educational
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...
YouTube channel
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most v ...
featuring videos that explore topics from a variety of fields of mathematics. In the early days of the channel, each video focused on a specific number, but the channel has since expanded its scope, featuring videos on more advanced mathematical concepts such as
Fermat's Last Theorem
In number theory, Fermat's Last Theorem (sometimes called Fermat's conjecture, especially in older texts) states that no three positive integers , , and satisfy the equation for any integer value of greater than 2. The cases and have been k ...
, the
Riemann hypothesis
In mathematics, the Riemann hypothesis is the conjecture that the Riemann zeta function has its zeros only at the negative even integers and complex numbers with real part . Many consider it to be the most important unsolved problem in ...
and
Kruskal's tree theorem
In mathematics, Kruskal's tree theorem states that the set of finite trees over a well-quasi-ordered set of labels is itself well-quasi-ordered under homeomorphic embedding.
History
The theorem was conjectured by Andrew Vázsonyi and proved b ...
. The videos are produced by
Brady Haran
Brady John Haran (born 18 June 1976) is an Australian-British independent filmmaker and video journalist who produces educational videos and documentary films for his YouTube channels, the most notable being ''Periodic Videos'' and '' Numbe ...
, a former
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
video journalist and creator of
Periodic Videos
''Periodic Videos'' (also known as ''The Periodic Table of Videos'') is a video project and YouTube channel on chemistry. It consists of a series of videos about chemical elements and the periodic table, with additional videos on other topics i ...
, Sixty Symbols, and several other YouTube channels. Videos on the channel feature several university professors, maths communicators and famous mathematicians.
In 2018, Haran released a spin-off audio
podcast
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...
titled ''The Numberphile Podcast''.
YouTube channel
The ''Numberphile'' YouTube channel was started on 15 September 2011. Most videos consist of Haran interviewing an expert on a number,
mathematical theorem
In mathematics, a theorem is a statement that has been proved, or can be proved. The ''proof'' of a theorem is a logical argument that uses the inference rules of a deductive system to establish that the theorem is a logical consequence of the ...
or other mathematical concept. The expert usually draws out their explanation on a large piece of brown paper and attempts to make the concepts understandable to the average, non-mathematician viewer. It is supported by the
Mathematical Sciences Research Institute
The Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath), formerly the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), is an independent nonprofit mathematical research institution on the University of California campus in Berkeley, Califo ...
(MSRI) and
Math for America
Math for America (MfA) is a nonprofit organization, founded in January 2004 by American billionaire mathematician, hedge fund manager, and philanthropist Jim Simons to promote recruitment and retention of mathematics teachers in New York City seco ...
.Numberphile Nominated in Education 8th Annual Shorty Awards Haran also runs the "Numberphile2" channel, which includes extra footage and further detail than the main channel.
The channel was nominated for a
Shorty Award
The Shorty Awards (also known as “The Shortys”) honors the most innovative work globally in digital and social media by brands, agencies, nonprofits and creators. The Shortys’ mission is to celebrate, inspire and push the boundaries of exce ...
in Education in 2016. ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' has reported, 'At Numberphile, mathematicians discourse, enthusiastically and winningly, on numbers'.
Contributors
The channel has featured mathematicians, computer scientists, scientists and
science writers
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
, including:Guest speakers on Numberphile MSRI
*
Federico Ardila
Federico Ardila (born 1977) is a Colombian mathematician and DJ who researches combinatorics and specializes in matroid theory. Ardila graduated from MIT with a B.Sc. in Mathematics in 1998 and obtained a Ph.D in 2003 under the supervision of ...
*
Johnny Ball
Johnny Ball (born Graham Thalben Ball; 23 May 1938) is an English television personality, a populariser of mathematics and the father of BBC Radio 2 DJ Zoe Ball.
Early life
Ball was born in Bristol and attended Kingswood Primary School on th ...
*
Alex Bellos
Alexander Bellos (born 1969) is a British writer, broadcaster and mathematics communicator.Alex Bellos He is the author of books about Brazil and mathematics, as well as having a column in ''The Guardian'' newspaper.
Education and early lif ...
*
Elwyn Berlekamp
Elwyn Ralph Berlekamp (September 6, 1940 – April 9, 2019) was a professor of mathematics and computer science at the University of California, Berkeley.Contributors, ''IEEE Transactions on Information Theory'' 42, #3 (May 1996), p. 1048. DO10.1 ...
Timothy Browning
Timothy Browning is a mathematician working in number theory, examining the interface of analytic number theory and Diophantine geometry.
Browning is currently a Professor of number theory at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA ...
*
Brian Butterworth
Brian Lewis Butterworth FBA (born 3 January 1944) is emeritus professor of cognitive neuropsychology in the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London, England. His research has ranged from speech errors and pauses, sho ...
*
John Conway
John Horton Conway (26 December 1937 – 11 April 2020) was an English mathematician active in the theory of finite groups, knot theory, number theory, combinatorial game theory and coding theory. He also made contributions to many branches ...
Persi Diaconis
Persi Warren Diaconis (; born January 31, 1945) is an American mathematician of Greek descent and former professional magician. He is the Mary V. Sunseri Professor of Statistics and Mathematics at Stanford University.
He is particularly know ...
