Life By The Numbers ★ PBS Mathematics Series with Study Guides, Book, and MKV

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Life By The Numbers ★ PBS Mathematics Series with Study Guides, Book, and MKV

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Here's a 'Math Course' with no boring formulas or quizzes to get between you and the numbers themselves … you can take off your clothes and roll in them!

I found the source video DVDs here: https://archive.org/details/life-by-the-numbers-iso in the collection of Documentary Disc ISO Images - I'm grateful to the original uploader.

Danny Glover hosts a fast-paced and surprising introduction to some of the many crucial roles mathematics plays in sports, work, education, exploration, chance, virtual reality, and life in general. If you believe you are not good at mathematics - this series is for you. From the smallest micro organism to the planets and the stars, life can be a wondrous journey of discovery where almost everywhere and everything is affected by numbers. Enter the exciting world of the Science of Mathematics - Life is all about the Numbers.

From: https://web.archive.org/web/20131202162025/http://www.maa.org/review-life-by-the-numbers

Quote: Keith Devlin, who was a consultant for the Life by the Numbers series, has some wise words for those who fear complexity in mathematics: "To most people, mathematics makes the world more complicated, it doesn't do that! Math makes the world more simple! Mathematicians are simplistic creatures. We look at the world in the simplest possible way. We look at it in such a simple way that the only way of capturing the simplicity is with symbols, lines, nodes, edges of graphs. We strip away the complexity!" Unfortunately, this wonderful observation is tucked away at the end of the sixth program of this seven part PBS series.

A series about mathematics on public television is a very brave undertaking in an age where too many people associate the subject with trauma in high school (the fear of "calculus" in particular seems to be North American). Is there a mathematician in the USA who hasn't been asked what he or she does at a party, only to have their answer greeted with "Oh, math was always my worst subject in school"? A highly educated society whose members can still take pride in trotting out that old cliché is going to be somewhat resistant to attempts to communicate mathematics to it. The good news is that Life By The Numbers may change that, for those lucky enough to see the shows.

The subtitle of this series, "math like you've never seen it before", is a good one, because it applies just as much to those of us in the profession as it does to the average non-specialist viewer. These TV programs are about how mathematics is used all around us, often in conjunction with physics and engineering, in science, medicine, industry, commerce, sports, art and entertainment. The approach taken is fresh, and not all of these manifestations of applied mathematics will be familiar to the very people who are entrusted with getting students to learn mathematics - those of us who teach. That's a good enough reason for us to watch the series: too often we lose sight of the fact that we are an exclusive minority, the few survivors of a long, difficult and often unnatural process of learning (in graduate school) and training (on the job), which leaves many talented but bewildered people in its wake, and inevitably has the rest of us convinced that that if anybody knows what mathematics is and what it's good for, we do. Don't be so sure! - End Quote

(SeaMac's note: Keith Devlin wrote the Companion Book linked to - below. He does much to dispel the fear of doing math … often found in today's society. Each Video has a brief Study Guide Questions page to accompany it. Each video also has Chapter Markers. I hope you enjoy this old 1998 PBS Educational Series.)

If you like shows like this: you are highly encouraged to donate to your local PBS affiliate - now, more than ever, they need your help. https://protectmypublicmedia.org/ "Urge Congress: Protect PBS Funding. The federal funding that supports Public Media has been eliminated in July of 2025 by the Republicans. Your PBS viewing experience is going away. Now is a critical time to act." https://protectmypublicmedia.org/

(See, you CAN give back something ... )

Archive

Internet Archive, in Lost telecourses

Licence or status

The Internet Archive states none for this item.

Rights statement

Fair Use Notice

Credit

PBS

Language

English

Who can watch

The archive gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Tweens profiles and older, judged from its collection and subjects. How films are placed