Beside the fact that math professors in the movie wear ties — “never,” said Kontorovich — and “there are no blackboards,” noted Stechmann – who laughed when Hal called a proof “hip,” – the aspect of the movie the students found strangest was that it centered on an argument over whether Catherine could have done a certain bit of mathematics that she kept secret for years. Kontorovich said keeping work under wraps on the QT to stop “the hype from taking over,” is not unexpected, but as to the continued arguing, “Are you retarded?” Kontorovich asked. “It’s a proof. Go through it.” All three students agreed that mathophiles would be more focused on examining the work than debating the author. “Everyone was happy when [ Andrew Wiles] proved Fermat’s Last Theorem, even though many had labored unsuccessfully, Kontorovich said. “It was a proof for humanity.” Added Stechmann, “people said, ‘Great, we can stop working on it now.’” —David Epstein —Is Gwyneth Paltrow a Genius? (Inside Higher Ed)
The “take a bunch of experts to see a movie about their field and let them pick it apart” is interesting when the experts are grad students.
Representing the Humanities at Accepted Students Day.
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Us "real expert" (*snort*) professors went to see the play when SHU performed it back in November 2003... The students who performed all had mathophile parents or siblings or something, and we had a great time at the read-through. I have a copy of the script in my office and I still thumb through it for good quotes now and then.
Grad students in math are in the unenviable position of having just enough deep knowledge in _one_ supremely thin area of mathematics to churn out a thesis, and a lot of shallow knowledge about a lot of other mathematics :)
Joshua