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Marcus Du Sautoy
Marcus Peter Francis du Sautoy (; born 26 August 1965) is a British mathematician, Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford, Fellow of New College, Oxford and author of popular mathematics and popu ...
*
Rob Eastaway
Rob Eastaway is an English author. He is active in the popularisation of mathematics and was awarded the Zeeman medal in 2017 for excellence in the promotion of maths. He is best known for his books, including the bestselling ''Why Do Buses Come ...
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Laurence Eaves
Laurence Eaves CBE, FRS (born 13 May 1948) is a British physicist and professor at University of Nottingham.
Life
Laurence Eaves was born in Pentre, in the Rhondda valley, Wales in 1948 and was educated at Rhondda County Grammar School, Porth ...
Edward Frenkel
Edward Vladimirovich Frenkel (; born May 2, 1968) is a Russian-American mathematician working in representation theory, algebraic geometry, and mathematical physics. He is a professor of mathematics at University of California, Berkeley, a member ...
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Hannah Fry
Hannah Fry (born February 1984) is a British mathematician, author, and radio and television presenter. She is Professor in the Mathematics of Cities at the UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis. She studies the patterns of human behaviour, ...
Edmund Harriss
Edmund Orme Harriss (born 1976 in Worcester, UK) is a British mathematician,Tim Harford
Timothy Douglas Harford (born 27 September 1973) is an English economic journalist who lives in Oxford.
Harford is the author of four economics books and writes his long-running ''Financial Times'' column, " The Undercover Economist", syndi ...
Holly Krieger
Holly Krieger is a professor in mathematics at the University of Cambridge, where she is also the Corfield Fellow at Murray Edwards College. Her current research interests are in Arithmetic dynamics, arithmetic and abstract algebra, algebraic aspec ...
Colm Mulcahy
Colm Mulcahy (born September 1958) is an Irish mathematician, academic, columnist, book author, public outreach speaker, and amateur magician. He is Professor Emeritus at Spelman College, where he was on the faculty from 1988 to 2020. In addition ...
* Tony Padilla
* Simon Pampena
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Matt Parker
Matthew Thomas Parker (born 22 December 1980) is an Australian recreational mathematician, author, comedian, YouTube personality and science communicator based in the United Kingdom. His book ''Humble Pi'' was the first maths book in the UK to ...
*
Roger Penrose
Sir Roger Penrose (born 8 August 1931) is an English mathematician, mathematical physicist, philosopher of science and Nobel Laureate in Physics. He is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics in the University of Oxford, an emeritus fello ...
*
Carl Pomerance
Carl Bernard Pomerance (born 1944 in Joplin, Missouri) is an American number theorist. He attended college at Brown University and later received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1972 with a dissertation proving that any odd perfect number ...
*
Ken Ribet
Kenneth Alan Ribet (; born June 28, 1948) is an American mathematician working in algebraic number theory and algebraic geometry. He is known for the Herbrand–Ribet theorem and Ribet's theorem, which were key ingredients in the proof of Ferma ...
Henry Segerman
Henry Segerman (born 1979 in Manchester, UK) is an Associate Professor of mathematics at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma who does research in three-dimensional geometry and topology, especially three-manifolds, triangulations ...
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Carlo H. Séquin
Carlo Heinrich Séquin (born October 30, 1941) is a professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley in the United States.
Séquin is recognized as one of the pioneers in processor design. Séquin has worked with compute ...
Simon Singh
Simon Lehna Singh, (born 19 September 1964) is a British popular science author, theoretical and particle physicist. His written works include ''Fermat's Last Theorem'' (in the United States titled ''Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve th ...
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Neil Sloane
__NOTOC__
Neil James Alexander Sloane (born October 10, 1939) is a British-American mathematician. His major contributions are in the fields of combinatorics, error-correcting codes, and sphere packing. Sloane is best known for being the creator ...
* Ben Sparks
* Katie Steckles
*
Zvezdelina Stankova
Zvezdelina Entcheva Stankova ( bg, Звезделина Енчева Станкова; born 15 September 1969) is a professor of mathematics at Mills College and a teaching professor at the University of California, Berkeley, the founder of the Be ...
*
Clifford Stoll
Clifford Paul "Cliff" Stoll (born June 4, 1950) is an American astronomer, author and teacher.
He is best known for his investigation in 1986, while working as a systems administrator at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, that led to t ...
*
Terence Tao
Terence Chi-Shen Tao (; born 17 July 1975) is an Australian-American mathematician. He is a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he holds the James and Carol Collins chair. His research includes ...
*
Tadashi Tokieda
Tadashi Tokieda (Japanese: 時枝正; born 1968) is a Japanese mathematician, working in mathematical physics. He is a professor of mathematics at Stanford University; previously he was a fellow and Director of Studies of MathematicsMariel Vázquez
*
Cédric Villani
Cédric Patrice Thierry Villani (; born 5 October 1973) is a French politician and mathematician working primarily on partial differential equations, Riemannian geometry and mathematical physics. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 2010, and he w ...
* Zandra Vinegar
''The Numberphile Podcast''
Haran started a podcast titled ''The Numberphile Podcast'' in 2018 as a sister project. The podcast more heavily focuses on the lives and personalities of some of the subjects of the videos.