Tell me more ×
Mathematics Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people studying math at any level and professionals in related fields. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 81 down vote favorite
86

This is an offshoot of the question on Fun math outreach/social activities. I have listed a few videos/documentaries I have seen. I would appreciate if people could add on to this list.

  1. Story of maths Part1 Part2 Part3 Part4
  2. Dangerous Knowledge Part1 Part2
  3. Fermat's Last Theorem
  4. The Importance of Mathematics
  5. To Infinity and Beyond
share|improve this question
for [big-list] questions, please remember to flag for moderator attention to convert to a Wiki. – Willie Wong♦ Jan 25 '11 at 12:36
6  
How are there more favorites than upvotes? – mixedmath♦ Feb 6 '12 at 19:24
3  
@Nick: You... limit your upvotes? This is a CW thread - so upvotes don't even give a reputation boost. We get 30 or 40 votes a day. I encourage you to use more of them. A while ago, SE sites actively tried to ward off this type of voting behavior, including math. But I would understand holding back on upvoting 'low level' content if you find that you hit the vote limit. Anyhow, I encourage you to read those meta posts. – mixedmath♦ May 23 '12 at 8:41
2  
@Nick: You're of course welcome to vote as you want to, but I'd like to also encourage you to vote more liberally. In general, if I feel that a question is the sort of thing I want to see on the site, I give it an upvote. And as mixedmath points out, this particular question has been marked "CW" (community wiki), which means the person who posted it isn't even getting any reputation points from it, so when you upvote you're only expressing your interest in the question. Like you I'm also liberal with my favorites - pretty much anything I think I might want to look at more closely later :) – Zev Chonoles♦ May 23 '12 at 8:55
1  
@ZevChonoles: It's not about reputation to me and the vote of questions isn't even so problematic. But if someone gives a new answer to an old question, which already contains another (not as good) answer with 15 votes, the new and better answer will stay low forever. So I don't think it's a good thing if answers have too many upvotes. If an answer has a two-digit number of votes, it's clear enought that it's worth reading. E.g. there are about ten posts in this thread. Even if someone posts the most important video of math history, it can't climb up if the other posts are voteworthy too. – Nick Kidman May 23 '12 at 9:12
show 4 more comments

22 Answers

up vote 15 down vote

Möbius transformations revealed is pretty amazing. Also, anything by Vi Hart.

share|improve this answer
4  
I second your recommendation of Vi Hart! – Fredrik Meyer Jan 25 '11 at 4:36
Vi Hart has now joined the Khan Academy so you can find them there as well. – Brad May 2 '12 at 14:41
up vote 12 down vote

Dimensions is a series of very good videos on stereographic projection, fourth dimension geometry, complex numbers, fibrations and proofs. These are dubbed in various languages.

share|improve this answer
up vote 9 down vote

Here's a really excellent video, Finite Simple Group (of Order Two), that's definitely more towards the fun side than educational, although if you're not getting some of the jokes it may inspire you to look up a thing or two.

share|improve this answer
up vote 8 down vote

Documentary of Paul Erdos "N is a Number" is another good documentary. Also there is a documentary of Srinivasa Ramanujan called God, Zero and Infinity was released by TIFR in 2009.

Another documentary named Hard Problems was released by MAA which shows how US students performed in the IMO.

share|improve this answer
Indeed, Hard Problems was really good too! – InterestedGuest Jan 25 '11 at 3:45
up vote 5 down vote

Should this be a community wiki? I really liked Beautiful Young Minds about the British IMO team.

share|improve this answer
1  
for future reference, it is slightly more effective to flag for moderator attention than giving that query in an answer :) – Willie Wong♦ Jan 25 '11 at 12:41
up vote 5 down vote

When I was a kid we used to watch "Donald in Mathmagic land" starring Donald Duck. While in undergrad we all gathered to watch and it was still enjoyable.

share|improve this answer
The math club at my university watched this movie last semester and really enjoyed it. – Mike Spivey Jan 25 '11 at 15:16
up vote 4 down vote

