Mathematical Videos

In recent years a variety of animated and narrated Mathematics has been produced as film or video. The topics cover all aspects of Mathematics and the techniques include all cinematic formats such as filmed presentations, talks and performances, reportages and especially computer animations.

MESH - A journey through discrete geometry is a video on polyhedral meshes and their role in geometry, numerics and computer graphics.

For schools, universities, and your private collection of animated Mathematics. With stunning graphics and complementary interactive add-on material. The DVD is published by Springer.

The MESH-DVD is available in German (2009) and English (2006).

The MathFilm Festival 2008 collection shows mathematical films and video in nore than 100 cities in Germany during the Year of Mathematics 2008. The DVD of the festival contains 16 awarded short videos, the winners of the international MathFilm Festival competition. The DVD is published by Springer.

The MathFilm Festival 2008-DVD is available in German and English (2008).

The VideoMath Festival at ICM'98 collection is published Springer Verlag and contains a set of juried mathematical short videos presented at ICM'98, the International Congress of Mathematicians in Berlin. The videos are winners of a worldwide competition and the mathematical themes include problems in topology and geometry and their recent solutions, visualizations of classical ideas of Archimedes, Eratosthenes, Pythagoras, and Fibonacci, topics in high school mathematics, and applications of modern numerical methods to real world simulations. Length 76 min. (1998)

The VideoMath-DVD is available in English (2005).

Touching Soap Films is a popular scientific video on minimal surfaces and soap films. All animations are computer generated. The DVD and English VHS edition is distributed by Springer Verlag, and the German VHS edition Palast der Seifenhäute is available through Springer, Bild der Wissenschaft and Komplett-Media. Length 41 min.

In 2000, the Portuguese version was produced by CMAF/University of Lisbon and distributed to all schools in Portugal.

The video Geodesics and Waves documents recent work on discrete geodesics and their application to numerical problems on curved surfaces and visualization algorithms.

It premiered at Siggraph'97 Electronic Theater,  received the Science Award of the Multimedia Grand Prix (Nicograph'97) in Japan, and was awarded at other festivals. Length 4:50 min. (1997)

Springer VideoMATH

Math Video Series by Springer Verlag.

The first films include "Touching Soap Films" by Andreas Arnez, Konrad Polthier, Martin Steffens and Christian Teitzel; "N is A Number - A Portrait of Paul Erdös" by George Paul Csicsery; "Arabesques and Geometry" by Antonio F. Costa; and "The New Shepherd's Lamp" by Francois Tisseyre, Claire Weingarten, and Jean-Pierre Bourguignon.

© 1996-2013 Last modified: 23.04.2013 --- Konrad Polthier --- Freie Universität Berlin, Germany