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This is a blog where a professor from Northeastern University's Math department posts mathematical comments on the television show "Numb3rs". To comment, write to bridger@neu.edu.
Unique visitors since 6/14/2005:
March 31, 2007
Charlie makes three mathematical contributions to last night's show:
1. An analysis of the debris field of the airplane crash
2. A reconstruction of several smudged fingerprints
3. The determination of the source of a computer program.
Let's look at these in order. First, there's the debris field: the collection of all the bits and pieces of a crashed airplane and its cargo... continued »
March 19, 2007
This is just a reminder that the calculator maker TI (= Texas Instruments) has a website devoted to math material related to the Numb3rs show; here is its URL: TI Numb3rs Activities .
I recommend these exercises as a further way to understand the math of the show. I have referenced this site on the blog before... continued »
March 18, 2007
This blog is the long-promised one analyzing the probability computation that Charlie makes in the March 9th episode "Democracy" (about voting maching fraud).
Let's recall the situation. Rachel Lawton, an old friend of Charlie's, presents him with a list of 4 people, 3 of whom have died within the past two weeks. They are some of her co-workers, and she is afraid that her life is in danger. Sure enough, the next day she is found dead... continued »
March 18, 2007
A four-dimensional cube is called a "Tesserect" or hypercube. Here's some information about them: Tesserects.
Below is a site that has an animated projection of a rotating hypercube. If you have "3D" glasses (one eye red, the other blue) you can see this 4-dimensional object come out of the screen at you. It's really neat... continued »
March 15, 2007
Sorry for the lack of blogs this week: I've been busy with schoolwork and I've been thinking about Charlie's estimation last week of the likelihood that the deaths of the people on Rachel Lawton's list were random. There are several ways of making this calculation and they don't give the same answer. This is not too surprising since we always have to make certain assumptions when dealing with actual probabilities in life... continued »
March 6, 2007
For an intro to Turing machines, see the previous blogs Turing Machines: first class and Turing Machines: second class... continued »
March 5, 2007
In this blog I'll show you a Turing machine I constructed that will add two numbers, expressed in binary... continued »
March 4, 2007
This is the first blog on Turing machines.
A Turing machine is not really a machine but a theoretical description of a computing scheme, written in language that sounds as if it were describing an actual computer-like entity.
Basically, a Turing machine consists of a "program," which is really a table of behavior, and a long tape divided into segments or boxes, which can be read from or written on, one box at a time... continued »
March 2, 2007
In the episode "One Hour" from a week ago, Charlie and Amita are talking about "Recursive Turing Machines." There are two interesting concepts here: recursion and Turing Machine. Here's what recursion is about.
A definition or an algorithm (procedure or recipe) is called recursive if it refers to itself... continued »