the story and the chaos
 
 
 
A few high quality, highly publicised documentaries have recently been made about mathematics. They all deal with, in some way or another, the history of mathematics.
 
So for example, the Story of Maths, which is presented by Professor Marcus du Sautoy on BBC4 ever Monday now at 9pm (two more to go only) traces, in big sweeps, the history of mathematics from pre-history to modern times.
 
Some people complain. These are the complaints I heard so far:
  1. ★ boring (but then maths is boring to them all the time anyway, so why watch? I don’t watch football game and then complain how boring it is).
  2. ★ not explained properly (I’m afraid you will not always understand everything that is said about maths. Professors teaching maths at universities don’t always understand everything. Learn to deal with it!).
  3. ★ all known before (ok, I do say this about the programme too - I’ve known all these stories before, but I still enjoy listening and watching it again. And how many historians of mathematics are there around?)
 
I had to make a decision - do I like it or not? I do I say, but it could be done better. But then everything I have ever done could be done better. Have you got a perfect work that you can show you completed? And have you found a perfect book? Hm. Maybe you need to read the Library by Borges.
 
The other documentary I recently saw was one on Chaos - again BBC4. This was done maybe in a more engaging way, but then the story itself was more focused. It dealt with one topic from the history of mathematics, and its application to everyday life. Hope they make a DVD of this, and not only because my friend June appears there!
 
 
Mathematics - the queen of sciences
Wednesday, 15 October 2008