(1979 - present)
David Gay
dgay@math.arizona.edu
John L. Leonard
jleonard@math.arizona.edu
Math Movies, sponsored by The University of Arizona chapter of Pi Mu Epsilon mathematics honorary and The University of Arizona Math Center, are films/videos that deal with interesting mathematical topics and are designed to pique the interest of students as well as provide a diversion from the usual class lecture and study routine. A series of four hour-long programs is shown each semester.
When choosing which films/videos are to be shown, the abilities, ambitions and interests of the undergraduate and graduate students and faculty are kept in mind. Thus a wide variety of films/videos is presented each year - filmed lectures, computer animated films, NOVA videos about mathematical topics, film biographies of mathematicians, etc. A typical audience is 20 - 30 people.
Expenses only involve film/video rental or purchase and copying of flyers/publicity. The average cost of a video is $20 - $40. Recommended videos are published by MAA, AMS and NOVA. Listings of some films are available in American Mathematical Monthly, January 1983 and in an 1980 MAA publication, Films and Videotapes for College Math by David Schneider. For a good rental catalog, contact:
Audio-Visual
Special Services Bldg.
Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802
phone: 1-800-826-0132
It was ten years ago that Andrew Wiles amazed the mathematical world (and the world outside mathematics) by announcing that he had proved Fermat's Last Theorem. Probably no other mathematical discovery has ever received so much public attention. Newspaper articles abounded. "Fermat Festivals" were held (one even here at the U of A). So let's have a "Fermat Fest Plus Ten", with three videos devoted to the subject.
The first, on Wednesday, September 17, will be "The Proof", a BBC-Nova account of Wiles's years of secret struggle with the centuries-old problem, his announcement of success, and the despair caused by a flaw in the proof, which was finally repaired after a year of desperate effort. This video features interviews with various mathematicians, including a moving discussion with Andrew Wiles himself.
On Wednesday, October 15, we'll feature what is probably the only opera written about mathematics, Fermat's Last Tango. It's a witty, melodic off-Broadway show by Joshua Rosenblum and Joanne Lessner, presented by the York Theater in 2000.
We'll complete our trilogy on Wednesday, November 12, with a filmed lecture entitled Fermat's Last Theorem, presented by mathematician Barry Mazur (who contributed a vital link in the proof) to the combined meeting of the American and Canadian Mathematical Societies in August, 1993, in which he explains in a semi-technical way the multitudinous mathematical ideas involved in the proof. Mazur's talk was given before the flaw in the original proof was discovered, but in a foreword added later, he explains the repair which yielded the final, complete proof.
All showings take place at 4pm in Room 111 of the Economics Building and last about an hour (Tango runs about twenty minutes longer). For more information, contact John L. Leonard, 621-6874 or jleonard@math.arizona.edu.