I recently celebrated my n+1th birthday (yes, a year older…) and received from Sheila, ‘The Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets’ by Simon Singh. Having already read several of Simon Singh’s books – Fermat’s Last Theorem, The Code Book: The Secret History of Codes and the fabulous Trick or Treatment?: Alternative Medicine on Trial – I was confident that this one would prove to be an entertaining page-turner. And I’m pleased to say that it is indeed a little cracker so I thought I’d share an extract from it in this post.
The Simpsons
Unless you’ve been hiding out in another planet for the past 20 years, you’ll know already that The Simpsons has been one of the longest running and most successful TV series in history. Singh's book explains how it came about in the first place.
Back in 1985, the British entertainer Tracey Ullman was having a successful run of shows in the US. Her sketches were performed before a live audience and many of them required extraordinary makeup and prosthetics. Scriptwriter James L. Brooks thought that it would give Ullman more time between sketches if they could include some cartoon animations. He met with cartoonist Matt Groening and minutes prior to this meeting Groening thought up the characters of the Simpson family. Later, some of the short animations featuring the Simpsons were pieced together into a longer show. To everyone’s surprise, they went down very well. Their first full-length show was ‘Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire’ which was aired as a Christmas special on 17 December 1989.
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| 'Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire' |
Where’s the mathematics?
If you are a regular follower of The Simpsons, you’ll be aware of the many amusing mathematical references it has included over the years. This is down to the strongly mathematical backgrounds of many of the writers, some of whom gave up teaching and research posts in mathematics to join the writing team. Singh includes many examples of mathematical references but don’t be put off if your own mathematical background is a bit thin – the emphasis is just as much on the humour as on the mathematics.
Various mathematical topics are touched upon in the book but I’ll mention just one – the number known as pi. An episode, first aired in 2001 and called “Bye, Bye, Nerdie” is about the bullying of nerds, a question that Lisa decides to investigate. She discovers and isolates a pheromone emitted by ”every geek, nerd and four-eyes” that could be responsible for attracting bullies. She decides to deliver a paper on this theme to the ‘12th Annual Big Science Thing’. The conference is hosted by John Nerdlebaum Frink Jr, Springfield’s favourite absent-minded professor. Frink attempts to introduce Lisa but the audience is so excitable that he is unable to bring them to order. In desperation, he eventually calls out:
“Scientists… Scientists, please!
I’m looking for some order.
Some order, please, with the eyes forward…
And the hands neatly folded…
And the paying of attention…
Pi is exactly 3!”
Suddenly the noise stops. Professor Frink has correctly judged his audience. Stating that there was an exact value for pi has stunned this audience of geeks into silence!
If you have only a hand-waving grasp of this number, pi, about where it comes from, or indeed, why this story is funny, you might like to look at the 3-minute video below where I have provided a cheap and cheerful explanation of pi and how it is linked to a fundamental question about what makes a circle a circle.
The Circle and Pi
Of course, this story just scratches the surface of the many gems contained in Singh’s book – definitely 5 stars from me.
Now on to weightier matters. How are those lightbulb operatives doing, I wonder.
Postscript
If you are interested in reading more stories about pi and this delightful book about the Simpsons, have a look here in my website, MathinPictures.co.uk.
