The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets Quotes

“An astronomer, a physicist, and a mathematician (it is said) were holidaying in Scotland. Glancing from a train window, they observed a black sheep in the middle of a field. “How interesting,” observed the astronomer, “all Scottish sheep are black!” To which the physicist responded, “No, no! Some Scottish sheep are black!” The mathematician gazed heavenward in supplication, and then intoned, “In Scotland there exists at least one field, containing at least one sheep, at least one side of which is black.”
― Simon Singh, The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets

“Similarly, if you’re trying to prove something mathematically, it’s possible that no proof exists.”
― Simon Singh, The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets

“A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems.”
― Simon Singh, The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets

“The infinite! No other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man; no other idea has so fruitfully stimulated his intellect; yet no other concept stands in greater need of clarification than that of the infinite.”
― Simon Singh, The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets

“In my mind, the most noble way to leave your mark on the world is to expand man’s understanding of the world.”
― Simon Singh, The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets

“Lisa Simpson is the kind of child we not only want our children to be, but also the kind of child we want all children to be.”
― Simon Singh, The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets

“During a security briefing at the White House, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld breaks some tragic news: “Mr President, three Brazilian soldiers were killed yesterday while supporting U.S. troops.” “My God!” shrieks President George W. Bush, and he buries his head in his hands. He remains stunned and silent for a full minute. Eventually, he looks up, takes a deep breath, and asks Rumsfeld: “How many is a brazillion?”
― Simon Singh, The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets

“As a society, we rightly adore our great musicians and novelists, yet we seldom hear any mention of the humble mathematician. It is clear that mathematics is not considered part of our culture. Instead, mathematics is generally feared and mathematicians are often mocked.”
― Simon Singh, The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets

“baseball is a game played by the dexterous, but only understood by the Poindexterous.”9”
― Simon Singh, The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets

“This special was followed one month later by “Bart the Genius.” This was the first genuine episode of The Simpsons , inasmuch as it premiered the famous trademark opening sequence and included the debut of Bart’s notorious catchphrase “Eat my shorts.” Most noteworthy of all, “Bart the Genius” contains a serious dose of mathematics. In many ways, this episode set the tone for what was to follow over the next two decades, namely a relentless series of numerical references and nods to geometry that would earn The Simpsons a special place in the hearts of mathematicians.”
― Simon Singh, The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets

“Q: What is the volume of a pizza of thickness a and radius z?   3 points    A: pi.z.z.a”
― Simon Singh, The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets

“I had written this paper on pancake numbers with help from my adviser, Manuel Blum, who's a well-known computer scientist, and we submitted it to a journal called Discrete Applied Mathematics. I subsequently left graduate school to come and write for The Simpsons. After the paper was accepted, there was an extremely long lag between it being submitted, revised, and published. So, by the time the paper was published, I had been working at The Simpsons for a while, and Ken Keeler had also been hired at that point. So, finally the research article appeared, and I came in with the reprints of this article and I said, 'Hey, I've got an article in Discrete Applied Mathematics.' Everyone was quite impressed except Ken Keeler, who said, 'Oh yeah, I had a paper in that journal a couple of months ago.'"

With a wry smile on his face, Cohen bemoaned: "What does it mean that I come to write for The Simpsons and I cannot even be the only writer on this show with a paper in Discrete Applied Mathematics?”
― Simon Singh, The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets