Clouds Are Not Spheres

Jan 1, 2010

0h 55m

★ 7.7

The life and work of a Maverick Mathematician

Overview

Until recently geometry was 'cold', incapable of describing the irregular shape of a cloud, the slope of a mountain or the beauty of the human body. With fractal geometry, Benoit Mandelbrot gave us a language for our natural world. In this captivating documentary, the man himself explains this groundbreaking discovery.

Genres

Documentary

Production Companies

Gordon Films UK

Clouds Are Not Spheres Trailers

Cast

Self

Benoît B. Mandelbrot

Self - Host

Martin Shaw

Self - Physicist & Nobel Prize-Winner in Biology

Ivar Giaever

Self - Philosopher

Pierre Roubinet

Self - Mathematician

Heinz-Otto Peitgen

Self - Physicist

Carl Evertsz

Self - Theoretical Physicist

Martin Gutzwiller

Self - Former Head of Research IBM

Ralph E. Gomory

Self - Mathematician

Ronald Coifman

Self - Physicist

Bernard Sapoval

In an age when genius is a mere commodity, it is useful to look at a person who led a rich life without the traditional trappings of success. A man with no home and no job, Paul Erdös was the most prolific mathematician who ever lived. Born in Hungary in 1913, Erdös wrote and co-authored over 1,500 papers and pioneered several fields in theoretical mathematics. At the age of 83 he still spent most of his time on the road, going from math meeting to math meeting, continually working on problems. He died on September 20, 1996 while attending such a meeting in Warsaw, Poland.

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No overview available.

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