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X-MEN The X in X-men represents the unkown genetic differance that leads to a mutant ability. I think they called it the X-gene because the form of the mutation is not always the same.
So x represents an unkown, and they are studying Physics when Login walks into the Professor's office, there is tons of math in Physics.
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The Dish might be a possibility. It's still on my "rent at some point" list, though, so I can't say for sure. It seems like it would fit though.
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Don't you agree that justifying The Princess Bride would be a real coup, Noemon?
There's 1. The parabolics of juggling 2. Logic 3. Geography (which uses math and geometry, i.e., why land wars in Asia are not so good) 4. Biochemical kinetics (the rate of absorption of the poision)
I'm sure we could come up with more.
Hey, 5. Counting the seconds to avoid the marsh gas flames. Counting is math. 6. Inigo counts on his fingers to subtract 10 from 30 7. The physics of rolling down a hill (What's The Dish?)
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Fast, Cheap and Out of Control might be a good one. Its kind of a documentary about chaos and complexity and also a pretty good movie.
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Any Golf-related movie with the appropriate rating. They have to do math to add up the score. I'm not sure about the ratings but I'm guessing that Caddyshack would be ok, plus you could do geometry calculations with the gopher holes. Or Happy Gillmore Caddyshack Two Tin Cup probably wouldn't be entertaining enough but the end is classic.
Haven't checked the ratings though.
Maybe, Real Genius with the young Val Kilmer. And what about the action movie set in Russia where he "discovers cold fusion"? Was it "The Saint"?
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Actually, The Princess Bride was the first thing I thought of when I read the question, and I was busily trying to justify it until I read your post. Absolutely, show The Princess Bride! It's perfect!
The Dish is about the role that a team of Australian technicians played the broadcast of the Apollo moon landing. It's supposed to be a pretty engaging comedy/drama, but like I said I haven't seen it, so I can't personally vouch for it.
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Oh, wait! Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead would work, and they probably haven't already seen it.
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Although The Sting is one of the most entertaining movies ever made, I don't think it would be appropriate to show in class. Maybe if you fast-forwarded through the burlesque show scene, but even then there are some spots that could make parents and school boards uncomfortable. The kids would love it, but your job isn't in their hands.
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Let me say that "The Dish" would be perfect for a high school class. It has the science/math connection, is an entertaining film, and unless I'm misremembering, doesn't have anything in it that could be seen as objectionable. Oh, and it has Sam Neill in it, which is as good a reason to watching a film as any I can think of. (Although, Icarus, I don't expect that aspect to mean anything to you. )
"IQ" and "Searching for Bobby Fisher" are also good choices.
And one other thing - "A Brief History of Time" wasn't entertaining, as opposed to just informative? Could've fooled me. Anyway, I was always under the impression that Stephen Hawking was quite the cultural icon.
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Storm Saxon hit one I thought of. Apollo 13. There was a lot of mathmatics in it from O2 consumptions to entry angles.... several points on mathmatical interests.
Space Camp too.
IIRC Ghost Busters? had some scientific/mathmatical components?
Space Cowboys.
House of Cards (1993) w/ Kathleen Turner, Tommy Lee Jones
Man Without a Face
Thats all I can think of off the top of my head.
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I've shown both October Sky and Apollo 13 to my math students and they went over pretty well. I read them the Princess Bride for reading time, and most of them had(shockingly enough) never heard of it.
What about Back to the Future? Ok. It's a real stretch. UMMMM.. The older Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, has a sequence where the queens are singing a song about numbers and Alice is frantically trying to keep track of the numbers as they sing... Ok. they probably wouldn't like the whole movie, but it might be a fun excerpt activity, and you could mention that Louis Carroll was also a mathematician.
What about Clockwatchers? I think that's what it's called. It's a more recent movie about the watches that make the person wearing it speed up.
Rocketman is hilarious and I believe the main character got involved because he figured out the math problem that was causing the flight leader or whoever to crash in the flight simulator.
Life is Beautiful is PG 13, but it has all those riddles. It has the benefit of being my favorite movie, but it didn't really go over well with the kids.
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There was a miniseries Alice in Wonderland that was based on Through the Looking Glass. That entire novel is based on a chessboard!!!!
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pepper, I think that movie is called "Timestoppers" or something like that. It didn't stick around in my brain too long really.
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It's a documentary about Paul Erdos. It's past hilarious, the man was the stereotypical crazy scientist. Also, gives insight into how "real" math is being done.
It's not that long, and really inspiring.
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Is "Big" the movie where a little boy wishes to be big, and grows up the next day (into Tom Hanks)? I'm fairly sure, but I just want to know... I've only seen about half an hour of it.
In October Sky, the main character had to use math (trig I think) to determine whether his rocket could have flown far enough to burn down a forest. If I have two votes (and I say I do), this movie also have my vote. Posts: 4116 | Registered: Apr 2002
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My old high school math teacher played October Sky. Personally, I highly recommend The Dish, though. One of the few comedies I've ever given a 5 star rating to. It doesn't really get too technical mathematically, but it's a great feel-good demonstration of what can be done with math and it's highly entertaining and very well put together.
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I asked my kids last night about the topic of this post, and they suggested (as a G movie that the school will allow) the video MastermindsPosts: 9538 | Registered: Aug 2003
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