, but this deserves a reply instead.
You can use those relative titles ("niece", "uncle", "sisters-brother", etc...) and prove that you are your own grandfather. I don't know exactly the way to prove it, I can't seem to quickly find information through Google, but I know it's been done. It's a flaw in the whole relative title system. It just shows that him going back and becoming his own grandfather is another proof of Futurama's quality writing.
That's Fox's fault. Futurama kept on being pre-empted by sports, moved around and basically becoming a programming ragdoll for Fox. The same thing happened to Family Guy, they had less episodes made (50, compared to Futurama's 75) and they are coming back on the air. Some buzz is going around that Futurama could share in the same fate, it's possible because Fox doesn't own the rights to Futurama like they do with Family Guy. Groening and Co. just made episodes and Fox paid them to show them on Fox.
I've watched extensive hours of The Simpsons, Futurama and Family Guy and I've come to this conclusion...
The Simpsons is the series with the biggest environment. Have you seen the picture with about 200 people from The Simpsons on it? They mix humor with a wide spectrum of different characters and get a great show.
Futurama has the best writing, hands down, no question about it. You listen to the commentary of why certain elements were in it, and you think to yourself "wow, that's pretty sneaky". Plus, the seamless blend of computer animation and hand-drawn animation by Rough Draft Korea makes it the best animated series.
Family Guy has the best jokes IMO. Family Guy doesn't hold punches when they lay down jokes. The Simpsons has their funny jokes, Futurama has smart jokes, but Family Guy has gut-busting jokes that go to new heights. The only thing I'd change is put Lacey Chabert back as the voice of Meg, when I hear Mila Kunis' whiny voice, I think of Jackie, not Meg.
From the activity sheet:
In the DVD commentary, David Cohen goes on to say that it's tricky to find the cubes. Well, he's right. Here's the trick, in case you were interested:
3370318 = 119^3 + 119^3
2716057 = 952^3 + (-951)^3
No one ever said the cubed numbers had to be positive.... and yes, I'm a dork for working this out!