Math Is Fun Forum

dan howitt

Member

Registered: 2008-05-14

Posts: 21

Good Will Hunting

I first thought it was "Goodwill Hunting".  Having to do with good will.  Yeiks haha.

Anywei what did you think of the math in it?  When he did the proof on the chalkboard like that. Lol.

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Dan Howitt

dan howitt

Member

Registered: 2008-05-14

Posts: 21

Re: Good Will Hunting

Wondering if the stuff about combinatorial math was accurate.

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Dan Howitt

Ricky

Moderator

Registered: 2005-12-04

Posts: 3,791

Re: Good Will Hunting

I haven't watched it in a while, but from what I can remember there wasn't enough information about the mathematics.  The graphs they showed did look rather simple though.

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"In the real world, this would be a problem.  But in mathematics, we can just define a place where this problem doesn't exist.  So we'll go ahead and do that now..."

Identity

Member

Registered: 2007-04-18

Posts: 934

Re: Good Will Hunting

That was a pretty good movie, although I'm a bit annoyed that Will didn't pursue maths. I remember in junior school I hadn't seen it so I thought "Good Will Hunting" was some kind of 'good will' thing to say and I used it in a creative writing piece

dan howitt

Member

Registered: 2008-05-14

Posts: 21

Re: Good Will Hunting

I haven't watched it in a while, but from what I can remember there wasn't enough information about the mathematics.  The graphs they showed did look rather simple though.

That's what I was thinking.  In movies etc they tend to make things look incredible, but for those in the discipline, it's too simplistic and unrealistic, and laughable.

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Dan Howitt

dan howitt

Member

Registered: 2008-05-14

Posts: 21

Re: Good Will Hunting

This was the problem in the movie on the board.

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Dan Howitt

dan howitt

Member

Registered: 2008-05-14

Posts: 21

Re: Good Will Hunting

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Dan Howitt

Ricky

Moderator

Registered: 2005-12-04

Posts: 3,791

Re: Good Will Hunting

Something about drawing all the ______  ______ trees with n = 10.  It's not isomorphic cause there are 106 of those.

Edit: the 2nd work is "irreducible"

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"In the real world, this would be a problem.  But in mathematics, we can just define a place where this problem doesn't exist.  So we'll go ahead and do that now..."

dan howitt

Member

Registered: 2008-05-14

Posts: 21

Re: Good Will Hunting

Something about drawing all the ______  ______ trees with n = 10.  It's not isomorphic cause there are 106 of those.

Edit: the 2nd work is "irreducible"

hm

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Dan Howitt

dan howitt

Member

Registered: 2008-05-14

Posts: 21

Re: Good Will Hunting

I just wonder if this level of knowledge can be so automatic like portrayed in the movie. 

I guess in movies, they want to make it look superhuman.  It's actually superhuman to do all the paper work and take all the time, and THEN, do problems.  It's simplistic to walk to a chalk board and do the problem right then and there.

In A Beautiful Mind, the movie did really well to show all the tons of work he did.  Weeks and weeks of 10+ hrs a day of writing out math, revising, starting over, etc.  This was great.....showed the hard work, and the genius.  Much more realistic.

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Dan Howitt

Ricky

Moderator

Registered: 2005-12-04

Posts: 3,791

Re: Good Will Hunting

I actually recently won an award for outstanding senior in the traditional option.  As a prize, I got two books, one of which is called John Nash.  It contains his original Ph.D. thesis in game theory (economics).  I have yet to try to go through it, but the coolest thing is the way they used to type of math papers.  They would type it on a type writer, leaving space for the math symbols, and go back and write them in by hand.

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"In the real world, this would be a problem.  But in mathematics, we can just define a place where this problem doesn't exist.  So we'll go ahead and do that now..."

dan howitt

Member

Registered: 2008-05-14

Posts: 21

Re: Good Will Hunting

I actually recently won an award for outstanding senior in the traditional option.  As a prize, I got two books, one of which is called John Nash.  It contains his original Ph.D. thesis in game theory (economics).  I have yet to try to go through it, but the coolest thing is the way they used to type of math papers.  They would type it on a type writer, leaving space for the math symbols, and go back and write them in by hand.

Nice job!  Congratulations!

Let me know how you liked Nash's book.

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Dan Howitt

dan howitt

Member

Registered: 2008-05-14

Posts: 21

Re: Good Will Hunting

Just some pictures from the movie - it was on a couple day ago again - really nice movie.

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Dan Howitt

MathsIsFun

Administrator

Registered: 2005-01-21

Posts: 7,713

Re: Good Will Hunting

I actually recently won an award for outstanding senior in the traditional option.

Wow.

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"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..."  - Leon M. Lederman

dan howitt

Member

Registered: 2008-05-14

Posts: 21

Re: Good Will Hunting

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Dan Howitt

blank_brunette

Member

Registered: 2008-03-27

Posts: 46

Re: Good Will Hunting

wait a minute---what movie is this from?

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In this world of cheerios, be a fruitloop! ♥

dan howitt

Member

Registered: 2008-05-14

Posts: 21

Re: Good Will Hunting

wait a minute---what movie is this from?

Good WIll Hunting

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Dan Howitt

dan howitt

Member

Registered: 2008-05-14

Posts: 21

Re: Good Will Hunting

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Dan Howitt

dan howitt

Member

Registered: 2008-05-14

Posts: 21

Re: Good Will Hunting

Hii, I found this informative page.

http://wwwhome.math.utwente.nl/~jagersaa/Will.html

The Mathematics in the Cinema Movie "Good Will Hunting"

Dan

Last edited by dan howitt (2008-06-05 05:00:45)

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Dan Howitt