the mathematics of the simpsons dave ebert [email protected]
TRANSCRIPT
The Mathematics of the Simpsons
Dave Ebert
www.oregonsd.com/webpages/debert
The Simpsons
• The longest-running scripted show in television history, starting in December, 1989
• February 2012 – the 500th episode
• 27 Emmy Awards
• Five U.S. postage stamps
• Time Magazine named The Simpsons the “Best Show of the 20th Century”
J. Stewart Burns
• Bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Harvard
• Senior thesis on The Structure of Group Algebras
• Master’s degree in mathematics from UC Berkeley
David S. Cohen (David X. Cohen)
• Member, New Jersey high school state champion mathematics team
• Bachelor’s degree (magna cum laude) in physics from Harvard
• Master’s degree in computer science from UC Berkeley
• Published in Discrete Applied Mathematics
• Still belongs to a math club
Al Jean
• Bachelor’s degree (cum laude) in mathematics from Harvard
• Current executive producer and head writer of The Simpsons
Ken Keeler• Bachelor’s degree (summa
cum laude) and PhD in applied mathematics from Harvard
• Doctoral thesis: Map Representations and Optimal Encoding for Image Segmentation
• Published in Discrete Applied Mathematics
Jeff Westbrook• Bachelor’s degree in
physics and the history of science and PhD in computer science from Princeton
• Doctoral thesis: Algorithms and Data Structures for Dynamic Graph Algorithms
• Associate professor at Yale
• Published in Discrete Applied Mathematics
The Pythagorean Theorem?
The Pythagorean Theorem?
Pi
Geometry
Fermat’s Last Theorem
an + bn = cn
No integers a, b, and c can satisfy this equation for any n greater than 2.
178212 + 184112 = 192212
398712 + 436512 = 447212
Derivatives
The Mathematics of the Simpsons
Dave Ebert
www.oregonsd.com/webpages/debert