The Code: Numbers, Shapes and Prediction
A mysterious code underpins the world. But what does it mean and what can we learn from it?
Marcus du Sautoy takes us on an odyssey to uncover the code and reveal its meaning.
A code that has the power to explain everything, from the numbers and shapes we see all around us to the rules that govern our own lives.
Numbers. In this first episode, Marcus reveals how significant numbers appear throughout the natural world. They're part of a hidden mathematical world that contains the rules that govern everything on our planet and beyond.
Shapes. Starting at the hexagonal columns of Northern Ireland's Giant's Causeway, he discovers the code underpinning the extraordinary order found in nature - from rock formations to honeycomb and from salt crystals to soap bubbles.
Marcus also reveals the mysterious code that governs the apparent randomness of mountains, clouds and trees and explores how this not only could be the key to Jackson Pollock's success, but has also helped breathe life into hugely successful movie animations.
Prediction. This time it's the strange world of what happens next. Professor du Sautoy's odyssey starts with the lunar eclipse - once thought supernatural, now routinely predicted through the power of the code. But more intriguing is what the code can say about our future.
Along the path to enlightenment, Marcus overturns the lemming's suicidal reputation, avoids being crushed to death, reveals how to catch a serial killer and discovers that the answer to life the universe and everything isn't 42 after all - it's 1.15.
I think the last episode makes the most sense because knowing some facts about how humans behave as a population is quite intriguing. It kind of gives definition to the chaos we have in our lives. Definitely there’s no math equation to life but the whole emphasis on life being a tangled web of cause and effect does force you to see pattern in your life, and of people you come across. After all, we are all a part of universe that is being governed by these small codes or whatever in such a fascinating way. A good watch for people who love maths and also for people who always questioned the point of exactly knowing all those cumbersome mathematical formulas.
ONLY 1 MINUTE LONG?!
I watched it , I don't get it. I read comments, I don't get it. My sister likes it, I don't get it. Course I have dis calculia . ( resembles dyslexia but about numbers). That could be why. Researched it , i don't get it. I don't get cubism as an art form, I don't get it.
Only had to read a few comments to see what kind of doc this is :D will skip this one for now hehe
Just further proved to me that God is the ultimate mathmatician.
It's just math? I'm not sure why it's treated so obliquely and with so much overwrought sense of mystery? Wonder I get. Maybe even a sense of the numinous. But it's not a "mysterious code". It's, y'know, numbers.
Math, code, who cares what you call it. The series demonstrates the beauty, efficiency, chaos, and mystery of nature's mathimatical underpinnings. I found it a fascinating and artistic series.
If he said Math instead of Code, nobody would watch! plain and simple. It was a documentary for the masses not for university students. Nor Maths wizzes. I was a little disappointed that a model of math (code) was not mapped out or diagrammed and that was a little frustrating. We live in the Matrix, see if you can crack THAT code. hahahahaha
Worth watching, well produced. But what a hambone the fellow is.
fibonacci and pie that's it. not too complicated
Speaking of numbers, pause it at 12:24 of Prediction the third episode.
One thing is for sure, by halfway through the second programme I was getting sick of the phrase "the code".
At the end of the first programme the guy insists that we have deciphered "the code". Really? When? All he did in the first program was to show that nature uses numbers. He also insists that Pi is part of "the code", without ever really proving it, and even failing to identify its context within "the code".
Really, all this is, is a man saying "the code" a lot, and showing us how numbers rule the world. He does'nt show you what "the code" is, does'nt decipher it in its entirety (despite his insistence in the first program). It's just really a lot of number observations put together, along with an insistence that they are all part of "the code".
I still dont know what "the code" is. I dont know what its comprised of, I dont know how many equations it has, I dont know anything about it other than its called "the code" and it works by the numbers and governs everything. Apparently. I already knew that bee's made honeycombs that shape because it was the strongest and most efficient. But I still dont know how this pertains to "the code". He has'nt proved to me that the bee's used "the code" or that they even have knowledge of "the code". All I know is that there could have once been bee's that made honeycombs using circles, and because that obviously is'nt the best shape to use, they died out. Another set of bee's could have been using squares. Natural selection selected the version of the bee that used the most efficient shape and allowed it to evolve, but I still dont know how this pertains to "the code", all I understand is that it was done by natural selection.
