Mathematical BS

This post will not be discussing the Bachelor of Science.

It seems the media is under the impression the general population does not know a lot of math. It is very likely this could be correct. Someone gave math a bad name long ago and now it's gotten about. Math has been falsely accused of being too hard. Which makes me sad (and annoys me) but I will not be venting about this topic just now.

I’ve been reading the next book in The Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. This one is called Lost in a Good Book. Here is a small excerpt from page 87 where Thursday is asking her Uncle about coincidences.

"Well," he said thoughtfully, "it is my considered opinion that most coincidences are simply quirks of chance--if you extrapolate the bell curve of probability you will find statistical abnormalities that seem unusual but are, in actual fact, quite likely, given the amount of people on the planet and the amount of different things we do in our lives."

I can’t help but laugh when I read this total BS. Please do not misunderstand me, I am in no way trying to knock the book, I have very much enjoyed Fforde’s writing style. But it just makes me laugh. It’s cleverly written to make you think he is saying something brilliant, but mathematically it’s all BS.

Ever seen the Wizard of Oz?

Sadly there is no such theorem about an isosceles triangle. BS again.

For those of you who have seen the movie 21 there is a lot of math terms being thrown around. For such a math-type movie I would have hoped for more. The first scene in the class room Prof. Micky Rosa jumps around wilding from Newton’s Method to Probability Theory, which is utterly unrelated to the class which is stated to be Non-Linear Equations (which is not an actual class). The comments are full of part truths that make it sound smart and correct. But I’m gonna go with BS in this case (although less BS than most).

I.Q. is a super cute movie where Meg Ryan plays a mathematician. Unfortunately what she writes on the chalkboard while solving a problem is BS yet again. There is a partial derivative operator with nothing for it to operate on. It’s the equivalent to saying 5 + … You are left hanging, what is it you want to add to 5? You’ll never know.


I must make one very important exception to this: Futurama. Not only is this show full of math and science humor, it’s pretty much all spot on correct.

Root 66 – bah ha ha!

I love seeing math portrayed in movies and books. Mostly because I just think it’s funny. And please, do not believe what you see in the movies!