The Story of Maths

History

Station:
BBC Four (UK)

Status:
Ended

Start:
2008-10-06

Rating:
0/10 from 0 users

Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, escorts you through the most important of all intellectual disciplines. Mathematics is the Empress of the Sciences. Without her, there would be no physics, nor chemistry, nor cosmology. Any field of study depending on statistics, geometry, or any kind of calculation would simply cease to be. And then, there are the practical applications: without maths there's no architecture. No commerce. No accurate maps, or time-keeping: therefore no navigation, nor aviation, nor astronomy. She is all-powerful: and she rules ruthlessly. Imperious and unyielding, mathematics brooks no dissent and tolerates no error. In an age of uncertainty, mathematics is the only discipline that generates knowledge that's immutably, incontestably, and eternally true. In this landmark series of films for BBC Four.

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List of episodes

S1E2 - The Genius of the East

Marcus du Sautoy looks at the rise of mathematics in the east, discovering how it helped build imperial China and finding out about the invention of algebra.

Air Date: 13 Oct 2008 15:00 (CDT)

S1E3 - The Frontiers of Space

Marcus du Sautoy investigates the ways in which Europe replaced the Middle East as the world's powerhouse of mathematical ideas by the 17th century.

Air Date: 20 Oct 2008 15:00 (CDT)

S1E4 - To Infinity and Beyond

Marcus du Sautoy concludes his look at the history of mathematics by examining the great unsolved problems that confronted mathematicians in the 20th century.

Air Date: 27 Oct 2008 16:00 (CDT)