The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets

Bloomsbury USA | 2013 | 279 páginas | epub/mobi

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You may have watched hundreds of episodes of The Simpsons (and its sister show Futurama) without ever realizing that cleverly embedded in many plots are subtle references to mathematics, ranging from well-known equations to cutting-edge theorems and conjectures. That they exist, Simon Singh reveals, underscores the brilliance of the shows’ writers, many of whom have advanced degrees in mathematics in addition to their unparalleled sense of humor.
While recounting memorable episodes such as “Bart the Genius” and “Homer3,” Singh weaves in mathematical stories that explore everything from p to Mersenne primes, Euler’s equation to the unsolved riddle of P v. NP; from perfect numbers to narcissistic numbers, infinity to even bigger infinities, and much more. Along the way, Singh meets members of The Simpsons’ brilliant writing team—among them David X. Cohen, Al Jean, Jeff Westbrook, and Mike Reiss—whose love of arcane mathematics becomes clear as they reveal the stories behind the episodes.
With wit and clarity, displaying a true fan’s zeal, and replete with images from the shows, photographs of the writers, and diagrams and proofs, The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets offers an entirely new insight into the most successful show in television history.

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Contents
CHAPTER 0 The Truth About The Simpsons
CHAPTER 1 Bart the Genius
CHAPTER 2 Are you π-Curious?
CHAPTER 3 Homer’s Last Theorem
CHAPTER 4 The Puzzle of Mathematical Humor
EXAMINATION I
CHAPTER 5 Six Degrees of Separation
CHAPTER 6 Lisa Simpson, Queen of Stats and Bats
CHAPTER 7 Galgebra and Galgorithms
EXAMINATION II
CHAPTER 8 A Prime-Time Show
CHAPTER 9 To Infinity and Beyond
CHAPTER 10 The Scarecrow Theorem
EXAMINATION III
CHAPTER 11 Freeze-Frame Mathematics
CHAPTER 12 Another Slice of π
CHAPTER 13 Homer3
EXAMINATION IV
CHAPTER 14 The Birth of Futurama
CHAPTER 15 1,729 and a Romantic Incident
CHAPTER 16 A One-Sided Story
CHAPTER 17 The Futurama Theorem
EXAMINATION V
EπLOGUE
APPENDIX 1 The Sabermetrics Approach in Soccer
APPENDIX 2 Making Sense of Euler’s Equation
APPENDIX 3 Dr. Keeler’s Recipe for the Sum of Squares
APPENDIX 4 Fractals and Fractional Dimensions
APPENDIX 5 Keeler’s Theorem
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ONLINE RESOURCES
PICTURE CREDITS
BY THE SAME AUTHOR