Exploring mathematics: a powerful tool - for iPad/Mac/PC: Recent Episodes

The Open University

How can mathematics help us to understand the world around us? The tracks on this album take us to Antarctica, Hong Kong and New Zealand to find out how mathematicians work with scientists and biologists to create mathematical models, and how collaborations like these can help decipher and predict a range of natural phenomena. We learn how the 17th Century saw the birth of one of the most important mathematical tools - calculus, and modern mathematicians examine the contribution of its three inventors - Fermat, Newton and Leibniz. This material forms part of The Open University course MS221 Exploring mathematics.

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An introduction to the tracks on this album.

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Transcript -- An introduction to the tracks on this album.

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An introduction to mathematical modelling in the real world.

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Transcript -- An introduction to mathematical modelling in the real world.

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How bamboo scaffolding does its job.

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Transcript -- How bamboo scaffolding does its job.

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Using statistical modelling to calculate endangered species’ survival rates.

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Transcript -- Using statistical modelling to calculate endangered species’ survival rates.

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Why elaborate mathematical modelling is needed to predict ice break-up in Antarctica.

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Transcript -- Why elaborate mathematical modelling is needed to predict ice break-up in Antarctica.

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Using mathematical modeling to understand the fluctuations in the surface levels of Lake Wakatipu.

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Transcript -- Using mathematical modeling to understand the fluctuations in the surface levels of Lake Wakatipu.

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How the behaviour of the world around us can be understood better through mathematics.

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Transcript -- How the behaviour of the world around us can be understood better through mathematics.

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The birth of calculus resulted in controversy: who got there first?

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Transcript -- The birth of calculus resulted in controversy: who got there first?

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An explanation of some of Fermat’s discoveries.

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Transcript -- An explanation of some of Fermat’s discoveries.

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How Fermat communicated his findings to Wallis.

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Transcript -- How Fermat communicated his findings to Wallis.

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Newton invents the binomial theorem and publishes his great work Principia Mathematica.

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Transcript -- Newton invents the binomial theorem and publishes his great work Principia Mathematica.

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Leibniz and the physicist Huygens work together.

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Transcript -- Leibniz and the physicist Huygens work together.

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How the birth of calculus was a truly international effort.

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Transcript -- How the birth of calculus was a truly international effort.