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Mathematics Goes to the Movies

by Burkard Polster and Marty Ross

I.Q. (1994)

Catherine, Einstein’s niece doing some math.
1:35

11:20
Kurt Goedel is one of Einstein’s colleagues.

13:40
Nathan Liebknecht(?): What do you think of Catherine, Mr Ed.
ED: I think she is wonderful.
Boris Podolski: Wonderful to the power of three.
Nathan Liebknecht: What to the power of three, to the power of ten.

25:50
Sometimes Iwonder whether I would not be a better mother than a mechanic (Freudian slip) mathematician.

30:50
EINSTEIN to ED: You know, Catherine is a brilliant mathematician, but she lacks confidence.

33:40
Ed pretending to do math together with Einstein and his friends.

36:03
Ed in the garage reading math (mumbling)

40:00
lecture with math talk
Let us suppose that v(x) is a standard barrier penetration potential and that xi is a nuclei wave function then as usual –ih bar dxi dt = - d squared xi dx squared +v(x)

41:15
CATHERINE: I believe that you used de B???’s formula…
Einstein’s friends helping Ed remember a formula.
X

=

1

+

w

cubed

over

pi

43:37
How many stars do you think are up there?
10^12+1

49:35
CATHERINE: Now, don’t tell me that and brilliant scientist such as yourself doesn’t know about Zeno’s paradox.
ED: Remind me.
CATHERINE: You can’t get from there to here because you always have to cover half the remaining distance. Like from me to you, I have to cover half of it (steps one half closer). But see I still have half of that remaining, so I cover half that (does it), and there is still half of that left, so I cover half of that, and half of that, and half of that, and half of that and since there are infinite halves left I can’t ever get there.

55:00
mechanical puzzles


59:38
JAMES to CATHERINE: As a fellow mathematician.
News report: Mathematicians and physicists everywhere are putting this historically new theory under the microscope to examine in detail the mathematical brilliance of this simple auto garage mechanic.

1:00:00
CATHERINE: Why you use that operator there?

1:10:00
blackboard (supposed to be Schroedinger equation in operator form

1:11:00
The day the Earth stood still poster on the wall

1:17:30
CATHERINE: I was right about the cold fusion, wasn’t I?
EINSTEIN: Catherine, do you realize that you have proven conclusively that my approach is impossible. Conclusively.
CATHERINE: I knew that, but you said.
EINSTEIN: I meant that I could not prove it or disprove it. Therefore I could not publish it.
CATHERINE: I did something that you couldn’t do?
EINSTEIN: It’s mathematics. I was always terrible at mathematics.