Math with Cohen and Groening

An anonymous reader writes "While math on The Simpsons and math on Futurama has been covered by Slashdot before, new background on some of the scientific references is covered in a long transcription of A Futurama Math Conversation with David X Cohen and a short summary of a math club talk to Matt Groening and a number of writers from both shows. Some amusing tidbits are on these pages - for example, when the Simpsons writers contacted NASA for the 40,000th digit of pi, NASA actually sent them a printout of all 40,000 digits."

Comments

Re:Why NASA?

[Joe Decker]

Or they could have just Googled up the digits themselves, as they exist as files on the net, in locations such as this one.

Re:NASA?

[rayde]

i believe that episode aired in 1993... the internet was a different place back then.

Re:What's so great about the Simpsons?

[Eskarel]

The beauty of shows like the Simpsons, and to an even greater extent South Park, is not so much that they deal with every single important issue, it's that they bring semi-important issues to viewers who would not otherwise be reached.

Most of my extended family are hard line Catholic republicans, they not only voted for Bush, but did so with joy in their hearts. They don't listen to much of anything anyone tried to tell them about either alternate viewpoints or even their own beliefs.

However, many of my younger cousins watch South Park and/or the Simpsons and are exposed to ideas which contradict their own, they may not immediately see it, but they are exposed to them without automatically tuning out. This is why these shows are great, because the gags allow a message to get across to people who don't listen to other sources.

Re:All 40,000 digits?

[megrims]

A little context impaired, are we?