Quant Porn: The Story of Maths

It's not often I find myself captivated by documentaries on mathematics, but a PBS special on Fractals a month ago left me hungry for more. I guess you could say it awakened the long dormant nerd in me. Luckily, I didn't have to wait long for another fix. The BBC is running a truly fascinating 4-part documentary called The Story of Maths, and it is well worth your time if you have any interest in math at all.

I've posted the first 10 minutes of the first episode after the jump so you can see what it's all about. I think you can watch the entire series on YouTube, but that seems kinda miserable and you're probably better off finding the full torrents somewhere like EZTV.

The series covers the history of mathematics, from ancient Egypt to the Greeks, then the Hindus and Arabs, and the Chinese, and finally the Europeans. What was coolest to watch as far as I'm concerned was the logical progression of mathematic theory through the millennia. They cover the impact of Pythagoras, the sacred relationship of Phi, and how Pi was discovered/determined nearly 8,000 years ago.

I've had a love/hate relationship with math my whole life. I struggled mightily with it in my early years. I even broke down in tears once in 4th grade because I simply could not grasp the concept of borrowing from the column to the left when faced with subtracting a larger number from a smaller number. All that changed when I was introduced to trigonometry my junior year in high school.

It was like a light went on in my head. All of a sudden I could see everything. Where before I struggled with addition and subtraction (and still do, to an extent), I could now tackle calculus, probability and statistics, geometry, and I could complete complex equations in my head without a calculator. If I had to give it a name, I'd say I was an idiot savant at least as far as math was concerned. This "skill" gave me a leg up in the market when it came to my ability to recognize arbitrage opportunities earlier than others, so math has put more money in my pocket than anything else I've learned over the years.

Anyway, if you're into math you'll love this series. Even if you don't like math, you'll probably still be fascinated by it, so check out this video and decide if you want to watch the rest. Also, for those in the market for a beautiful book on the subject suitable for your coffee table, check out Sacred Geometry. It's a gorgeous glossy book about Phi that will impress the hell out of the women folk. Who says math can't get you laid?