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    May2001 Movies

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    aladininsane
    1) Pi is a 1998 film that explores the main character Max's obsession with finding patterns in mathematics, especially the digits of Pi. 2) Max believes that mathematics is the language of the universe and that patterns can be found everywhere. He works tirelessly on his computer trying to discover these patterns. 3) The film shows Max balancing on the edge of madness in his pursuit of cracking the mathematical code or pattern that he believes exists, with some people seeing his potential while others question his sanity.

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    May2001 Movies

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    aladininsane
    8 views1 page
    1) Pi is a 1998 film that explores the main character Max's obsession with finding patterns in mathematics, especially the digits of Pi. 2) Max believes that mathematics is the language of the universe and that patterns can be found everywhere. He works tirelessly on his computer trying to discover these patterns. 3) The film shows Max balancing on the edge of madness in his pursuit of cracking the mathematical code or pattern that he believes exists, with some people seeing his potential while others question his sanity.

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    1) Pi is a 1998 film that explores the main character Max's obsession with finding patterns in mathematics, especially the digits of Pi. 2) Max believes that mathematics is the language of the universe and that patterns can be found everywhere. He works tirelessly on his computer trying to discover these patterns. 3) The film shows Max balancing on the edge of madness in his pursuit of cracking the mathematical code or pattern that he believes exists, with some people seeing his potential while others question his sanity.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    8 views1 page

    May2001 Movies

    Uploaded by

    aladininsane
    1) Pi is a 1998 film that explores the main character Max's obsession with finding patterns in mathematics, especially the digits of Pi. 2) Max believes that mathematics is the language of the universe and that patterns can be found everywhere. He works tirelessly on his computer trying to discover these patterns. 3) The film shows Max balancing on the edge of madness in his pursuit of cracking the mathematical code or pattern that he believes exists, with some people seeing his potential while others question his sanity.

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    Paranoia is the belief in a hidden

    order behind the visible

    Math in the Movies


    by Johan van Leeuwaarden
    There are not that many Motion Picture Movies that include scenes of mathematics. Next to Good Will Hunting (1997),
    we can add Pi (1998) to the math movie list. Pi has been written and directed by Darren Aronofsky, who dedicates the
    movie's title to its central theme and one of the world's most famous numbers. For the laymen among us, I start off
    with a small intermezzo about Pi.
    Pi
    Pi is both the sixteenth letter of the Greek alphabet and the
    symbol which represents the world's oldest mathematical
    mystery: the ratio of a circle's circumference to its
    diameter. The earliest known written record of the ratio
    comes from 1650 BCE Egypt, where a scribe calculated
    the value to be 3.16. Although now, we have methods to
    calculate many digits of Pi (3.1415), its exact value
    remains a mystery.
    Since 1794, when Pi was proven to be both irrational and
    infinite, people have been searching for a pattern in the
    endless string of numbers. To date, it has been calculated
    to over 51 billion digits, so far with no discernible pattern
    emerging from its numbers. If your still one of the
    stubborn people that want to calculate Pi in the old
    fashioned way, you're not alone. Hundreds of clubs have
    been formed to celebrate and calculate the ratio. The
    current world record (1995) is hold by a Japanese man
    who recited 42,000 digits from memory in just over nine
    hours. This man cannot have a social live what so ever, but
    still, it is remarkable.
    The movie
    The movie Pi is a study in both madness and genius. The
    main figure, Max Cohen, lives barricaded behind a locked
    door, in a room filled with computer equipment. Paranoid
    Max believes roughly in three things. Firstly, that
    mathematics is the language of the universe. Secondly,
    that nature can be expressed in numbers and finally, that
    patterns can be found everywhere. And of course, if he can
    find the patterns, he can predict everything (the stock
    market for example). Max forces himself to keep writing
    programs, test them and look for the patterns. Chaos
    theory looks for the patterns where common sense says
    there are none. Max knows that a computer might be able
    to give an answer to everything, if it is powerful enough
    and if it has all the data (which is an utopian dream!).
    Those of you who are interested in overall patterns, go out
    and rent Conspiracy Theory (1997), in which Mel Gibson
    plays a paranoid taxi driver who discovers a huge pattern,
    or Enemy of the State (1998), in which Will Smith is a
    lawyer who simply knows too much.
    Suddenly, Max gets a 216-digit bug. At first he is furious,
    but then he begins to wonder about this bug. He discovers

    that a theory among some Jewish scholars exists, which


    states that the name of God has 216 letters.

    Max..

    Max's old school teacher, with whom Max plays Go once


    in a while, tells him to stop with the ridiculous search for
    the universe's key. However, two other characters
    encourage Max. One of them is Marcy, who works at a
    high-powered Wall Street analysis firm. She wants to hire
    Max as a consultant, because Max predicted some prices
    correctly before, and thus he must be on to something.
    Then we have the Hasidic Jew named Lenny, who seems
    casual and friendly but has a secret mission: His group
    believes that the Torah may be a code sent from God.
    Evidently, the key Max is searching for could translate this
    code.
    Max risks his tremendous mind in the pursuit of a
    dangerous obsession, while hungry people are circling
    him. For both the stock market as the Hasidic cabal, Max's
    formula represents all they believe in and moreover,
    everything they care about. These elements make Pi to a
    blood-curdling thriller, shot in rough, high-contrast black
    and white.
    Self reflection
    The question is whether Max is physically ill or even
    insane? He appears to be insane, but isn't he the same as
    every other average math genius. Every mathematician
    that is trying to expand the borders of the existing theory,
    needs to proof his findings in hard mathematical terms.
    You can't put some math in a test tube and see if it turns
    purple. Undiscovered math just sits somewhere, waiting
    till it is discovered. Thanks to people like Max,
    mathematics as a science exists. Don't we all want to be
    Max?

    AIMe Magazine 2001/1 22

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