A Brief History Of Mathematics

This ten part history of mathematics reveals the personalities behind the calculations: the passions, rivalries and insults sent between them, as they struggle to get their ideas heard.

How do these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world? More than one mathematician in the series has found prison most conducive to working on their theorems.

However abstract and apparently irrelevant they may seem, breakthroughs in mathematics often lead to great leaps forward in scientific understanding, even if you have to wait two hundred years.

Marcus believes mathematical insight has transformed our world.

He explains some key mathematical ideas and talks to people who have benefitted from them, including music producer Brian Eno, astronaut Jeff Hoffman and fellow mathematician Roger Penrose.

This ten part history of mathematics reveals the personalities behind the calculations: the passions and rivalries of mathematicians struggling to get their ideas heard. Marcus du Sautoy shows how these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world and proves that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science.

Today, the story of two late 17th century mathematicians who worked on the same problem at the same time - the calculus - in which the great hero of British science, Newton, reveals himself to be a little less gentlemanly than his German rival, Leibniz. The calculus is one of the greatest achievements of mankind: an astronaut and an investment analyst pay homage to its enormous power.

Producer: Anna Buckley.

Marcus Du Sautoy shows how these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world and proves that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science.

An astronaut and an investment analyst pay homage to the enormous power of the calculus.

Marcus du Sautoy argues that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science: Newton, Leibniz and calculus.

This ten-part history of mathematics reveals the personalities behind the calculations: the passions and rivalries of mathematicians struggling to get their ideas heard. Marcus du Sautoy shows how these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world and proves that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science.

Marcus du Sautoy argues that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science.

Professor Marcus du Sautoy reveals the personalities behind the calculations.

Producer: Anna Buckley

This ten part history of mathematics reveals the personalities behind the calculations: the passions and rivalries of mathematicians struggling to get their ideas heard. Professor Marcus du Sautoy shows how these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world and proves that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science.

Today, how the mathematics that Leonard Euler invented two hundred years ago has transformed the internet. Euler's solution to an eighteenth century conundrum paved the way for the search engines most of us use every day.

Producer: Anna Buckley.

Professor Marcus Du Sautoy shows how these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world and proves that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science.

Euler's solution to an eighteeneth century conundrum paved the way for the search engines most of us use every day.

How a solution to a 1700s conundrum enables us to access information on the internet.

Today how Leonard Euler's mathematical solution to a popular 18th century conundrum enables us to access information on the internet, three hundred years later.

Marcus du Sautoy argues that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science: Leonard Euler and an 18th-century puzzle.

This ten-part history of mathematics reveals the personalities behind the calculations: the passions and rivalries of mathematicians struggling to get their ideas heard. Professor Marcus du Sautoy shows how these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world and proves that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science.

Today, how the mathematics that Leonard Euler invented two hundred years ago has transformed the internet. Euler's solution to an 18th-century conundrum paved the way for the search engines most of us use every day.

From 2010.

Marcus du Sautoy argues that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science.

Professor Marcus du Sautoy reveals the personalities behind the calculations.

From 2010.

This ten part history of mathematics from Newton to the present day, reveals the personalities behind the calculations: the passions and rivalries of mathematicians struggling to get their ideas heard. Professor Marcus Du Sautoy shows how these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world and proves that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science.

Today, the mathematics of Joseph Fourier. It's thanks to his mathematical insight that you can hear Marcus on the radio and that Brian Eno can create sounds that have never been heard before.

Producer: Anna Buckley.

How Joseph Fourier's mathematics transformed our understanding of heat, light and sound.

Today the story of Joseph Fourier, the mathematician who was hired by Napoleon to be a servant to the French Revolution.

His mathematics transformed our understanding of heat, light and sound.

And it has enabled musician, Brian Eno, to create sounds that are totally new.

Marcus du Sautoy argues that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science: Joseph Fourier's insightful maths.

This ten part history of mathematics from Newton to the present day, reveals the personalities behind the calculations: the passions and rivalries of mathematicians struggling to get their ideas heard. Professor Marcus du Sautoy shows how these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world and proves that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science.

