Too many ads or having playback issues? Try switching to another server using the buttons below the player.
NOVA leads viewers 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. But where does math get its power? Astrophysicist and writer Mario Livio, along with a colorful cast of mathematicians, physicists and engineers, follows math from Pythagoras to Einstein and beyond, all leading to the ultimate riddle: Is math an invention or a discovery? Humankind's clever trick or the language of the universe?
Directed by Richard Reisz
Jay O. Sanders
Narrator (voice)
Glenn Kalison
Actor
Max Tegmark
Self
Esperanza Spalding
Self
Sylvester James Gates
Self
Adam Steltzner
Self
Janna Levin
Self
Simon Schaffer
Self
Savas Dimopoulos
Self
Roger Penrose
Self
Stephen Wolfram
Self
Beautiful Young Minds
2007
4watch
