Happy Halloween Everyone! I wrote the following last year around this time, I think. Hope you enjoy it.
Is math scary?
Why do so many math-related movie titles belong to horror movies?
Cube (1997)
Sphere (1998)
Triangle (2009)
The Ring (2002)
(Note: In mathematics, a “ring” is an algebraic structure, specifically a set closed under two binary operations sharing the algebraic properties of addition and multiplication but applied to non-numerical parallels. Of course, it can also refer to a circle or a torus).
Then, of course, there are the movies Se7en (1995), The Number 23 (2007), and π (1998)-
Well, okay. π is not widely considered a horror film, but it is eerie. It also has some horror elements leading to this next point:
Movie titles aside, many films that have an involvement with mathematics bring an element of fright.
THE 4TH DIMENSION (2008)
FERMAT'S ROOM (2007)
Does this association of mathematics with horror reveal an unconscious phobia of math in our society?
Math is mysterious and fascinating.
Fascination always comes with a degree of terror.
So much of the gothic themed horror or science fiction films have depicted humankind, with the help of science, overstepping her bounds.
Mathematics is an aid to understand more, yet reveals how little we know.
As much as mathematics helps to describe elegant structures, it nonetheless points to that which is hidden - baffling us with questions regarding the nature of prime numbers, eluding us with irrational values that can only appear to us as estimates, and mocking us with Gödel's incompleteness theorem.
The Greeks, who were obsessed with perfection, remained unsettled that the hypotenuse of the 1 x 1 right triangle is the square root of 2 --- a number that cannot be written as a fraction (insert scary music here).
The imaginary number i = sqr (-1) is not even supposed to be real, but Euler's identity brings it to life and allows it to walk.
20th century mathematicians tried to outline a complete mathematical system but were disappointed (or should we say horrified) by Russell’s paradox and Gödel's incompleteness theorems, showing that mathematics cannot be made completely coherent or comprehensive. This leaves us powerless against it.
As much as we use mathematics to make sense of the world, it always leaves us with a sense of mystery - of that which is beyond us…
and that is always scary.
“there be dragons.”
the end.