Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss random and pseudorandom numbers. Randomness will be familiar to anybody who’s bought a lottery ticket or shuffled a pack of cards. But there’s also a phenomenon known as pseudo-randomness –numbers which look random but aren’t. So why are these numbers useful and how can they be generated? Melvyn is joined by Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford; Colva Roney-Dougal, Senior Lecturer in Pure Mathematics at the University of St Andrews; and Timothy Gowers, Royal Society Research Professor in Mathematics at the University of Cambridge.
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In Our Time With Melvyn Bragg: Random and Pseudorandom
Tagged with bbc in our time science mathematics randomness chance numbers
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In Our Time With Melvyn Bragg: Measurement of Time
The history of ideas discussed by Melvyn Bragg and guests including Philosophy, science, literature, religion and the influence these ideas have on us today.
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the measurement of time. Early civilisations used the movements of heavenly bodies to tell the time, then mechanical clocks emerged in Europe in the medieval period. For hundreds of years clocks were inaccurate but now atomic clocks are capable of keeping time to a second in 15 million years. Melvyn Bragg is joined by Kristen Lippincott, Former Director of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich; Jim Bennett, Director of the Museum of the History of Science at the University of Oxford and Jonathan Betts, Senior Curator of Horology at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.
Tagged with bbc in our time time measurement history science horology
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In Our Time With Melvyn Bragg: Game Theory
The history of ideas discussed by Melvyn Bragg and guests including Philosophy, science, literature, religion and the influence these ideas have on us today.
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss game theory, the mathematical study of decision-making. Some of the games studied in game theory have become well known outside academia - they include the Prisoner’s Dilemma, an intriguing scenario popularised in novels and films. Today game theory is seen as an important tool in evolutionary biology, economics, computing and philosophy. Melvyn Bragg is joined by Ian Stewart, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick; Andrew Colman, Professor of Psychology at the University of Leicester and Richard Bradley, Professor of Philosophy at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Tagged with bbc in our time game theory psychology economics politics
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In Our Time: Ada Lovelace
Melvyn Bragg explores the life and achievements of Ada Lovelace, daughter of Byron and prophet of the computer age. With him to discuss the "enchantress of numbers" are Patricia Fara, Fellow of Clare College and an Affiliated Lecturer in the Department of the History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge University; Doron Swade, Visiting Professor in the History of Computing at Portsmouth University and John Fuegi, Research Fellow in Media and Gender Studies at the Universities of Stanford and Maryland.
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In Our Time: Ada Lovelace
Melvyn Bragg explores the life and achievements of Ada Lovelace, daughter of Byron and prophet of the computer age. With him to discuss the "enchantress of numbers" are Patricia Fara, Fellow of Clare College and an Affiliated Lecturer in the Department of the History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge University; Doron Swade, Visiting Professor in the History of Computing at Portsmouth University and John Fuegi, Research Fellow in Media and Gender Studies at the Universities of Stanford and Maryland.
Tagged with in our time ada lovelace computing babbage programming