# The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets by Simon Singh

This book would be a great holiday gift, but you should buy two copies so that you can have one for yourself. Simon Singh is the author of one of my favorite books about mathematics, "Fermat's Enigma", that was one of my picks when it came out in 1998.  It was a brilliant and insightful description of Andrew Wile's amazing solution to the famous puzzle.  "The Simpsons and Their Mathematic Secrets" is a much less of an intellectual challenge, but you will surely find some science/math connections from The Simpsons that you had previously missed, even if you happen to be a university professor who teaches number theory and records every Simpsons episode. It turns out that the writers of the series and its spinoff, Futurama, are all nerds and geeks - but funny ones, at that. Singh takes the tidbits of math and physics that they leave like hidden Easter Eggs in the backgrounds and seemingly meaningless detritus in backgrounds, and apparently random numbers in the stories.  Many of them appear for only a frame or two and require a DVR to discover.   An example is discussed in the YouTube video about "Taxicab Numbers"

Publication information
Publication Date:
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Price:
$26.00 ## Amazon Purchasing this item using the link below provides support for ChemEd X. Thank you. Authors: Simon Singh Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Publication date: 2013-10-29 Edition: 1 Binding: Hardcover Pages: 272 List price:$26.00
EAN (13-digit ISBN number): 9781620402771

## Related:

Hal Harris
University of Missouri - St. Louis