Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- FOREWORD
- A Study Overview
- Mathematics in Different Cultures
- Mathematics for the Public
- Making a Mathematical Exhibition
- The Role of Mathematical Competitions in the Popularization of Mathematics in Czechoslovakia
- Games and Mathematics
- Mathematics and the Media
- Square One TV: A Venture in the Popularization of Mathematics
- Frogs and Candles - Tales from a Mathematics Workshop
- Mathematics in Prime-Time Television: The Story of Fun and Games
- Cultural Alienation and Mathematics
- Solving the Problem of Popularizing Mathematics Through Problems
- Popularizing Mathematics at the Undergraduate Level
- The Popularization of Mathematics in Hungary
- Sowing Mathematical Seeds in the Local Professional Community
- Mathematical News that's Fit to Print
- Christmas Lectures and Mathematics Masterclasses
- Some Aspects of the Popularization of Mathematics in China
Mathematics in Prime-Time Television: The Story of Fun and Games
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 April 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- FOREWORD
- A Study Overview
- Mathematics in Different Cultures
- Mathematics for the Public
- Making a Mathematical Exhibition
- The Role of Mathematical Competitions in the Popularization of Mathematics in Czechoslovakia
- Games and Mathematics
- Mathematics and the Media
- Square One TV: A Venture in the Popularization of Mathematics
- Frogs and Candles - Tales from a Mathematics Workshop
- Mathematics in Prime-Time Television: The Story of Fun and Games
- Cultural Alienation and Mathematics
- Solving the Problem of Popularizing Mathematics Through Problems
- Popularizing Mathematics at the Undergraduate Level
- The Popularization of Mathematics in Hungary
- Sowing Mathematical Seeds in the Local Professional Community
- Mathematical News that's Fit to Print
- Christmas Lectures and Mathematics Masterclasses
- Some Aspects of the Popularization of Mathematics in China
Summary
FROM IDEA TO TRANSMISSION
Yorkshire Television, one of the larger independent television companies in the U.K., is well known for programmes popularising science. In October 1986, the science department came up with the idea to try to popularise mathematics in a similar manner. As Duncan Dallas, the head of the science department, wrote “As a kamikaze notion it could hardly be better … (Mathematics) is the least popular or accessible of the sciences. It does not sell magazines in the same way as computing, it is not the subject of dinner party conversations as is ecology, nor is it a trendy part of our life style like technology. Indeed, it is universally acceptable to trumpet our ignorance whenever the subject is mentioned. Clearly mathematics is important enough to command our attention but on a list of programme ideas rated by popularity it will probably become bottom” (Dallas 1988).
The crucial question was to find a format, a way into the mathematical perspective that would be entertaining and lively. After considerable discussion, Yorkshire Television came up with the idea to base the programme around puzzles and games. The rationale was to capitalize on people's interest in puzzles, an interest which goes back for many years, and to use these puzzles as a vehicle to think about the embedded mathematical ideas - after all recreational mathematics has been the source of a great deal of mainstream mathematics.
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- The Popularization of Mathematics , pp. 124 - 135Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1990
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