Who was the REAL Good Will Hunting? - Numberphile 

Always loved that movie. I remember working on some trivial model theory problem in grad school, I had the answer, something like a 4 line proof and a diagram. Piece of cake. I knew quite a lot about model theory, so I used that knowledge and tossed off my proof. Only one other guy had a proof. Mine was obviously right and the prof said "yep, that's right". This other guy, who had very little exposure to logic and model theory, man his page was a mess. He had managed to fill an entire page with some wacky combinatorial reasoning. The prof and I kinda looked at each other and initially said, "I dunno...this is going in a pretty weird direction". As the student started explaining himself, we began to listen. Turned out that the kid was right. He had come up with the most difficult way imaginable of solving the problem. Not elegant, not pretty at all, but, I'll be damned, it was right. I realized right then, *I'm not all that smart, I've just read a lot of books*, cuz this kid was light years beyond me talent-wise. And that's how web designers like me are born! Hehe.

Nooooo that's where you cut off the Hardy quote? But the *very next sentence* is: "On the other hand he would have been less of a Ramanujan, and more of a European professor, and the loss might have been greater than the gain." Great video, obviously >.

If only math teachers could show the interest and passion for the subject as this guy does. Honestly, I've always been afraid of maths, but he had me fascinated. A true inspiration...

i would love to just spend a day with this guy, just to listen to all of the things he loves about math, including mathematicians and his favourite concepts. the way he talks just has such an inspirational feeling to it :P

Oh shit, that moment when I realized the lecture hall they used (at 3:35) was actually a lecture hall in McLennan Physical Laboratories in University of Toronto! I have lectures in those halls every other day. #UofTPride

Math Damon?

The person who came up with the pigeon wallpaper is the REAL genius in this story :)

"maybe you have to have done a PhD to understand how much I hate him right now"

The film "The Man Who Knew Infinity" starring Dev Patel was based on Srinivasa Ramanujan

I love this series. What a charming narrator-host.

He is so passionate about mathematics, it's inspiring!

It's hilarious how he said the "I hate him so much right now" part, definitely can relate (IT"S SO HARD) but also love the integrity of that professor, he really stayed true to acknowledge the student's contribution to science

Loving physics but uninterested in math....that's like loving books but hating to read

There's a film about Ramanujan too, named, "The Man Who Knew Infinity" ! Amazing movie

I can't help myself. I am not a genious, I am about average IQ, but looking at and listening to Dr Grime makes me feel I would be in love with mathematics if I saw his both enthusiasm and knowledge as a child. Thank you very much for all numberphille videos. Especially with Dr. Grime.

An even closer match is John Milnor, who mistook the unproved Borsuk Conjecture as a homework problem and solved it. He was 18, and eventually won the Fields Medal.

I'm a huge fan of this channel in general and James in particular. If he'd been my maths teacher at school I might just have passed my A Level. Making up for a wasted 6th year now with my new best friend, Numberphile!

The George Dantzig homework story is extraordinarily similar one about Stephen Hawking, told by his Oxford math professor. While his dormitory mates worked all week to solve just a few of 13 problems, Hawking drank his way through a crate of beer, uninterested in the homework or school. Hawking started the homework the morning of the day the assignment was due. Later, as class time approached, his dorm mates waited for Hawking to come downstairs. One of his mates asked Hawking how he'd done on the homework. Hawking replied that he'd only gotten the first eleven done (only because he'd run out of time). In typical Oxford form, the professor met with students individually to discuss their work. The professor was obviously impressed, yet noted that Hawking seemed completely indifferent. As Hawking left the professor's office he tossed the homework in the waste basket. His professor commented "Anyone else would have framed it." This was before Hawking was diagnosed with ALS. He would later credit ALS for focusing his attention on doing something meaningful with his life, not knowing if he had months or years to live.

nice to see that scientists can be fun relaxed people enjoying their game and not taking things tooooo seriously. respect

Thanks for sharing this story James, as a math teacher I love hearing the true stories behind things like this.

well, we're happy about that!

well i failed my collage math high school math exam, re-did it and barely passed that being said im horrible at math. But i have a great appreciation for the subject and my father is 10 times the mathematician (being a geo techincian) that ill ever be, much to his disappointment i bet. I remember seeing this film and one day hoping i could be the will hunting to my dad. but i never had the mind for it neither the patience. i'm very happy that there are so many people being able to understand and appreciate maths who maybe be able to bring a brighter tommorow

More reason why Goodwill Hunting is such a good film. At the heart, there is enormous amount of research and a real "will" if you may to understand the characters and why they behave that way. Such films never go out of style primarily because they can connect to every person.

