Terry Jones, The Mathematical Python?

The Story of 1

Okay, so, what am I doing mentioning math, of all things, in a week I've devoted to slack?

My father was an uncelebrated mathematical genius who worked in computer graphics before computer graphics was cool (we're talking the 60's and 70's here). I discovered sometime in High School that, although I was suitably bright, I had not inherited the math genes. Dad was very, very good at doing math (there are, apparently, bits of his old , 70's FORTRAN and COBOL code that are still in use in hydrographic mapping systems for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, all of which work beautifully) but not so good at explaining it (one piece of the aforementioned code, for calculating True North from Magnetic North, is completely incomprehensible to those without an extensive background in this particular kind of advanced and esoteric math, and as the government has very few such people now, if any, there is, at present no one who can understand his code well enough to write a more modern replacement). After a few head scratching sessions trying to follow his notes on the back of a used punchcard, I stopped asking for his help with my homework. To this day I still don't understand what a cosine is.

So why math now? Because it's Terry Jones, dumbass. The Monty Python Terry Jones. And he's explaining math from it's very beginnings, by following the story of the numeral 1. You see, the BBC has a history of finding very bright people who are good at explaining things in an entertaining way, and having them do documentaries that actually do just that. About all kinds of subjects. Just because it's interesting. From a Canadian perspective that's a surprising thing for a public broadcaster to do (with apologies to the CBC).

What this means is you can sit back for an hour on a Sunday afternoon (or whenever you read this) and watch a very funny man talk about math throughout history. And if anyone gives you grief, you can tell them you're learning something. And who knows, it might actually be true.

Now if only he'd do a doc on cosines.