NOVA: The Great Math Mystery

NOVA: The Great Math Mystery

54 mins | Documentary, Mystery, History | April 15, 2015

NOVA leads viewers on a mathematical mystery tour -- a provocative exploration of math's astonishing power across the centuries. We discover math's signature in the swirl of a nautilus shell, the whirlpool of a galaxy and the spiral in the center of a sunflower. Math was essential to everything from the first wireless radio transmissions to the prediction and discovery of the Higgs boson and the successful landing of rovers on Mars. But where does math get its power? Astrophysicist and writer Mario Livio, along with a colorful cast of mathematicians, physicists and engineers, follows math from Pythagoras to Einstein and beyond, all leading to the ultimate riddle: Is math an invention or a discovery? Humankind's clever trick or the language of the universe?

NOVA: The Great Math Mystery

54 mins | Documentary, Mystery, History | April 15, 2015

NOVA: The Great Math Mystery
NOVA leads viewers on a mathematical mystery tour -- a provocative exploration of math's astonishing power across the centuries. We discover math's signature in the swirl of a nautilus shell, the whirlpool of a galaxy and the spiral in the center of a sunflower. Math was essential to everything from the first wireless radio transmissions to the prediction and discovery of the Higgs boson and the successful landing of rovers on Mars. But where does math get its power? Astrophysicist and writer Mario Livio, along with a colorful cast of mathematicians, physicists and engineers, follows math from Pythagoras to Einstein and beyond, all leading to the ultimate riddle: Is math an invention or a discovery? Humankind's clever trick or the language of the universe?
IMDb rating 7.6
Producers WGBH Boston
Original title NOVA: The Great Math Mystery
Directors Richard Reisz, Dan McCabe
Writers Dan McCabe

Cast

Jay O. Sanders

as Narrator (voice)

Glenn Kalison

as Actor

Max Tegmark

as Self

Adam Steltzner

as Self

Janna Levin

as Self

Simon Schaffer

as Self

Roger Penrose

as Self

Stephen Wolfram

as Self