This dude is apparently better than all the maths teachers combined. He makes mathematics sound interesting !!!

thank you! please do the proper video on Srinivasa Ramanujan - stuff he was coming up with was truly amazing and unbelievable.

This is my first video watching your channel. I have to say that the way you smile tells me you like what you're doing.

As a side note the soundtrack in the movie is by Elliott Smith ("Between the Bars", "Angeles", "No Name #3", "Say Yes" and "Miss Misery") and there are some similarities to Will in the movie. Elliott Smith was a musical genius, arguably one of the greatest acoustic guitar composers, players and arrangers of all time.

What a surprisingly enjoyable vlog.. wow! This was the most enjoyable 9 minutes I've spent in a very long time. Thank you for your easy friendly teaching manor and making math fun and interesting.

I’m going to start a PhD pretty soon. Stumbling into a publishable discovery that you figure out in one night would make any academic cry tears of joy, and watching it happen to someone else you get green with envy.

This is my first time seeing a numberphile video, I'm sure (based on some comments) that this is not their typical type of video, but I really like the way it is made and how good of a speaker this guy is. It really caught my interest the whole way through.

I just love his enthusiasm. Been watching these videos for two hours and now my eyes hurt because I had to go to sleep two hours ago. Damn math is interesting!

I've seen the movie over a dozen times, mostly at workshops about the therapeutic process. The psychotherapy between Will and Robin William's character is awesome.

Thank you for these videos Numberphile. It's channels like yours that make education interesting and it is truly an engaging experience to view them.

the pigeon wallpaper is distracting me and i keep replaying bits of the video

Smart people agree that something is impossible - then a student comes along, who doesn't know it's impossible, and does just that.

an engineer can take a set of instructions and make a stable working device, physics and chem do prototypes but maths combines extremes of practical fantasy and potential mechanism to change how thinking is done. Everyone needs everyone else.

unfortunately the content comes with the cameraman, as he asks all the questions (including more important ones you don't hear), decides what to make films about and how to edit them... he decides the CONTENT... what goes in and what stays out it's like telling your partner "I like your personality but not your face!" - the two come together! :)

I'm one of the worst students in my math class in germany, but damn I love this channel. It made me rise some interest in maths (which I could never even think of 1 year ago). Thanks for showing us how beautiful maths can be!

It's very good - I still enjoy it!

24 is not as old as it feels. I didn't start college until I was 28, I am now working on my masters. I read about a lady that went and got her MD in her 60's. never give up because you feel like it is "to late".

My father did his PhD from Russia. He said in Russia there is a degree higher than phD called Doctor of Science. That that is almost impossible to get as thesis requirements are too much for that. So when my father was waiting for professors to call him to defend his thesis there was a person before him who was called in. And usually a thesis defence took maximum one hour but that man had been in for 1.5 hours and hadn't cone out. Everyone in room thought he wont make it. But when he came out he was awarded Doctor of science instead of PhD. His thesis was over the top.

Talking about movies, there is a nice one on Ramanujan called The Man who knew Infinity ;)

I think that Ramanujan mind was one of the greatest misteries of XX century.

I had always assumed Will was based mostly on Sidis, due to his extensive knowledge of American History and all of the psychological counselling, it was great to learn more about the mathematicians that Will was based on.

About your PHD I would say it's not your fault.

this is a fucking brilliant channel. I didn't give my maths a level the attention it deserved and i regret it now having spent three years at uni in a subject with no numbers, no definite answers, no beautiful logic. nice to see numbers again.

