Got Math?

I am somewhat embarrassed to mention that after a 3 year TV watching hiatus I've been sucked back in to prime time TV because of the Internet. It started with Moonlight, a show with some of the same writers as Angel. It's about a vampire, with a conscious, working as a private detective. It's more drama, than comedy, which I appreciate and best of all, I've been able to watch it on the computer at my convenience.

The show after Moonlight, is NUMB3RS. I kept seeing the advertisements but could not figure out what it was about. So I watched one. This almost seems like a Department of Education sponsored show. It's about an FBI team, where the team leader is related to a math professor. The math professor, and his geeky friends, use mathematics to solve crimes, generally murders. It's smart and funny. More importantly, it introduces the watcher to complex mathematical concepts and theorems, making them fun and sexy. For example, last week's episode (Primacy) used mathematical algorithms to discern which players in a massively multiplayer online game were the likely perpetrators of a murder. 

Texas Instruments has teamed with NUMB3RS to create lesson plans for high school students based on the TV show. Talk about making math sexy. I love it. The website is called We All Use Math Every Day. Teachers can download lesson plans based around the mathematical theorems shown in each episode.