Jeff Clark's Math in the Movies (Contact)

This movie clip presents the math concept of Prime Numbers. They make a statement and show on their computer screen , " all the prime numbers to 101" Check if you can see if they are correct.

[@iwantafennec9577]

I love that little moment when she says, “I wish Kent were here.” Ellie had no trace of hubris and acted with such integrity. Not an ounce of glory seeking, just wanted her colleague and friend there to assist and support. Juxtaposed with the Tom Skerritt character who is a slimy weasel par excellence, the purity in Ellie’s search for truth is so inspiring.

[@derricklafrance9440]

Just found out his name was Kent Clarke. Sweet

[@TessBaxter]

I loved how Jodie Foster used index cards to get all of the terminology correct. She gave the guys at SETI Mountain View, California an autographed photo from Arecibo before the movie was completed.

[@gluecksdrache2054]

She took a deep dive into science and learnt about the details. 👍 Also the contrast between this scene and the hearing at the Senate is very interesting and shows personal development.

[@SilentKnight43]

There's even more math in the book ending. Ellie's told by the aliens there's a "message" hidden within the digits of Pi. Far downstream in the seemingly random digits they eventually turn into just 0's and 1's - binary. And when rastored in a square block the 0's form a perfect circle. This is said to be "proof" by the creators of the universe that it was created on purpose and by intelligent design. This ending was completely omitted in the movie version.

[@williamzame3708]

Of course, this "proof" is complete nonsense. If the digits in pi are random then every finite pattern will appear eventually.

[@jimbodimbo981]

Nah, if it ends in a double zero it ends for good, as there’s nothing left to divide by, so an impossibility, and that is real maths

[@1st2nd2]

​@@jimbodimbo981 "zeroes and ones" meaning it doesnt ever end.

[@jimbodimbo981]

@@1st2nd2 you can’t get a zero on a division, nor can you have a division that makes a repeat of two different numbers. For example, 10.0 / 5.0 = 2.0, or 2.000000 for ever. No repeat. This is basic maths and provable. Find a division that for me that ends in 0101 for ever…it does not exist…it’s called maths.

[@1st2nd2]

@@jimbodimbo981 dude. Its 0100101110101100011001000 in some strange order. Read the book for the full explanation.

[@Malachor01]

Greatest real-life 'what if' science/first contact movie ever made. Never gets old or boring. Tremendous performance by all actors.

[@Swarm509]

I know this is a movie so things need to move quickly, or appear to, but if I recall in the book Jodi Fosters character spent weeks if not months tracking down every single alternative source it could be. Had other scientists see if they could figure out where it was coming from, and basically make every attempt to assume they were wrong and this wasn't an alien signal. Makes perfect sense with Carl Sagan writing it that he would want to keep that kind of scientific rigor in his story.

[@vikramgogoi3621]

I don't think so. The movie is very close to the book, except for the pulsing. In the book, they were cautious, but they had almost immediately closed it down to Vega.

[@overbank56]

This scene was one of the most exciting scenes in the whole movie

[@EtzEchad]

I agree. I love the science parts of the movie. The political and religious parts were mostly garbage. The book was better, especially the part about Pi in the end. That gave me chills. (I'm not saying what it was to avoid spoilers. Read the book!)

[@jasonchurilla5176]

Agreed! I love the thrill of discovery!

[@GrapeFlavoredAntifreeze]

@@EtzEchad I don’t think those scenes were garbage at all because they perfectly juxtapose the intelligence of the science. It makes the religion of it seem futile, like something WAY bigger than anything we’ve thought of here is going on, and it’s not religious. I think those parts were necessary to parable the human condition in the face of first contact

[@ronsindric4241]

THIS IS WHAT WELL CRAFTED SCIENCE FICTION CINEMA SHOULD BE !!! Too bad this kind of movie is in the minority today :-(

[@danielvalenzuela8814]

Apparently you haven't seen the most recent Avengers movie. 🤷‍♂️

[@danielvalenzuela8814]

@robrs8631 Apparently you haven't heard about "Blue Beetle" which releases today. I've heard nothing but positive reviews about the film.