May not be fundamental maths videos, but I like the teaching style of Shai Simonson and his lectures in Discrete Mathematics and Theory of Computation are entertaining as well as enlightening.

share|improve this answer
up vote 4 down vote

I enjoyed Between the Folds, which gives a rather high-level view of the mathematics behind origami and how they provide means for constructing incredibly complex shapes.

share|improve this answer
up vote 4 down vote

Bob Gardner's page is a treasure trove.:)

share|improve this answer
up vote 3 down vote

Nova's Mathematical Mystery Tour is still on youtube (let's hope it stays there): (link to first part): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPSx2CkKE3c

share|improve this answer
up vote 3 down vote

A few years back the NHK made a documentary called "The Spell of Poincare Conjecture". (You can find a possibly non permanent link here to part 1 of 4 [with also links to the rest of the video].)

share|improve this answer
1  
A shame I can't understand a word... There's no way around it then: I'll have to learn japanese and come back! – Sam Jan 25 '11 at 15:33
2  
@S.L. Oh, I linked to the Japanese version? Darn. There is an English version, which I think was shown on PBS in the States. You may be able to find it if you Google the title of the documentary. – Willie Wong♦ Jan 25 '11 at 17:02
up vote 3 down vote

On Srinivasa ramanujan the genius mathematician from India. I believe a hollywood movie based on his life is being made, with Madhavan playing the role of Ramanujan.

Ramanujan:Letters from an Indian Clerk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OARGZ1xXCxs

share|improve this answer
up vote 2 down vote

While it's been a while since I've seen it, the old Geometry Center videos - especially Not Knot - are personal favorites. The Geometry Center's video page is at http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/video/ - as for Not Knot itself, I'm sure it should be findable easily enough...

share|improve this answer
up vote 2 down vote

For youngsters, there is Donald in Mathmagic Land.

share|improve this answer
Great for awkward drinking games too. – Bruno Feb 6 '12 at 19:04
up vote 2 down vote

Flatland: Have you ever imagined if all of us live in a 1-dimension world? And after a long live in this one, the surprise to see the 3-dimension world in the first time?

Sphereland: the same as the flatland movie, but now, you live in a sphere

I've found online just the first movie, the second one is about to be released.

Flatland:

http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/4238969/Flatland_(2007) (Download)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfglluny8Z0 (online)

Sphereland trailers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EGHu6ZHb8s&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BHQPxf7_Fs

share|improve this answer
up vote 2 down vote

These are some introductory videos from an 'old' (mid-80's) series co-produced by Caltech called Mechanical Universe. One on derivation and another one on integration. Features some nice Newton-Leibniz cosplay if nothing else. If you're into that sort of thing.

share|improve this answer
up vote 2 down vote

Here is a (not well-known, it seems) video containing a lecture and interview with Richard Courant, former student of David Hilbert:

Göttingen and New York : reflections on a life in mathematics

share|improve this answer
up vote 2 down vote

A very nice TED talk by Robert Lang about the mathematics of origami: http://www.ted.com/talks/robert_lang_folds_way_new_origami.html. It goes very well with this Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics_of_paper_folding. The talk itself isn't heavy mathematics, but the mathematics behind the talk is very interesting.

share|improve this answer
up vote 2 down vote

I found this talk about the life and work of Évariste Galois Superb: here is a link

The Memoirs and legacy of Évariste Galois-Dr Peter Neumann

share|improve this answer
up vote 0 down vote

I found a lecture "A tribute to Euler" from CMI, about the biography and a some mathematical results of Euler. Here is the link! "The music of the prime" by Marcus is also very good mathematical material. Watch here!

share|improve this answer
up vote 0 down vote

I just found this amazing website Mathtube.org. Here is excerpt from the site's About page:

"What is mathtube.org? mathtube.org is a new multimedia resource hosted by the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences. mathtube.org gives users easy access to mathematical seminar and lecture materials including videos notes and slides. mathube.org allows users to view slides and video simultaneously, making it convenient to follow a lecture at your own pace and review anything you have missed."

Mathtube.org has dozens of lectures, for example there is a lecture by Ben Green titled On the Sylvester-Gallai Theorem.

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.