Magic Numbers: Hannah Fry's Mysterious World of Maths
TV Show · Documentary · History

Mathematician Dr Hannah Fry explores the mystery of maths. It underpins so much of the modern world that it's hard to imagine life without its technological advances.

2018 · 57m
Starring Hannah Fry

Season 1

  • EPISODE 1
    Numbers as God
    Hannah goes back to the time of the ancient Greeks to find out why they were so fascinated by the connection between beautiful music and maths. The patterns our ancestors found in music are all around us, from the way a sunflower stores its seeds to the number of petals in a flower.
    57 min
  • EPISODE 2
    Expanded Horizons
    Hannah travels down the fastest zip wire in the world to learn more about Newton's ideas on gravity. His discoveries revealed the movement of the planets was regular and predictable. James Clerk Maxwell unified the ideas of electricity and magnetism, and explained what light was.
    57 min
  • EPISODE 3
    Weirder and Weirder
    Hannah explores a paradox at the heart of modern maths, discovered by Bertrand Russell, which undermines the very foundations of logic that all of maths is built on. These flaws suggest that maths isn't a true part of the universe but might just be a human language, fallible and imprecise.
    58 min

Related

Cast & Crew

  • Hannah Fry
    Host
  • D‌K
    Dan Kendall
    Producer
  • G‌T
    Graeme Thomson
    Producer

About

Magic Numbers: Hannah Fry's Mysterious World of Maths

Documentary

Mathematician Dr Hannah Fry explores the mystery of maths. It underpins so much of the modern world that it's hard to imagine life without its technological advances.

Information

Studio
BBC Four
Released
2018
Rated
Caution
Region of Origin
United Kingdom
© 2018 Windfall Films

Languages

Original Audio
English (United Kingdom)
Subtitles

English (United States) (CC)

Accessibility

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Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

  • Armenia
  • Azerbaijan
  • Bahrain
  • Botswana
  • Brunei Darussalam
  • Cape Verde
  • Egypt
  • Eswatini
  • Gambia
  • Ghana
  • Guinea-Bissau
  • India
  • Israel
  • Jordan
  • Lebanon
  • Mauritius
  • Mozambique
  • Namibia
  • Niger (English)
  • Oman
  • Qatar
  • Saudi Arabia
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  • Tajikistan
  • Turkmenistan
  • Uganda
  • United Arab Emirates
  • Zimbabwe

Asia Pacific

  • Australia
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  • 香港 (廣東話–繁體)
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  • 日本
  • Lao People's Democratic Republic
  • 澳門 (廣東話–繁體)
  • Malaysia (English)
  • Micronesia, Federated States of
  • Mongolia
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