12.06.05
Is Numb3rs for real? Kinda!
I often get asked if math is like how it’s depicted in popular culture. The answer is usually no. For example, in Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon’s advisor has a lush office ensconced in wood and leather and complete with a fireplace. I’ve never seen any professor’s office have such an office, at least on this continent.
But an exception to that rule is Numb3rs, which strikes me as being a surprisingly accurate portrayal of a mathematician’s life. OK, we don’t all use math to solve crimes, and there was this ridiculous scene in which the mathematician covers the inside of a barn with chalkboards to work on a problem. But at least the problem (the famous P vs. NP question) was a real one.
The show uses a team of mathematicians from Caltech (see “They’re calculatingly cool“, by Elizabeth Weise, USA Today, 2005-02-08) as consultants, and they’ve gotten it right. Not only is the mathematics discussed pretty real. The mathematician character isn’t some stuffy professor with leather patches on his elbows. He prefers T-shirts and jeans to sportcoats, he uses aloofness to cover his shyness, and he’s only passionate about solving problems. This profile describes more mathematicians I know than Matt Damon or Russell Crowe does.
Even the guy’s office is true-to-life. Nothing posh; just a pretty bare room with linoleum tile, an uncurtained window, a radiator, a desk littered with paper, and a chalkboard. This conjures up to me images of just about every graduate student office at MIT (except they are larger and are shared by several students per office).
To other mathematicians, I say the question is not so much whether this portrayal is accurate. There is a show on network prime time about math! I’ve heard CSI is not necessarily an accurate portrayal of crime-scene detection, but if gets young people interested in science, who cares? From the USA Today article: “If just one 14-year-old realizes that following a love for mathematics can lead to totally cool, intellectually fascinating work, [Caltech math department head Gary] Lordon says he’ll be pleased. ‘Even the smartest kids ask, “But what do you do?” ‘
What the heck is a preceptor? » A numb3rs blog said,
May 15, 2007 at 6:35 am
[…] A while back I wrote that numb3rs is one of the most legitimate pop-culture portrayals of a mathematician. I’ve stopped watching the show, but some mathematicians still do, and Mark Bridger at Northeastern even blogs about it. So you can break down the math in each episode. […]
What the heck is a preceptor? » Tuesday reading list and DITL said,
September 11, 2007 at 6:47 am
[…] We All Use Math Every Day: a set of learning modules created by TI linked to episodes of Numb3rs. I’ve blogged before that Numb3rs is kind of realistic, IMO. […]