Dimensions

What is Bitcoin? With the advent of Bitcoin, the world's first digital currency, for the first time in history money is no longer controlled by banks or governments, but by the people who use it. But where did this currency come from? How does it work? And is it truly the way forward, or just a flash in the pan? Magic Money answers these questions and more as it explores the mysterious origins of Bitcoin, its role in society, and how it could shape the future.

M.C. Escher is among the most intriguing of artists. In 1956 he challenged the laws of perspective with his graphic Print Gallery and his uncompleted master-piece quickly became the most puzzling enigma of modern art. Fifty years later, can mathematician Hendrik Lenstra complete it? Should he?

Narrated by Oscar-winning actor Jeremy Irons, The Genius of George Boole assembles academics and industry leaders from across the globe to explore the life and importance of one of the world’s greatest unsung heroes.

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?

Disney used animation here to explain through this wonderful adventure of Donald how mathematics can be useful in our real life. Through this journey Donald shows us how mathematics are not just numbers and charts, but magical living things.

Made entirely on Roger Wagner's HyperStudio software, Chris Marker explores set theory, using Noah's Ark as an example.

Until recently geometry was 'cold', incapable of describing the irregular shape of a cloud, the slope of a mountain or the beauty of the human body. With fractal geometry, Benoit Mandelbrot gave us a language for our natural world. In this captivating documentary, the man himself explains this groundbreaking discovery.

A mathematical play on one repeated movement. It imparts a sense of possibilities: that something simple can produce complex and unexpected patterns. As with an atom, the variety of possibilities from a base movement is potentially infinite.

In April 1969 Ilya (Eliyahu) Rips, then a young student of mathematics, tried to burn himself in a public square in Riga, Latvia protesting against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. He was stopped and eventually sent to a psychiatric hospital for two years. Thanks to international pressure from the mathematical community in 1972 he was allowed to emigrate to Israel. Now he is considered one of the most brilliant mathematicians in the world. At the same time, for most people familiar with his name, Rips is first of all associated with the development of the so called Bible Code – a mathematical program allegedly helping to decipher hidden messages encoded in Torah – the Five Books of Moses. He is attacked by both the scientific and religious community, yet his research continues.

The computer animation Outside In explains the amazing discovery, made by Steve Smale in 1957, that a sphere can be turned inside out by means of smooth motions and self-intersections. Through a combination of dialogue and exposition accessible to anyone who has some interest in mathematics, Outside In builds up to the grand finale: Bill Thurston's "corrugations" method of turning the sphere inside out.

A short, animated film based on Edwin Abbott's 1884 satirical novella, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions.

Toroid is an experimental audio-reactive animation work that demonstrates the possibilities of harnessing digital waveforms of electronic origin into a continual source of power. By making the invisible visible, the work bears similarity and inspiration from the extensive quantum energy research at CERN which seeks to uncover and control the particles in and around us. In this era of over-production and over-algorithmic data illusion of choices, Toroid inserts itself in the digital narrative as a power source simulation showing a possibility for ensuring a positive flow of eternal (renewable) energy working in parallel with the natural order.

Shot in Southern England over the course of six weeks by a crew of three American filmmakers, CircleSpeak offers a nuanced look at the passions and beliefs of the people immersed in the crop circle phenomenon during the season of 2001. This feature-length documentary presents interviews with serious “researchers”, self-proclaimed “hoaxers”, local farmers and villagers who are all, in one way or another, involved in this strange and compelling summer spectacle taking place year after year.

During the 1995 Summer Institute at The Geometry Center, a team of undergraduates, middle and high school mathematics teachers and Center staff developed curriculum materials supporting The Shape of Space video. The team developed a comprehensive curriculum, covering many areas related to the video. The following materials were selected for distribution based on their direct relevence to understanding the video itself.

Not Knot is a guided tour into computer-animated hyperbolic space. It proceeds from the world of knots to their complementary spaces -- what's not a knot. Profound theorems of recent mathematics show that most known complements carry the structure of hyperbolic geometry, a geometry in which the sum of three angles of a triangle always is less than 180 degrees.

Filmed in Canada, Iran, and the United States, Secrets of the Surface: The Mathematical Vision of Maryam Mirzakhani examines the life and mathematical work of Maryam Mirzakhani, an Iranian immigrant to the United States who became a superstar in her field. In 2014, she was both the first woman and the first Iranian to be honored by mathematics' highest prize, the Fields Medal. Mirzakhani's contributions are explained by leading mathematicians and illustrated by animated sequences. Her mathematical colleagues from around the world, as well as former teachers, classmates, and students in Iran today, convey the deep impact of her achievements. The path of her education, success on Iran's Math Olympiad team, and her brilliant work, make Mirzakhani an ideal role model for girls looking toward careers in science and mathematics. Written by George Csicsery

A humor-inflected history of the of the number one, covering military applications in ancient Rome, the measurement of distances in India, and the decimal system created by Leibnitz.

Join Tad and Lily a they blast off on an exciting educational adventure! Tad and Lily need the perfect collection of things to take to school for their math assignment. When they finally decide on moon rocks, there's just one problem - how will they get them? With some magical help from their firefly friend, Edison, they board a rocket to start their quest. Soon the twins learn that math is everywhere, even in outer space!

Created as a demonstration of multi-disciplinary thinking, this film was produced in association with UCLA Mathematics professor, Ray Redheffer. With the exclusive use of storytelling through animation this lively and exuberant presentation of the “architecture of algebra,” the film explains the behavior of specific exponents and concludes with the general laws that all exponential expressions obey – all achieved without the use of narration. Council on International Non-Theatrical Events (C.I.N.E.) Gold Eagle Award, 1975. Columbus International Film Festival Bronze Chris Plaque Award-C, 1975. New York International Animation Festival Bronze Praexinoscope Award, 1975. Melbourne Film Festival Selected for Participation, 1976.

A portrait of the visionary Dutch artist M. C. Escher (1898-1972), according to his own words, taken from his diary, his correspondence and the texts of his lectures.