In my student days we had a prof that was fond of slipping unsolved problems into our assignments. During my time there one of the other students did solve one of those problems.

BTW, there is (or will be soon) a new really awesome movie about Ramanujan! Look it up!

Srinivasan Ramanujan - the great mathematician from India especially Tamilnadu (Kanchipuram) And I feel so proud that I also from the same place.

Dr. James Grime is a very likeable person, brains and a sense of humour. Rare combo. Lots of professors I had dealings with took themselves far too serioulsy.

How can there be a mathematician who is the basis of the story if in the original story the character was a physicist?

Obsessed with maths and this series is a great way to explain to others why maths is so fascinating. Cheers!

Nice set of mathematical stories. The story about George Danzig is best told in his own account, found in the book Mathematical People. Ramanujan learned his maths, before studying under Hardy at Cambridge, from a synopsis of theorems by Carr. Hardy described the book as not extraordinary, but I have a copy and the book is well organized, interesting, and inspiring. The book is loaded with great inspiring theorems. It is a great book. Upon receipt of Ramanujan's first letter with many stunning theorems, Hardy commented that it couldn't have come from a crackpot and many of the theorems must be true because nobody would have the imagination to dream up such formulations and theorems. George Polya describes (in his book, as I recall entitled The George Polya Picture Book) the one student he had that truely scared him. It was Jon (John) von Neumann. Von Neumann was a student in Polya's course, presumably a number theory course at Gottingen, and Polya went on to described an unproven theorem, commenting that it was probably very difficult to prove. Von Neumann then raised his hand and asked to go to the blackboard, whereupon he rigorously proved the theorem. Polya stated that he was thereafter afraid of the young von Neumann.

Thank You for explaining some of the back stories from the movie. It's refreshing to see that a Dr. of Mathematics , like yourself, is just a regular person like myself or anyone else. I also agree that if I was influenced at a young age to enjoy math, instead of tolerate it, I may be better at it now as an adult. It is ironic though, as a youth I hated math, but now as a Tool & Die Maker, use it daily in my work. Thank You again.

I don't know how I got here but I like it

I think this is my favorite Numberphile video. Even tho it has very little to do with actual maths, but I just like the ending about the regular people with regular jobs. Also I love the music :)

had some sound issues that day! sorry!

The Fields Medal and the Abel Prize are the top 2 math prizes available. I really like the Fields Medal because the mathematician behind it was a Canadian, and it emphasizes contributions done in the prime of one's mathematical career - namely why the prize is only awarded to those under the age of 40 - rather than like the Nobel Prize which is usually awarded long after a discovery or realization and almost at a point where such knowledge would be considered a little out of fashion.

alankey86 made it for us - it is just a Good WIll Hunting inspired composition! check his channel.

they should make a real Ramanujan movie... about the tragedy of undiscovered genius

The William Sidis story- of him ending up doing odd jobs- reminded me of Charles Bukowskie. They might not have been similar on a cerebral level, but both seem to have been pretty talented in their respected fields math in Sidis' case, and creative writing in Bukowskie's. Goes on to show that even the smartest and most talented of us need a healthy dose of compassion and empathy from others and need to feel 'at home' in the world; otherwise they can scatter their gifts around and live bitter lives.

One of my favourite channels talking about my favourite movie. Thank you

As a Science teacher, I always tell my students that of all of the subjects, Mathematics is the most important. Mathmaticians' logic processing is peerless and what they can do is mind boggling.

The relationship between the professor and will in the movie reminds me of an amadeus like intepretation of ramanujan and hardy

I'll never understand why there's a Nobel Prize for literature but not maths

This is great to see, some real life Good Will Hunting types, it sort of reinforces one's beliefs in what is possible and inspires one towards great and noble pursuits/ends.

cheers!

this guy has an almost childlike enthusiasm for what he does that's pretty contagious...I've always hated math and I find myself watching a bunch of these videos

The man who knew infinity is the movie made about Ramanujan's life

Brian David Josephson. No question. He posed a question during a lecture, while he was in grad school 21/22 y.o., he solved the problem the day later, then took the PhD a went to study trascendental meditation. Few years later won the nobel prize for the Josephson Effect one of the most profound occurance of spontaneous symmetry breaking occuring when a tiny insulator layer is put in between two superconductors, after a big fight with J. Bardeen, the one an only 2 Physics Nobel Prize Winner.

