Story of Maths, The

Synopsis

This DVD contains the complete 4-part series about the history of mathematics, presented by Professor Marcus du Sautoy.The films offer clear, accessible explanations of important mathematical ideas but are also packed with engaging anecdotes, fascinating biographical details, and pivotal episodes in the lives of the great mathematicians. Marcus du Sautoy escorts us on a journey that through the ages and around the world, examining the development of key mathematical ideas and showing how, in a multitude of surprising ways, mathematical ideas underpin the science, technology, and culture that shape our world.

Part 1 - THE LANGUAGE OF THE UNIVERSE - In Egypt, he uncovers use of a decimal system based on ten fingers of the hand and discovers that the way we tell the time is based on the Babylonian Base 60 number system. In Greece, he looks at the contributions of some of the giants of mathematics including Plato, Archimedes and Pythagoras, who is credited with beginning the transformation of mathematics from a counting tool into the analytical subject of today.

Part 2 - THE GENIUS OF THE EAST - When ancient Greece fell into decline, mathematical progress stagnated as Europe entered the Dark Ages, but in the East mathematics reached new heights. Du Sautoy explores how maths helped build imperial China and discovers how the symbol for the number zero was invented in India. He also looks at the Middle Eastern invention of algebra and how mathematicians such as Fibonacci spread Eastern knowledge to the West.

Part 3 - THE FRONTIERS OF SPACE - By the 17th century, Europe had taken over from the Middle East as the powerhouse of mathematical ideas. Great strides had been made in understanding the geometry of objects fixed in time and space. The race was on to discover the mathematics to describe objects in motion. This programme explores the work of René Descartes, Pierre Fermat, Isaac Newton, Leonard Euler and Carl Friedrich Gauss.

Part 4 - TO INFINITY AND BEYOND - Professor Marcus du Sautoy concludes his investigation into the history of mathematics with a look at some of the great unsolved problems that confronted mathematicians in the 20th century. After exploring Georg Cantor’s work on infinity and Henri Poincare’s work on chaos theory, he sees how mathematics was itself thrown into chaos by the discoveries of Kurt Godel and Paul Cohen, before completing his journey by considering some unsolved problems of maths today, including the Riemann Hypothesis

Series

Story of Maths, Course Tm190

Language

English

Country

Great Britain

Year of release

2008

Year of production

2008

Availability

Out of distribution

Notes

Broadcast on BBC4 in 4 weekly parts, beginning 6/10/2008.
Individual DVDs of all four programmes are included in the course materials for the associated Open University short course TM190 The Story of Maths.

Subjects

Mathematics

Keywords

history of mathematics

Credits

Contributor

Marcus du Sautoy

Distribution Formats

Type

DVD

Format

Region 2 PAL

Price

£17.00

Availability

Sale

Duration/Size

240 minutes

Year

2012

Sections

Title

Language of the Universe, The

Duration

60 mins

Title

Genius of the East, The

Duration

60 mins

Title

Frontiers of Space, The

Duration

60 mins

Title

To Infinity and Beyond

Duration

60 mins

Distributor

Name

Canny Store

Web

https://cannystore.com/ External site opens in new window

Phone

01789 207440

Address

The Mansley Centre
Timothy’s Bridge Road
Stratford upon Avon
CV37 9NQ

Name

Open University Worldwide

Web

http://www.ouw.co.uk External site opens in new window

Phone

+44 (0) 1908 274066

Address

Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA

Notes

NB. As of May 2016 Open University Worldwide are no longer distributing DVDs. They have posted this message on their website: ‘Unfortunately Open University Worldwide Limited has decided that product sales are no longer viable given the reduced funding to Higher Education institutions and diminishing demand for the products we have traditionally stocked. At present the Open University Students Association (OUSA) will continue to sell the "Good Study Guide", and we are in discussion with other possible distributors to continue to make The Open University’s products available for purchase. As soon as we have any information on other channels of distribution we will update this notice’. Some products are still available via second hand dealers on Amazon.co.uk