For those in the UK with access, the television channel BBC Four will be having A Night of Numbers tonight! Here is the schedule:

*21:05 Go Forth and Multiply*
Starting a night of numbers on BBC Four, have you heard of the mathematical system that cancels out certain numbers because they’re ‘unlucky’ – and ignores fractions altogether? From time immemorial, merchants in Ethiopia have used a system of multiplication that seems bizarre – but it works.

*21:10 Music of the Primes*
Prime numbers – those figures which refuse to be divided neatly by anything other than one and themselves – are fundamental to mathematics. Yet they seem to surface entirely randomly along the number line. But are the primes truly random — or is there some hidden pattern? Marcus DuSautoy investigates the fascinating story of the great mathematicians who’ve grappled with the problem of the primes. Website here.

*22:10 Phi’s the Limit: The Golden Ratio*
What do the nautilus seashell, the Great Pyramid, and The Mona Lisa have in common? They are all feature Phi — otherwise known as The Golden Ratio.

*22:15 Breaking the Code*
The mathematical genius Alan Turing was responsible for cracking Germany’s Enigma Code – enabling the Allies to decipher messages sent by the Nazis to their forces. Derek Jacobi, Prunella Scales, Richard Johnson, Amanda Root and Harold Pinter star in this absorbing drama, revealing how one of Britain’s greatest mathematicians changed the course of the Second World War.

*23:45 The Mathematical Art of MC Escher*
Of all major artists of the 20th Century, none was more influenced by maths than the Dutch artist MC Escher. Throughout his career, this superb draughtsman produced images that explored (and exploited) mathematical ideas.

*23:50 Horizon: Fermat’s Last Theorem*
As a 10-year old schoolboy, Andrew Wiles stumbled across Fermat’s Last Theorem – one of the world’s greatest mathematical puzzles. This edition of Horizon tells the story of Wiles’ quest to solve a problem that had baffled the greatest mathematicians for more than three centuries.

-cvj