What interests me about the Will Hunting character is that he is an autodidact.

Fascinating bit of history. Thank you. I recommend that you put an EQ cut at around 300mHz when the voice of the interviewer (chap behind the camera) speaks. This will help eliminate the noticeable hum which abruptly dominates the audio track.

Grigori Perelman is the reverse Will Hunting

I really enjoy the enthusiasm of the host here in this video. Thanks so much for sharing.

and now there's a movie about ramanujan

Bravo to that professor giving George Dantzig credit, as due.

What about James Croll as the inspiration for Will Hunting? While working as a JANITOR at a UNIVERSITY Croll published scientific papers on climate change. The fact that a JANITOR had published these incredibly insightful scientific papers came as a major culture shock to the scientific establishment of Britain, leading Croll into friendships with notable scientists of the day including Charles Darwin and Charles Lyell.

There is a great german book about William Sidis, called "The genius" by Klaus Caesar Zehrer

That shocked professor sounds really funny when James said it, I can really imagine him speaking like that one morning To the student 😂

Ahhh listening to this guy is so entertaining. I feel like I could listen to him talk about anything.

As a math grad student, I disliked how much that movie (and 21 with Kevin Spacey) were based on stereotypes. I believe they even put off students from taking up math, because supposedly math is this subject where only innate capabilies count, hard work can help you, but better not try. Thats just BS

You didn't mention James Croll, who literally was a janitor later given an academic post at the now University of Strathclyde. He was not a mathematician per se, so I understand why you might not have covered him. His theories back in around the 1860s later led to what are called Milankovitch Orbital Cycles and how they affect climate on Earth. Although it was Milankovich's model which proved right when methods were developed to actually quantifiabily test this orbital cycle -> earth climate hypothesis, Croll, in cosmological circles, is quite highly regarded.

excellent video. Gave greater depth to a character I thought I already understood fairly well. I really empathise with the professor in this movie, the jealousy and awe, respect frustration he experiences all at once. You gave a little more nuance. What do you think is driving that belief that maths is a 'young man's game'? is it simply age? or is it something more?

To complete the G-H-Hardy quote on Ramanujan: "He would probably have been a greater mathematician if he had been caught and tamed a little in his youth. He would have discovered more that was new, and that, no doubt, or greater importance. On the other hand he would have been less of a Ramanujan, and more of a European professor and the loss might have been greater than the gain

Please talk about my favorite maths film ever 'A beautiful mind'

I am now in my late adolescence and I love mathematics very much . But it hasn't been always this way . I used to dislike math once because all the math teachers I had was quite boring and they used to punish us if we couldn't solve a problem . And then in ninth grade I came across a book and a tv show about math that made me fall in love with it .

That side comment about no Nobel Prize in biology, lol.

7:10 - He like good will hunting because it portrays mathematicians as human beings and they're not portrayed as nerdy,socially-awkward people. I wish there was such a film for computer geeks too.

Srinivasa Ramanujan is the outstanding example.

welcome... hope you watch more!

the weirdest thing is that this video helped me write my essay

This is the greatest compliment I could've received!

That wallpaper is amazing.

Brady, thanks again for doing these videos!

ramanujan is now another film "the man who saw infinity".

Sidis is the smartest human that ever lived. He may or may not have sworn off mathematics but he worked on many things including developing constitutions [Hesperia], cosmology and was very interested in cable car transfers.

2+2= 22

There is.First you calculate what's in the parentheses,then you do the multiplication and then you do the dividing.According to PEMDAS(Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, and Addition and Subtraction) multiplication should come before division.

I love maths, I hate maths exams.

I think James does a great job of showing that mathematicians are humans. It was him that made me really want to pursue math in my life :)