Today, the mathematics of Joseph Fourier. It's thanks to his mathematical insight that you can hear Marcus on the radio and that Brian Eno can create sounds that have never been heard before.

From 2010.

Marcus du Sautoy argues that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science.

Professor Marcus du Sautoy reveals the personalities behind the calculations.

From 2010.

This ten part history of mathematics from Newton to the present day, reveals the personalities behind the calculations: the passions and rivalries of mathematicians struggling to get their ideas heard. Professor Marcus du Sautoy shows how these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world and proves that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science.

Today how the mathematics of the French revolutionary, Evariste Galois, has proved invaluable to particle physicists working today. The mathematics that Galois began, over two hundred years ago, now absolutely describes the fundamental particles that make up our universe.

Producer: Anna Buckley.

Professor Marcus Du Sautoy shows how these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world and proves that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science.

How the maths begun by Evariste Galois describes the particles that make up our universe.

Today how the French revolutionary, Evariste Galois, understood the symmetry of mathematics and the mathematics of symmetry: an insight that, two hundred years later, proved invaluable to particle physics.

The maths that he began describes the fundamental particles that make up our universe.

Marcus du Sautoy argues that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science: mathematics during the French Revolution.

Today how the mathematics of the French revolutionary, Evariste Galois, has proved invaluable to particle physicists working today.The mathematics that Galois began, over two hundred years ago, now absolutely describes the fundamental particles that make up our universe.

From 2010.

Marcus du Sautoy argues that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science.

Professor Marcus du Sautoy reveals the personalities behind the calculations.

From 2010.

This ten part history of mathematics from Newton to the present day, reveals the personalities behind the calculations: the passions and rivalries of mathematicians struggling to get their ideas heard. Professor Marcus du Sautoy shows how these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world and proves that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science.

It was the German scientist and mathematician, Carl Friedrich Gauss, who said mathematics was the Queen of Science. One of his many mathematical breakthroughs, the Gaussian or normal distribution, is the lifeblood of statistics. It underpins modern medicine and is a valuable tool in the fight against prejudice.

Producer: Anna Buckley.

Professor Marcus Du Sautoy shows how these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world and proves that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science.

How the Gaussian or normal distribution underpins modern medicine.

It was the German scientist and mathematician, CF Gauss, who declared maths to be the Queen of Science.

One of his many mathematical breakthroughs, the Gaussian or normal distribution, is perhaps the most powerful statistical tool we have.

It underpins modern medicine.

It's also what enables marketing companies to deduce who you are from your supermaket loyalty card.

Marcus du Sautoy argues that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science: German mathematician, Carl Friedrich Gaus.

From 2010.

Professor Marcus du Sautoy argues that mathematics drives science.

Professor Marcus du Sautoy reveals the personalities behind the calculations.

From 2010.

This ten part history of mathematics from Newton to the present day, reveals the personalities behind the calculations: the passions and rivalries of mathematicians struggling to get their ideas heard. Professor Marcus du Sautoy shows how these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world and proves that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science.

Today, the pioneering nineteenth century mathematicians who helped Albert Einstein with his maths: Jonas Bolyai, Nicolas Loachevski and Bernhard Riemann. Without the mathematics to describe curved space and multiple dimensions, the theory of relativity doesn't really work.

Producer: Anna Buckley.

Professor Marcus Du Sautoy shows how these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world and proves that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science.

Today, the pioneering nineteenth century mathematicians who helped Albert Einstien with his maths: Jonas Bolyai, Nicolas Loachevski and Bernhard Riemann.

Bernhard Riemann, the man who showed mathematicians how to see in four or more dimensions.

Today, the pioneering nineteenth century mathematicians who helped Albert Einstien with his maths: Jonas Bolyai, Nicolas Loachevski and Bernhard Riemann. Without the mathematics to describe curved space and multiple dimensions, the theory of relativity doesn't really work.

From 2010.

