NOVA · SEASON 42
The Great Math Mystery
Episode 17 · 2015-04-15
- Documentary
Episode overview
Join NOVA 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. Astrophysicist and writer Mario Livio, along with a colorful cast of mathematicians, physicists, and engineers, follow math from Pythagoras to Einstein and beyond. It all leads to the ultimate riddle: Is math a human invention or the discovery of the language of the universe?
55 minutes
Season 42 episodes
1. Vaccines Calling the Shots2014-09-10
2. Rise of the Hackers2014-09-24
3. Why Planes Vanish2014-10-08
4. Surviving Ebola2014-10-08
5. Ben Franklin's Balloons2014-10-22
6. First Air War2014-10-29
7. Bigger Than T. rex2014-11-05
8. Emperor’s Ghost Army2014-11-12
9. Killer Landslides2014-11-19
10. First Man on the Moon2014-12-03
11. Big Bang Machine2015-01-14
12. Sunken Ship Rescue2015-01-21
13. Sinkholes—Buried Alive2015-01-28
14. Colosseum: Roman Death Trap2015-02-11
15. Petra: Lost City of Stone2015-02-18
16. Hagia Sophia: Istanbul’s Ancient Mystery2015-02-25
17. The Great Math Mystery2015-04-15
18. Invisible Universe Revealed2015-04-22
19. Nazi Attack on America2015-05-06
20. Lethal Seas2015-05-13
21. Chasing Pluto2015-07-15
22. Nuclear Meltdown Disaster2015-07-29