[@gerrylamb3780]

Brilliant Movie!! Loved it!

[@probro9898]

"Who we gonna call now?" No one thought to say "Ghostbusters"?

[@cf6282]

Such a great movie.

[@DelightLovesMovies]

I love a beautiful film like that.

[@windwhipped5]

Vega is a star that is the median size for the relatively close charted stars..

[@ace942]

They don't need laser blasters or photon torpedoes. They have navigation shields.

[@douglassmith1215]

I just noticed that a lot of the computer software in this scene says "Hadden". See 1:20, 3:10, etc. Maybe this is a hint to the ending where it's suggested that Hadden faked it all to make money off of building the machine.

[@Kharnellius]

But other scientists around the world confirmed the signal and not everyone uses the same software. Also, all you need is a decent enough antenna and tuner to pick up the signal which would be impossible to fake it's origin since the Earth is big and they sky bigger.

[@douglassmith1215]

@@Kharnellius That's a good point. Unless in their world Hadden software is used universally (like a Microsoft kind of situation). It seems like they did need a pretty big professional antenna to detect the signal and Hadden could have been funding all of them.

[@SyriusStarMultimedia]

As a math muppet and a astrophysicist in a dream I once had I tell you I love this movie based on my false belief that everything in the movie is real. I have hated math since before the universe was created. I have seen Contact about 200 times and each time he says, “Not if they use their laser blasters and photon torpedoes.” I laugh and say they should have added them in the movie. I love Jodie Foster.

[@davepowder4020]

What happened in Vega didn't stay in Vega.

[@NorthForkFisherman]

Viva Las Vega!

[@FranckBarfety]

Signals that pass the specified complexity criteria for information.

[@TheMoonchild1969]

When Vegans sent the remedial math equations they were gauging us, trying to determine our level of advancement, conscience and power of reasoning.They wanted to make sure we would be able to construct the transporter. We almost couldn't in fact we hardly figured it out correctly how to test the darn gizmo, but somehow we managed. I don't think aliens will be that generous, but this movie recreated that possible scenario for us to study... ourselves.🌹

[@SyriusStarMultimedia]

But it wasn’t Vegans. The alien said they didn’t know who built the machine. It was already there. The unnamed aliens that met with Jodie used it to contact Earth. Right?

[@Swarm509]

My understanding is that the aliens in the book made the instructions work for exactly our level of technology at the time of book. People would follow the processes and not understand them but get results/materials/products that perfectly worked for the transport device. I think they knew were we were technology wise and knew we would be listening.

[@_ShaDynasty]

that would be so exciting

[@dakkefernet8585]

what do you mean "everbody"? EVEERRRYYBODYYY

[@kingcobrajfsofficial]

The line is "everyone".

[@starguy2718]

Gary Oldman

[@dakkefernet8585]

Typo sorry

[@JMaxfield09]

There's an error here regarding the sequence of primes. By 3:19, the first four prime numbers (2, 3, 5, 7) have been established. The next prime number, 11, starts at 3:20. After a gap, the next number at 3:35 should be 13, and last until 3:49. Unfortunately, there is no gap after 13 beats, nor after what should have been the next 17 beats at 4:08. At 4:11, we cut to a video correspondence with Australia, by which time the signal is spouting out prime #101.

[@williammaddock9179]

You've never done any video editing, have you? ;-)

[@warioman91]

@@williammaddock9179 It's simple continuity checks that at an easy minimum could have kept the sound of it correct even if per se we still visually saw the wave peaks--- either way though there were solutions to this error in production.

[@may_it_please_the_court]

It's a damn movie. Relax dude.

[@timfindlaysamazingvancouve3114]

Advanced ET's communicate through quantum entanglement not pedestrian speed radio waves. It's a cute movie, but ultimately bunk.

[@twistedlot]

Netscape Navigator on screen dates this movie

[@allenvikramchochinov5940]

So does bill Clinton

[@DancingSpiderman]

+Jason McCann waht are all those big boxes they are staring at?

