Mathematics in television

Summary: Television shows routinely help shape the public’s view of mathematics and mathematicians.

Like many other academic disciplines, mathematics has found its way to the small screen in the form of children’s educational programming, various puzzle challenges on reality television and other game shows, and mathematically talented characters on a variety of scripted shows. These categories of programming and their attendant themes help shape and reflect the public’s image of mathematics and mathematicians at different times. It is important to note that television viewership is determined though the statistically based Nielsen ratings, which networks use to calculate advertising revenue. As a result, the fate of a show is often tied to its Nielsen ratings.

Some of these programs promote mathematics as an exciting learning area (often in children’s educational programming) or as a technical skill, which can give characters power and control. Problematic stereotypes persist, especially the still-common portrayal of mathematicians predominantly as white men. The stereotype of the mathematically talented character as a “nerd” is also prevalent and suggests that popular television representations of mathematics reflect both respect for the technical knowledge and fear about an expertise sometimes portrayed as mystifying or as the exclusive domain of obsessive “geeks.”

Children’s Educational Programming

The focus in children’s educational programming that addresses mathematics is often on encouraging children to be excited about the subject area, along with helping them master skills and gain understanding. Most notably, the Children’s Television Workshop (CTW), founded in 1967, ultimately created or inspired much of children’s educational programming. Funded by federal and private sources, CTW designed Sesame Street to teach letter and number skills, as well as foundations of critical thinking, to preschoolers. The program revolutionized children’s programming when it premiered in 1969 and has been broadcast continually ever since. Its core focus is on educational content that is presented using attention-getting and retaining tactics, such as fast movement, humor, puppets, and animation. The Count, for example, is a flamboyant Dracula-like character who loves to count. A popular animated segment, “Pinball Countdown,” taught children to count using an elaborate pinball machine. Mathematics is also contextualized in segments involving real-life skills, like going to the grocery store.

Studies suggest that Sesame Street is viewed by almost half of all U.S. preschoolers on a weekly basis, and there are at least 10 foreign-language versions that have been broadcast in more than 40 countries. Not only is mathematics presented in the show, but it has also been used in shaping decisions about content and presentation. A multidisciplinary team, including Edward L. Palmer, who held a Ph.D. in educational measurement and research design, systematically studied early episodes of the show using data collection and statistical methodology to address both appeal and content comprehension. Other researchers in the early 1970s, including the Educational Testing Services, found both gains in learning and improvements in attitudes toward school in children who watched Sesame Street, but at the time it did not help close the gap between some groups of children as had been originally hoped. A longitudinal study found that exposure in the preschool years was significantly associated with better grades in English, mathematics, and science in secondary school, though one cannot infer direct causality from such a study.

In 1973, ABC premiered Schoolhouse Rock! as short, musical cartoons aired in between full-length shows on Saturday morning. The show was reportedly inspired by David McCall, the chairman of a public relations firm, whose son had difficulty with multiplication tables but could easily recall song lyrics. In the “Multiplication Rock” series, multiplication of numbers was set to music. Though there is no song about 10, “My Hero, Zero” discusses powers of 10 and the importance of zero. “Little Twelvetoes” examines the base-ten numeral system by imagining a world in which humankind is born with 12 fingers and toes instead of 10. The series “Money Rock” and “Computer Rock” also included applied mathematical concepts. Teachers often show “Multiplication Rock” in their classrooms, and the series is available as both audio and video recordings.

Other shows featured mathematical content as well. In the late 1980s, Children’s Television Workshop created the mathematics show Square One, which featured guest stars and explored mathematical concepts through segments that parodied aspects in popular culture. In 2002, PBS premiered Cyberchase, in which three children and their bird use mathematics to prevail against evil schemes to destroy Cyberspace. Other examples of mathematics in educational programming for various levels of students are The Metric Marvels, Math Can Take You Places, Bill Nye the Science Guy, and Blue’s Clues. One notable addition to the family of education mathematics programs in the twenty-first century is Nickelodeon’s Team Umizoomi. This series, which premiered in early 2010, mixes 2-D and 3-D animation with live action to create a virtual world in which a team of characters helps children solve problems. Like many modern television programs, Team Umizoomi has an accompanying Web site. According to Nickelodeon executive Brown Johnson, “Math surrounds us everywhere we go, which is why we wanted to create a fun, adventure-filled, interactive series that engages preschoolers and encourages them to practice and refine their mathematical thinking skills.”

