25 Beautiful Math Documentaries to Make Students Love Math

25 Beautiful Math Documentaries to Make Students Love Math

Watching math documentaries can be an inspiring way to learn more about math. From the history of math to new developments, math documentaries open up a world of mathematical knowledge and show how math has been used and developed over time. 


Not only will you discover fascinating topics and pick up valuable insights, but you’ll also get an opportunity to observe math in action by learning from experienced mathematicians. Math documentaries are an excellent way to build a greater understanding of math, providing valuable inspiration for anyone looking for innovative ways of thinking about math.


Math documentaries are one of the best tools to reach quality information. In fact, we watch with great curiosity when we watch the subjects in the documentary that many students will fall asleep to while listening to in class.


That’s why mathematics documentaries have great importance in mathematics education. We need to use mathematics documentaries to show the importance of mathematics, examples from the lives of great mathematicians, and daily-life applications of mathematics.


How to Find Good Math Documentaries to Watch?


The problem is that finding a good math documentary is hard. And when you find a good one like The Great Math Mystery, most of them are not free to watch! You are required to have AmazonNetflix, or Vimeo subscriptions.


But don’t worry! I did a huge search for you and curated over 25 great mathematics documentaries for you! These documentaries are very “interesting” because they present either actual mathematics, mathematicians, or mathematics history.


Below, you will find 25 math documentaries that will make your students or children love mathematics.

Numbers are the rulers of the universe. What if there is a code for life's perfection? A code making the world we see, the "what we are" and the "everything else in the universe"?...

The Story of Maths

Co-produced by the BBC and presented by Oxford professor Marcus du Sautoy, "The Story of Maths" covers such subjects as the invention of zero and the Riemann hypothesis, the contributions of great mathematicians including Pythagoras, Plato, and Euclid, and some of the biggest unsolved problems that confronted math scholars in the 20th century. Also, du Sautoy examines vital mathematical ideas and their influence on today's science, technology, and culture....
Netflix
When France surrendered in 1940, and German soldiers showed up in the Vosgian village of Housseras, an unknown French foot soldier burned his papers and killed himself in a farmer's barn. Four years later, he was identified as "Soldat Doblin, Vincent." He was none other than the mathematician Wolfgang Doeblin, son of the famous German novelist Alfred Döblin ("Berlin Alexanderplatz"), who was forced to flee Nazi Germany with his family in 1933....

A Journey Through the Mathematical Theory of Braids

A Journey Through the Mathematical Theory of Braidsnis divided into four chapters, each of about 15 minutes. The first contains the basic concepts: the formalization of braids, the group structure on the braids' set, and the Artin presentation of the braid group. A braid is now described by a word on a set of letters, the generators....
Hard Problems is a feature documentary about the extraordinarily gifted students who represented the United States in 2006 at the world's toughest math competition—the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). It is the story of six American high school students who competed with 500 others from 90 countries in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The film shows the dedication and perseverance of these remarkably talented students, the rigorous preparation they undertake, their individuality, and the joy they get out of solving challenging problems. Above all,...

Beautiful Young Minds

Beautiful Young Minds was a documentary first shown at the BRITDOC Festival on 26 July 2007. The documentary follows the selection process and training for the U.K. team to compete in the 2006 International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) and the actual event in Slovenia. Many of the young mathematicians featured in the film had autism, which the documentary links to mathematical ability. The team goes on to win numerous medals at the IMO, including four silver and one bronze. It was...

Chaos: A Mathematical Adventure

From Jos Leys, Étienne Ghys and Aurélien Alvarez, the makers of Dimensions, comes CHAOS, a math movie with nine 13-minute chapters. It is a film about dynamical systems, the butterfly effect and chaos theory, intended for a wide audience. CHAOS is available in a large choice of languages and subtitles....
A one-hour biographical documentary, Julia Robinson and Hilbert's Tenth Problem tells the story of an important American mathematician against a background of mathematical ideas. Julia Robinson (1919 – 1985), a pioneer among American women in mathematics, rose to prominence in a field where often she was the only woman. She was the first woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences' mathematical section and the first woman to become president of the American Mathematical Society....

Dimensions

A walk through mathematics! A film for a wide audience! Nine chapters, two hours of maths, that take you gradually up to the fourth dimension. Mathematical vertigo guaranteed!...
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Ali Kaya

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Ali Kaya

This is Ali. Bespectacled and mustachioed father, math blogger, and soccer player. I also do consult for global math and science startups.