Person of Interest: 2Πr
December 11, 2024 11:15 AM - Season 2, Episode 11 - Subscribe
Finch goes undercover as a high school substitute teacher to protect a teen genius POI as Carter undertakes a dangerous mission to stop the FBI from determining that an imprisoned Reese is the "Man In a Suit."
July 20, 2010
The machine monitors a subway train operator reporting an accident involving a child struck by his train. He speculated that the child may have been pushed onto the tracks.
At Riker's Island, the FBI collects DNA samples from Reese and the three other men that they captured, Brian Kelly, Charles Macavoy and Wayne Packer. Carter and Agent Nicholas Donnelly watch and Donnelly assures the warden that one of the men is the most dangerous criminal he's ever pursued. He plans to hold them for 72 hours without filing charges. Once the warden leaves, Donnelly assures Carter that they have enough fingerprints and DNA evidence, some provided by Carter, to pick out the man in the suit.
Reese is taken to a cell. Once he's alone, he hears a cell phone buzzing from beneath the bunk. It's Finch, who has arranged to place it there and assures his friend that he'll get him out. He has preparations for just such a contingency and promises Reese that he'll be out in 72 hours. When Reese wonders what happens if they get another number, Finch tells him that they already have one and that he'll deal with it. Once he hangs up, he goes to a high school classroom where he's working as a substitute teacher.
When one of the students tells him that they're doing busywork as punishment, Finch insists that math isn't a punishment. He challenges one of the students, Caleb Phipps, who is also the Machine's latest number, to try and come up with a formula to make the daunting assignment easier. Caleb insists that he isn't interested but before Finch can start, the bell rings. As the students leave, Caleb tosses a piece of paper in the garbage.
Finch calls Fusco after forwarding him the student lists and asks for everything he has on Caleb. Fusco reports a couple of run-ins with the NYPD but nothing major. Finch admits that Caleb's grades are average, but examines the discarded piece of paper with he is surprised to discover contains the proper formula on it. Fusco reports that Caleb had an older brother, Ryan, who died in a subway accident two years ago while drunk. Caleb now lives alone with his mother.
Meanwhile, Finch follows Caleb and tries to clone his phone without success, and in the process he notices drug deals taking place in the halls. As Finch sends him photos of the two dealers, Fusco warns him to be careful and starts pulling records.
Outside, Finch finds Carter waiting for him.Carter tells Finch that she'll handle the FBI's investigation into Reese but she needs a couple of things from him.
Fusco calls Finch while he hacks the Principal's computer. Fusco tells him that Caleb was the only witness to Ryan's death. However, the transit cop rescinded the call to Dispatch for backup. While Fusco promises to check out Caleb's home life, Finch checks Caleb's test score records and discovers that he deliberately answered only 50% of the questions correctly. Fusco wonders why he'd want to hide the fact that he's a genius.
Finch writes out the value of pi on the blackboard. When one student asks what good knowing it will do, he talks about how pi contains every number in existence, and conversely every word that exists in every possible combination. Finch concludes by saying that what they do with those possibilities are up to them, leaving the students stunned.
Fusco goes to see Caleb's mother Lori claiming to be investigating a string of robberies. As Fusco plants a webcam, Lori apologizes because she's running late and clearly has the shakes (symptom of alcoholic withdrawal). Fusco calls Finch to report what he saw as well as the names of the two dealers, Diego Velasquez and Ronnie Samms. They're working for an up-and-comer that Narcotics hasn't been able to identify. He also confides in Finch that Lori is a barely functional alcoholic.
Caleb goes down the stairs past Diego and Ronnie, who are dealing E to a freshman. They tell him not to say anything, but Caleb turns around and tells them to deal in the locker room because the kid will panic. The two dealers start to shove Caleb around but Finch intervenes and they quickly leave. Caleb angrily tells Finch that he doesn't need his help and walks away. Finch notices that he's dropped a piece of paper with computer code written on it.
Beckner is giving a lecture about hacking to his class, including Caleb. Finch hacks the webcam in the room and listens as Caleb defends hackers. Beckner talks about a hacker who got into the ARPANET and opened it up to the world without ever getting caught.
Fusco calls Finch, who informs the detective that Caleb has been coding a program in longhand at home and then taking it to school to enter into the computer because he does not have his own computer at home. Finch admits that Caleb's work could be groundbreaking and tells Fusco to find out more about Ronnie and Diego.
Carter calls and tells Finch that she got his package but will need the right specs. Finch sends them to her, and she goes to a nightclub in a dress. Carter ends up chatting with a. man. Later Carter leaves the club hi, and they get into his car. Suddenly he passes out from the drug she slipped him and Carter swabs the inside of his cheek for a DNA sample.
