Three Thrilling Math Adventures For Your To-Do List

Have you ever thought that Math could take your breath away? Try these thrilling math adventures:

“Sum of All Thrills” Epcot ride

Imagine designing your own roller coaster, bobsled or jet ride and then riding in it. This is what new Epcot ride “Sum of all Thrills” is all about. It is build by the defense contractor Raytheon that is trying to figure out some creative ways of interesting kids in math and science and growing new generation of local innovators. Raytheon also has an interesting MathMovesU website for middle school kids where they can play cool math games. When you do go to visit Epcot, check out the Marrakesh Restaurant. I visited 10 years ago but still remember the taste of the Beef Brewat Rolls that they served. And please, post a comment below about the rolls and the ride if you survive your creation.

A Puzzle Thriller: “Fermat's Room”

“Fermat's Room” is a new well-rated Spanish movie recently released in US on DVD. Here is what Netflix reviewers tell us about it: Psychological Mystery/Thriller that gets off to a very sure-footed start and seemed to hold out the promise of a very fast-paced film. Drawn together by a mysterious host, four mathematicians wind up locked in a shrinking room and bombarded by a series of tricky riddles. To avoid horrific deaths, the frantic scholars must quickly figure out the link that unites them all. A slow and steady ending ties everything up in a satisfying end.
I have this movie lurking to me from the Netflix envelope and promise to share my opinion below as soon as I'll watch it.

Math Tour of Manhattan

Mathematician Glen Whitney is occasionally giving math tours of Manhattan in an attempt to bring publicity to a Math Museum (MathFactory) he is planning to create in the city There are movie location tours, fashion tours, shopping tours, culinary tours. Why not a math tour? Even if you are an island native, you may enjoy discovering why fire hydrants have pentagonal lug nuts, what is the optimal queuing strategy for efficient shopping or how to compute the shortest distance to get anywhere in the city. Nick Paumgarten wrote more about the tour in this New Yorker article. But beware, you may not like Glen's opinion about lottery being a tax on mathematically illiterate. Whatever your interests are, this tour will definitely give you a fresh perspective on some familiar things. And this is exactly the stimulation we all need to start thinking outside of our comfort zone and come up with some fantastic ideas of our own. Perhaps we could finally figure out how to make a school pick-up routine much more efficient.


Have more of your own math thrills to ad? Post them in the comments below or email me.