Sunday, May 13, 2012

mildly mathematical: another film about maths.

from an article in wired.co.uk, which i found off a friend's g+ post:
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'Travellιng Salesman' movie considers the repercussions
if P equals NP

By Duncaη Geerε 26 April 12.

Mathematical puzzles don't often get to star in feature films, but P vs NP is the subject of an upcoming thriller from Timothy Lanzοne called "Travellιng Salesman".
The titles refers to the "travellιng salesman problem", which asks: given a list of cities and the distances between them all, what's the fastest and most efficient way a salesman can visit them once each, and return home? The problem is categorised as "NP", indicating that it's easy to check that a given answer satisfies the criteria.
article continues here ]
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in case you do visit the film's website, be warned: they're already made a synopsis of the story available .. which suggests that this film is really trying for serious, dramatic undertones.  in other words:

now that we know what's going to happen,
we can concentrate on how and why.

it would be interesting if, given the setup of 4 mathematicians and a payout, whether some version of the prisoner's dilemma will appear.  more likely, though, it's going to boil down to a version of "12 angry men."



apparently the film premieres this june in philadelphia.  i'll probably wait until it comes out on dvd, though, then invite a few friends over and play a movie drinking game of ..

"drink each time someone commits a mathematical sin" .. (-:

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