Reality Television and Game Shows

This spirit of mathematics as an adventurous challenge also appears in other programming, especially on reality television and game shows, which include it as a key test of skill. Often, players must solve a puzzle that falls under the umbrella of some classical problem from the fields of game theory or probability. Instances of mathematics in Survivor, The Mole, and The Real World/Road Rules Challenge have been examined and catalogued. The Price is Right has been used to study probability in the classroom, and Friend or Foe has been used to analyze and study the Prisoner’s Dilemma in the classroom.

Another way in which mathematics is applied to reality television is through its application of voting theory. Many reality shows use formulas to calculate voting results. The fall 2010 season of Dancing with the Stars was marked by a controversy in which contestant Bristol Palin, daughter of 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, consistently received low scores from the judges and yet escaped elimination week after week. The controversy prompted the ABC network to, for the first time, specify its voting scheme on the show and explain it on its Website. Under the system, the judges’ scores for each couple are recalculated as a percentage of the judges’ total scores for that night. Then, the votes each couple receives from home viewers are calculated as a percentage of the total number of votes received for that week. These two percentages are added together, and the couple with the lowest combined total is eliminated. Palin’s high percentage of the popular vote meant that her combined share was rarely the lowest. While reality programs typically refuse to reveal the exact number of votes contestants receive, as in highly popular shows such as American Idol, in the case of Dancing with the Stars, viewer curiosity and voting controversy prompted an unusually detailed discussion of the mathematics involved.

Nerd-Genius

Moving beyond such simple tests of skill, scripted series sometimes treat mathematics on a deeper thematic level. One common theme is the “nerd-genius.” Since the late 1990s, mathematicians and scientists have more frequently been appearing as the unlikely heroes of shows ranging from police procedurals (NUMB3RS) to sitcoms (The Big Bang Theory), from animated shows (Futurama) to reality gamedocs (Beauty and the Geek). The increasingly positive portrayal of “nerd-genius” may reflect a greater acceptance of the Information Age and of technical expertise and knowledge as positive attributes.

The popularity of The Big Bang Theory, which premiered in 2007 on CBS, speaks to this larger fascination with the nerd-genius. The sitcom follows four young scientists, two of whom are physicists at the California Institute of Technology (one in experimental physics, the other in theoretical physics), a third who is a Caltech astrophysicist, and the fourth, who is an aerospace engineer at a NASA field center. By the show’s third season, it was drawing over 14 million viewers per week and ranked in the top 15 shows. In 2010, it won a People’s Choice Award for Favorite TV Comedy, and star Jim Parsons won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.

The characters are all teased for being socially awkward and obsessive about mathematics and science, as is typical for the stereotype. However, they are also lauded for their intellect and the program presents their thought processes as both humorous and fascinating. The program takes the scientific content seriously, retaining a UCLA physics and astronomy professor, David Saltzberg, to review scripts for accuracy and provide mathematical equations and diagrams. The show has addressed such topics as string theory, loop quantum gravity, and dark matter.

Women and Minority Mathematicians

Whenever mathematicians are depicted on screen, some audience members may form (sometimes prejudicial) opinions about what mathematicians look like or how they act. Mathematicians are often presented as nerdy white men. There are possible downfalls of such limited portrayals. For example, Ron Eglash describes how the dearth of African-American geek characters in popular culture reflects and somewhat reinforces the stereotype that white male nerds are the gatekeepers to full participation in science and technology. But, to their credit, some television shows have made an effort to broaden the demographic range of their mathematical characters, including women and African Americans among their number.

There have been a few female characters with mathematical ability on television. Early examples include three characters from the Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001) series: captain Kathryn Janeway, chief engineer B’Elanna Torres, and Seven of Nine, who was rescued from the Borg (and thus joining the series) in season four. Often, these characters discuss intricacies of twenty-fourth-century physics, including warp speed travel and altering the time line. The show situates these three women (and the Vulcan Tuvok) as leaders among their shipmates in terms of knowledge of and ability in physics, engineering, and mathematics.

Another woman character with mathematical talent is Winifred “Fred” Burkle on the show Angel (1999–2004), created by Joss Whedon as a spinoff of his popular Buffy the Vampire Slayer series. Though a physicist by training, Fred displays her talents in mathematics, engineering, and invention on the show. Moreover, her character is supported by most of the other characters on the show—she is seen as a key player on the team. The Fred character has also been used as a case study of how Hollywood representations impact girls’ mathematical education.