[@Geo408]

Grew up in Sunnyvale, right down the street from Netscape. Small world.

[@scottmatheson3346]

​@@allenvikramchochinov5940 I don't think it's a movie bill was dating ...

[@richardbailey3343]

Yes i love this little moment too and the signal is a mere 156 trillion mls away from us hell its just like poping across the road for a refreshing lolly😅😅😅😅

[@kenfischerjr5219]

As the primer just keeps going forever

[@hoodoo2001]

I pretty much have noticed that the best parts of films since the 70's (estimate) are the beginnings...then they trail off into nonsense.

[@haweater1555]

That goes with the saying, film projects are never really released in a "finished" form, they are more or less "abandoned" .

[@grisslebear]

Drugs.

[@eepmon]

Netscape!!!

[@Cydonius1]

dat skype pre-cursor doe

[@arieswar4770]

WoW!!!

[@DancingSpiderman]

Skip the bullshit and jump ahead to 0:33 . You're Welcome.

[@infinightsky]

1:55 I’m not sure why, but that scene always annoys the shit out of me!

[@ronaldvernon788]

Same here

[@Kharnellius]

Which part?

[@bboymami]

Fibonacci numbers

[@2pogiyou]

Kotyo

[@ariochiv]

EVERYBODY!!!! :D

[@tomburton8239]

“Whatever it is it ain’t local”.... and yet at the end of the film the Inquiry decides it was a local source. If it was that obvious.... PS. It’s a shame this vid can’t even get simple subtitles right.

[@Kharnellius]

The inquiry was a cover up. You do realize that, right? They know it all happened because her video recorder recording 18 HOURS of static. Impossible to do if you claim she only lost signal for a fraction of a second and never left Earth.

[@spirit1366]

I LOVED THIS MOVIE UNTIL I REALIZED "NOTHING OUT THERE" WE'RE ALL ALONE

[@Gorgoil313]

And how did you get this realization?!

[@UNSCPILOT]

No, quite unlikely, Earth is just a mote of dust relative to the mind bending scale of the universe, it's statistically unlikely we're alone and it'd be an aweful waste of space if we were

[@jimherbert007]

@@UNSCPILOT but due to the either the massive distances, the Great Filter, or the Dark Forest it probably means we are effectively alone. Alternative is we are surrounded or in a simulation

[@SilentKnight43]

@@jimherbert007 But that's what makes the concept of warp drive (speed of light) in Star Trek so intriguing and optimistic that someday we just may discover it. Or travel through wormholes. Yes, the distances are massive and seemingly insurmountable by today's technology - but it can be equated to the first explorers who sailed the vast oceans to arrive on other continents. Now we can fly over them in a matter of hours.

[@jeffaitken7287]

Just us and dogs, birds, whales, lobsters, redwoods, roses, horses, beetles, pike, fungi, etc etc all alone together

[@ericlopezvega7312]

pinche amarillo enil y enki y la chava nicole ya se lo van hacer

[@justinl.shults7217]

That guy the glasses is A jerk or doesn't believe in space aliens or want to I mean Elliey just spent the entire day outside trying to find A outerspace signal, As soon as she got an alien 👽 signal from outerspace she brought it back to the station and everything she asks him about about different part of the solar system he doesn't believe it like ("the white sands") no it can't be there or ("Vega") it can't be it 26,00 miles away". The other guy is so happy like her like wow we just made contact with something from outerspace then then the guy with the glasses he just thinks it's one of their own human space crafts giving off that signal that they encountered something

[@Kharnellius]

No, he's a scientist. If you aren't a sceptic, you make a poor scientist. Just about every legit scientist will be a skeptic for a few reasons. Too many false claims made out there...and they don't want their life ruined from making a false claim. So you better get your shit right the first time. It's hard to come back from a major blunder. You need to have people like that who reel things in and make sure you're eliminating every possible alternative explanation.

[@Bullfarts1]

Belch....

[@DancingSpiderman]

+Bullfarts1 I sharted

[@outerrealm]

You screwed up the aspect ratio. Do you even know what it is? It’s math. Duh.