I asked my department head if we had a budget for DVDs, so that we could start creating a small DVD library for us to use (in class, in mathclub). She said yes, and put me in charge of finding DVDs. I’ve ordered a bunch, but tonight, I came across 0ne more that I want so dearly that I wrote an email pleading to case get the $35 to purchase it!

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Julia Robinson and Hilbert’s Tenth Problem

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Other DVDs that we’ve ordered and that I’m excited about include:

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Hard Problems (two youtube clips from the movie: clip 1, clip 2)

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Chaos (a series of  24 lectures, 30 minutes each, from the Teaching Company)

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N is a Number: A Portrait of Paul Erdos (on youtube: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6)

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The Elegant Universe (on String Theory)

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I also got the old classics: Stand and Deliver, Good Will Hunting, and A Beautiful Mind.

And I will also soon be downloading this movie on various Dimensions.

I wish that NOVA’s The Proof (about Andrew Wiles solving Fermat’s Last Theorem) was out on DVD, but alas, no such luck. It is on VHS and on youtube (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5).

I haven’t watched Dangerous Knowledge — a documentary on Cantor, Boltzmann, Godel, and Turing — yet (I don’t like the trope of mathematician as crazed genius), but it’s on youtube here: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, and part 9 and on Google Video here.

And finally, I wanted to show my Algebra II class something about fractals tomorrow, since we introduced complex numbers today. I didn’t do much searching, but I did find Arthur C. Clark’s movie on Fractals, which — sans the annoyingly trippy music — doesn’t seem too bad: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4. It isn’t very up-to-date, but it does have a lot of famous people talking about fractals.

Any more recommendations? Throw ’em in the comments below.