The show NUMB3RS (2005–2010) contains another mathematically talented female character: Amita Ramanujan, a Southern Californian of Indian origin. Throughout the series, Amita was a Ph.D. student, then colleague and fiancée, of mathematician Charlie Eppes. Charlie’s brother, Don, works for the FBI and uses Charlie’s mathematical skills to help solve crimes. Amita and physicist Larry Fleinhardt form Charlie’s problem-solving team and inner social circle. As with Fred from Angel, Amita is supported by the other series characters who value her mathematical talents. However, the role of Amita has also been controversial because of her romantic relationship with her thesis adviser, Charlie.

Lisa Simpson, from the long-running animated show The Simpsons (1989–), also displays mathematical ability (among other nerdish qualities) at various times throughout the series. For instance, in the episode “Girls Just Want to Have Sums,” which originally aired April 30, 2006, on FOX, Principal Skinner makes disparaging remarks about girls’ mathematical abilities. As a result, the school is split into two single-sex schools. Upset by the lack of rigor in her mathematics class, Lisa is forced to dress as a boy, Jake, in order to attend the boys’ mathematics class and learn “real” mathematics. When Jake wins an award for mathematical achievement, Lisa reveals her true identity, to which her brother Bart claims that she did so well in mathematics only because she learned to think like a boy. In the 2010 episode “MoneyBart,” Lisa used the statistical methodology of Sabermetrics to manage Bart’s baseball team.

Though African-American characters possessing mathematical talent are admittedly not common, two notable exceptions aired on television shows in the late 1980s. A Different World (1987–1993), a spinoff of the popular Cosby Show (1984–1992), featured Dwayne Wayne as a lead character. At different points throughout the series, Dwayne was a mathematics major and a calculus teacher. Known for his flip-up glasses, Dwayne was involved in romantic relationships with several of the female characters on the show. By contrast, Steve Urkel, on Family Matters (1989–1997) was the stereotypical geeky character, depicted in thick glasses, suspenders, and with a high-pitched voice. Whereas Dwayne was portrayed as popular with the opposite sex, Urkel was portrayed as an annoying neighbor of the Winslows who was grimly tolerated from week to week, though even he ultimately gained the audience’s sympathy and became engaged to the Winslows’s daughter Laura near the end of the show’s run.

Other black characters with mathematical talent include Geordi LaForge of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) and Turkov, of Star Trek: Voyager. Geordi eventually became the chief engineer on the Enterprise and a close friend of the android character Data. Often the two of them would discuss various details of twenty-fourth-century physics. Tuvok, though chief security officer of Voyager, also displayed a deep knowledge of science and mathematics. Both Geordi and Tuvok were valued members of their respective crews and were portrayed as scientific experts.

Such depictions of mathematicians and diversity offer great promise for the future, as television shows continue to reflect how society views mathematics and also impact those views themselves. In the twenty-first century, some have noted an increase in the portrayals of mathematics and mathematically talented individuals on television. Examples include mathematical discussions by the main characters on Bones (2005–); an intern on House (2004–) named Martha Masters has a Ph.D. in applied mathematics, who joined the cast in 2010; and forensic pathologist Dr. Maura Isles on Rizzoli and Isles (2010–), who often discusses mathematical concepts.

Bibliography

ABC.com. “ABC.com—Dancing with the Stars—How Voting Works.” http://abc.go.com/shows/dancing-with-the-stars/about-voting.

Coe, Paul R., and William T. Butterworth. “Come On Down…The Prize Is Right in Your Classroom.” PRIMUS: Problems, Resources, and Issues in Mathematics Undergraduate Studies 14, no. 1 (2004).

Devlin, Keith, and Gary Lorden. The Numbers behind NUMB3RS: Solving Crime with Mathematics. New York: Plume, 2007.

Eglash, R. “Race, Sex and Nerds: From Black Geeks to Asian-American Hipsters.” Social Text 20, no. 2 (Summer 2002).

Greenwald, Sarah, and Andrew Nestler. “Mathematics and Mathematicians on The Simpsons.” http://SimpsonsMath.com.

MacLean, Mark. “Math in the Real World: Mathematical Moments From Reality Television.” Math Horizons 12, no. 4 (2005).

Pegg, Ed, Jr. “The Math Behind Numb3rs.” http://numb3rs.wolfram.com/.

Polster, Burkard, and Marty Ross. “Mathematics Goes To the Movies.” http://www.qedcat.com/moviemath/index.html.