I'd like to know what "the code" is, other than the abstract reference to which the presenter keeps using it. I'd like to know what numbers it comprises of. Dont tell me that "the code" exists, and insist to me that you've deciphered it in the first program when I'm still sitting here thinking "huh?" because that obviously means you havent deciphered anything.
ugh.. "atoms are indivisible units that make up everything? No atoms are composed of neutrons, protons,(which are made of quarks) and electrons, elementary particles are considered indivisible, but that is just cause we havent been able to detect anything smaller, kids in elementary school should know that, as well as what prime numbers are... I was looking forward to watching but now 15 min but now seems like this show is going to be a waste, i'm already familiar w/ the golden ratio(which is ~1.6 not 1.15, if that what that is referring to) and fractals...skimming ahead...ugh do u guys not have math and physics in school? 1st ep is waste for anyone who has, skipping to last to see if there's anything interesting there
i like the way the bbc lady comes straight in at the end of episodes with -whats on next on BBC - when she should be saying we're pausing now to give you all a chance to think about what the man just said, it's important
This documentary has inspired me to learn mathematics.
Episode 2: Principles of Nature; Geology, Fractals...Symmetry and Patterns
Episode 3: Chaos vs Probability; Standard Deviation of 1.15 as a general rule
Episode 1: Prime numbers, addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, fractions, geometry, physics, calculus, fractals and statistics. Just the basics :] and a little architecture, harmonics, biology and astronomy to round out the pie a little.
if u look about 49:42 of episode one, if you look to your right of orion's belt there are a group of stars going out and coming back on?
Silly numbers: 1 1 was a racehorse, 2 2 was 1 2, 1 1 1 1 race, 2 2 1 1 2
@ the part about prime numbers...
Go to 14mins 22 seconds and pause screen there.
Find a miss calculation somewhere on the screen and you get a cookie :)
if Satan is 6 and the Pixies are 7, then the Mats are 8, the Mats are 8!
In episode three at the end when they are talking about the size of the city and wages, I find it hard to believe that any scientist would be shocked by %15 higher wages. It costs more to live in a city plain and simple. There is no magic to it, things are simply more expensive in a large city and the %15 id accounting for that. Good series though and definitely worth the watch.
Are there other parts to this documentary?
The #6 in Sparrows 12:23-12:24
watch Fractals it show the new patten Shapes for math
AH! YES! The Code
Trusting the unfolding of life is not to know that you will get what you want
it is to trust that you will want what you get.
Kind of like math put in words.
ps.@TDF i tweeked it a bit, sounds better like this, it's original.
az
I like this doc so much I`m gonna watch it at least 3 times (now vlatko has stopped spamming us anyway)
Awesome! Food for the mind! The first part contains religious rhetoric assumptions, for instance that the trinity even exists, other than that, awesome document. Covering lots of different aspects of mathematics in quite a few areas of nature, and in a well balanced way. Thank you Vlatko.
it's fascinating and amusing to see how we are obsessed with finding patterns and creating maps... why it's so difficult to accept that the fact that there s no map is a map itself, what about "no one is in charge because no one really knows what is going on??". is that too scary for us poor miserable educated primates???
I must say BBC makes an excellent thought provoking program. I wonder based on this mathematical equation how long our earth is going to survive ..
"discovers that the answer to life the universe and everything isn’t 42"
Cute...
17 minutes in and i had to pause it because I'm so dang HAPPY! THANKS VLATKO!
This is a good doc, saw it before, worth a second watch.
At 12:24 in the third film the birds form an almost perfect 6. Or upside down 9.
Coming to Nos. ...Hinduism considers 108 as the most important no.
1)The distance of Sun from Earth divided by diameter of Sun and distance of Moon from Earth divided by diameter of Moon is approximately equal to (approx)108.
2)The pre-historic monument Stonehenge is about 108 foot in diameter.
3)The Chinese school of martial arts agrees with the South Indian school of martial arts on the principle of 108 pressure points.
4)108 = 6² + 6² + 6², the sum of the squares of the three equal numerals making up the Biblical-Apocalyptic "number of the Beast", 666.
5)Astronomically, there are 27 constillations in our galaxy, and each one them
has 4 directions, and 27 * 4 = 108,
6)In one minute, we breathe in approximately 15 times, in 1 hour 900 times,
and in 12 hours 10800 times, and in a day 10800 * 2 times. A day consists
of 24 hours,
you gotta love how this bbc documentary starts off with children whispering 666