Dimensional Videos

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"The Hypercube: Projections and Slicing" by Thomas Banchoff and Charles Strauss, Brown University, was awarded the Prix de la Recherche Fondamentale at the International Congress of Scientific Films in Brussels in 1978, the year it was produced. It was featured in a plenary lecture at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Helsinki in that same year. For many years, the film and then the video were distributed by the International Film Bureau, which as since closed down. It is possible to order a copy of the video by sending $30 plus $2 for shipping and handling to Thomas Banchoff Productions, Inc., P.O. Box 2430, Providence RI 02906-2430.

"Flatland" by Eric Martin and Robert Gardner, Harvard University (1970). This is an animated version of the classic novel of E. A. Abbott using table animation produced at the Carpenter Center for Visual and Fine Arts at Harvard University. The narration is provided by a young British actor, recently arrived from England, not very well known (at that time). His name is Dudley Moore. You can order a copy of the video from the Film Study Center.

"Seeing is Believing" is the first hour-long video from "Life by the Numbers", WQED Pittsburgh, (1996). Narrated by Danny Glover. This video includes segments on Linda Dalrymple Henderson, George Francis and Donna Cox, Thomas Banchoff, and Tony Robbin. It can be ordered through WQED, 4802 5th Avenue, Pittsburgh PA 15213 (412-622-1307).

"Dimensions" by Michele Emmer, Universita di Roma (1982). The original film version of this video includes interviews with Alexander Dewdney, David and Harriet Brisson, Linda Dalrymple Henderson, and Thomas Banchoff. To order a copy, please contact the producer.

An on-line video, with slides, of Rudolf Rucker's 1999 talk at Dartmouth College, "The 4th Dimension in Mathematics and Science Fiction".

"The Shape of Space" was created by Jeff Weeks and collaborators at the Geometry Center in 1995. This is a companion to his book of the same title; it is accessable to a high-school audience and presents different methods of thinking about how to understand the shape of the universe.

Another video that treats geometric subjects in different dimensions is "Not Knot". It can be ordered from the publisher, A. K. Peters, it describes how knot complements are being used to understand three-dimensional shapes in four dimensions.

The same publisher distributes the Geometry Center film "Outside In" that introduces the viewer to a process of turning a sphere inside out without introducing tears or sharp bends, called a sphere eversion. Eversions have been studied since the 1950's, and often are viewed as projections of actions in four dimensions.

Another video on sphere eversions is "The optiverse" by John Sullivan, George Francis and Stuart Levy. The 6-minute film is available on line at the site above, along with other materials related to the video. John Sullivan also has other videos on line, as well as some interesting still images of soap-bubble surfaces.

"Video Math Festival" by Konrad Polthier and Hans-Christian Hege (eds), Springer-Verlag (1998) is a collection of videos from the juried mathematical video competition at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Berlin.