07 Oct 2007
Fermat's Room
Four mathematicians are imprisoned in a shrinking room; with the walls closing in, they must try anything to escape this fatal puzzle.
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?
Top Billed Cast
Jay O. Sanders Narrator (voice)
Glenn Kalison Actor
Max Tegmark Self
Esperanza Spalding Self
Sylvester James Gates Self
Adam Steltzner Self
Janna Levin Self
Simon Schaffer Self
Roger Penrose Self
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