Fusco calls to tell Finch that he's been following the payoff money halfway across town to a PO Box in Crown Heights. As they talk, Finch spots Fusco nearby and they realize that Caleb is the mystery drug lord they've been looking for.
Finch goes outside the school and meets up with Fusco. They tail Caleb. He goes to an alleyway to meet with his supplier, Roman, and finds him lying on the ground. Three thugs emerge and dump the drugs out. Their leader, Lorenzo, asks Caleb why he's dealing in his neighborhood. Fusco and Finch see what's happening and Finch gets out of the car. Meanwhile, Lorenzo tells Caleb that he can leave town unharmed if he pays back everything he made from his customers by 8 P.M. the next night. Fusco and Finch prepare to move in but Lorenzo decides to let Caleb off with a warning.
Fusco has the transcripts from the night of Ryan's death. They show that Caleb initially reported that Ryan was in a fight with two kids, but then retracted his story and claimed it was an accident. Fusco figures that the two kids were Diego and Ronnie, and Caleb is manipulating them into running drugs for him without their knowing it. Meanwhile, Finch confirms that Beckner is hacking into Caleb's computer at school and accessing the code he is writing. The teacher calls a man named Howard and says that he'll be impressed with what he has. Upon hearing that, Finch tells Fusco to keep an eye on Caleb while he follows Beckner.
Finch follows Beckner to a restaurant where he meets with Howard and listens in as the teacher shows him Caleb's programming. It's a ground breaking compression algorithm and Beckner claims that it's his. He wants Howard to have his firm invest in it, but Howard doesn't believe he has the talent to write that kind of algorithm. Beckner bluffs it out and assures Howard that no one else knows about it and Howard assures him that he can get the money.
Fusco calls to tell Finch that he's going to meet with Andrew Murphy, the transit cop who reported the accident involving Caleb's brother. Finch discovers that Caleb is moving money around to set up a trust fund benefiting his mother. Beckner texts Caleb to meet with him at 8 that night, the same time that Lorenzo wanted Caleb to deliver the drug money. Fusco suggests that they let Caleb fend for himself and concentrate on getting Reese out of prison, but Finch assures him that he already has someone on it.
That night, Carter beaks into the FBI lab and switches out Reese's DNA with the sample she took from the man from the bar.
Finch calls Fusco and says that he'll need his help since they don't know which appointment Caleb will keep. Fusco says that he'll be there and then talks with Murphy. He accuses him of not telling the whole story and Murphy explains that Caleb lied when he said there were two other kids. Caleb and Ryan had been drinking and dared each other to cross the tracks. Ryan lost and Murphy admits that he doesn't know which boy got the better deal. He told Caleb that he'd write it off as an accident and admits to Fusco that some things can't be fixed.
Finch admits that he lost Caleb when he got on a city bus and all they can do is stake out Beckner and Lorenzo. Fusco goes to the alleyway where Lorenzo met Caleb earlier. When Caleb doesn't show, Lorenzo angrily tells his men to find him. Fusco calls and tells Finch to find Caleb while he deals with Lorenzo. Finch confirms that Caleb isn't at the school but runs into Beckner. When Finch confronts him about what he's doing, Beckner explains that Caleb approached him about his work and asked for some money up front from Beckner to make a trip. The student didn't want any credit but Beckner has set up the whole deal giving Caleb full credit. He claimed it was his own idea to Howard to raise capital but is giving all of the money from the algorithm, named 17-6-21, to Lori's trust fund. Caleb said that 17-6-21 was a dedication, and Finch realizes what it means and that Caleb won't live to see the money.
Caleb sits in the subway station looking at a photo of his family. Finch sits down next to him and starts talking about taking chances and making mistakes. Caleb isn't interested, but Finch says that the mistakes they make in life are part of who they are and there's no moving beyond them. He's realized that 17 years, 6 months, and 21 days is how old Ryan was when he died... and how old Caleb is now when he's chosen to end his life. Finch suggests that they are both connected because they're reckless people. Caleb figures that he'll just keep breaking things over and over and that he should save people the grief. Finch insists that the world is better off with both of them in it, and tells Caleb that he knows that leaving doesn't make it easier on anyone.
Fusco enters the station as the subway train comes down the tracks. Caleb silently cries while he looks at the train as it goes by... and stays in his seat. Finch puts a hand on the boy's shoulder.
Later, Donnelly receives a report that the DNA they have doesn't match any of the four men they have in custody. He figures that someone got to the DNA samples and orders them sent to Quantico for further examination. Donnelly also tells his aide to get him Carter.
Caleb is arriving at school and finds Finch waiting for him. He thanks Finch for his help, and Finch talks about how a kid with a homemade computer turned the ARPANET inside out during the Cold War. He advises Caleb to keep his code close and choose his friends wisely. He gives him a printout of pi to a value of 3,000 and Finch tells Caleb that his number is in there somewhere and Caleb will figure it out eventually. As Finch walks away, Caleb asks how he knew that the ARPANET hacker had a homemade computer and Finch says that he must have heard it somewhere leaving Caleb wondering.