Professor Marcus du Sautoy argues that mathematics drives science.

Professor Marcus du Sautoy reveals the personalities behind the calculations.

From 2010.

This ten part history of mathematics from Newton to the present day, reveals the personalities behind the calculations: the passions and rivalries of mathematicians struggling to get their ideas heard. Professor Marcus du Sautoy shows how these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world and proves that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science.

Today, Georg Cantor, the mathematician who showed us how to carry on counting when the numbers run out. An insight into the nature of infinity that Roger Penrose believes helps to explain why the human brain will always be cleverer than artificial intelligence.

Producer: Anna Buckley.

An insight into the nature of infinity that Roger Penrose believes helps to explain why the human brain will always be cleverer than artificial intelligence.

Georg Cantor, who showed us how to carry on counting when the numbers run out.

Today, Georg Cantor, the mathematician who showed us how to carry on counting when the numbers run out. An insight into the nature of infinity that Roger Penrose believes helps to explain why the human brain will always be cleverer than artificial intelligence.

From 2010.

Professor Marcus du Sautoy argues that mathematics drives science.

Professor Marcus du Sautoy reveals the personalities behind the calculations.

From 2010.

This ten part history of mathematics from Newton to the present day, reveals the personalities behind the calculations: the passions and rivalries of mathematicians struggling to get their ideas heard. Professor Marcus du Sautoy shows how these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world and proves that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science.

Today Henri Poincare, the man who proved there are certain problems that mathematics will never be able to answer: a mathematical insight that gave rise to chaos theory.

Producer: Anna Buckley.

Henri Poincare proved there are certain problems that maths will never be able to answer.

From 2010.

Professor Marcus du Sautoy argues that mathematics drives science.

Professor Marcus du Sautoy reveals the personalities behind the calculations.

This ten part history of mathematics from Newton to the present day, reveals the personalities behind the calculations: the passions and rivalries of mathematicians struggling to get their ideas heard. Professor Marcus du Sautoy shows how these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world and proves that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science.

Today, G.H.Hardy, the mathematician who insisted he had never done anything useful. And yet his work on the ""diabolical malice"" inherent in prime numbers inspired the millions of codes that now help to keep the internet safe.

Producer: Anna Buckley.

And yet his work on the "diabolical malice" inherent in prime numbers inspired the millions of codes that now help to keep the internet safe.

GH Hardy, whose work inspired the millions of codes that help to keep the internet safe.

And yet his work on the diabolical malice"" inherent in prime numbers inspired the millions of codes that now help to keep the internet safe."

Today, G.H.Hardy, the mathematician who insisted he had never done anything useful. And yet his work on the "diabolical malice" inherent in prime numbers inspired the millions of codes that now help to keep the internet safe.

From 2010.

Professor Marcus du Sautoy argues that mathematics drives science.

Professor Marcus du Sautoy reveals the personalities behind the calculations.

From 2010.

Today, the mathematician that never was, Nicolas Bourbaki. A group of French mathematicians, working between the two world wars and writing under the pseudonym Nicolas Bourbaki transformed their discipline and paved the way for several mathematical breakthroughs in the 21st century.

Producer: Anna Buckley

From 2010.

Professor Marcus du Sautoy argues that mathematics drives science.

Professor Marcus du Sautoy reveals the personalities behind the calculations.

This ten part history of mathematics from Newton to the present day, reveals the personalities behind the calculations: the passions and rivalries of mathematicians struggling to get their ideas heard. Professor Marcus du Sautoy shows how these masters of abstraction find a role in the real world and proves that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science.

Today, the mathematician that never was, Nicolas Bourbaki. A group of French mathematicians, working between the two world wars and writing under the pseudonym Nicolas Bourbaki transformed their discipline and paved the way for several mathematical breakthroughs in the 21st century.

Producer: Anna Buckley.

Nicolas Bourbaki, the mathematician that never was.

From 2010.

Professor Marcus du Sautoy argues that mathematics drives science.

Professor Marcus du Sautoy reveals the personalities behind the calculations.