The warden informs Reese that he will soon be released but suddenly Donnelly shows up and says that all four of his captives have been classified as unlawful combatants and will now be held indefinitely. Reese is returned to his cell while Donnelly turns to Carter and says that there are moles in the FBI and she's the only person he can trust. Donnelly wants her to interrogate all four men starting with Reese.
Points of Interest
Finch uses the infinite value of pi as a metaphor for infinite possibility open to each student, depending upon what they choose to do with that knowledge.
Chris Beckner, the computer science teacher, describes ARPANET, the first computer network, to his students. Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was funded by the U.S. Department of Defense to connect universities and research laboratories engaged in defense-related projects. After several attempts to link various nodes, ARPANET went online in 1969 with a transmission from the University of California, Los Angeles to three other sites [Stanford Research Institute's Augmentation Research Center, the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of Utah]. Although ARPANET was shut down in 1990 [formally decommissioned February 28, 1990], it is widely regarded as the birthplace of the modern internet.
Finch is appalled by the idea that mathematics is used as punishment. From a pedagogical point of view, he has reason to be appalled; it is well established in the field of education that using academic skills as punishment, such as when teachers have children write sentences or do pointless calculations, has little effect on behavior, but increases a student's dislike of the subject matter.
The school principal chastises Finch for telling the students to find a way around the calculation assigned as a punishment. However the formula that quickly solves the problem was found by mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss at school after his professor had given his class the same problem as punishment.
A picture of Carl Friedrich Gauss, the German mathematician Finch discusses, is hanging at the upper left hand corner of the classroom. Gauss's work influenced numerous fields of mathematics, including number theory, algebra and statistics.
As an example of Finch's theory of Pi, the sequence 09-11-01 is present in the first 10,000 digits of pi.
Finch's alias, "Mr. Swift", is another bird name. A Swift is a medium-sized aerial bird.
This episode is the first during which Finch was forced to stop a violent crime from occurring without Reese's help. It is also the first episode without any scenes of or in the Library.
July 20, 2010
The machine monitors a subway train operator reporting an accident involving a child struck by his train. He speculated that the child may have been pushed onto the tracks.
At Riker's Island, the FBI collects DNA samples from Reese and the three other men that they captured, Brian Kelly, Charles Macavoy and Wayne Packer. Carter and Agent Nicholas Donnelly watch and Donnelly assures the warden that one of the men is the most dangerous criminal he's ever pursued. He plans to hold them for 72 hours without filing charges. Once the warden leaves, Donnelly assures Carter that they have enough fingerprints and DNA evidence, some provided by Carter, to pick out the man in the suit.
Reese is taken to a cell. Once he's alone, he hears a cell phone buzzing from beneath the bunk. It's Finch, who has arranged to place it there and assures his friend that he'll get him out. He has preparations for just such a contingency and promises Reese that he'll be out in 72 hours. When Reese wonders what happens if they get another number, Finch tells him that they already have one and that he'll deal with it. Once he hangs up, he goes to a high school classroom where he's working as a substitute teacher.
When one of the students tells him that they're doing busywork as punishment, Finch insists that math isn't a punishment. He challenges one of the students, Caleb Phipps, who is also the Machine's latest number, to try and come up with a formula to make the daunting assignment easier. Caleb insists that he isn't interested but before Finch can start, the bell rings. As the students leave, Caleb tosses a piece of paper in the garbage.
Finch calls Fusco after forwarding him the student lists and asks for everything he has on Caleb. Fusco reports a couple of run-ins with the NYPD but nothing major. Finch admits that Caleb's grades are average, but examines the discarded piece of paper with he is surprised to discover contains the proper formula on it. Fusco reports that Caleb had an older brother, Ryan, who died in a subway accident two years ago while drunk. Caleb now lives alone with his mother.
Meanwhile, Finch follows Caleb and tries to clone his phone without success, and in the process he notices drug deals taking place in the halls. As Finch sends him photos of the two dealers, Fusco warns him to be careful and starts pulling records.
Outside, Finch finds Carter waiting for him.Carter tells Finch that she'll handle the FBI's investigation into Reese but she needs a couple of things from him.
Fusco calls Finch while he hacks the Principal's computer. Fusco tells him that Caleb was the only witness to Ryan's death. However, the transit cop rescinded the call to Dispatch for backup. While Fusco promises to check out Caleb's home life, Finch checks Caleb's test score records and discovers that he deliberately answered only 50% of the questions correctly. Fusco wonders why he'd want to hide the fact that he's a genius.
Finch writes out the value of pi on the blackboard. When one student asks what good knowing it will do, he talks about how pi contains every number in existence, and conversely every word that exists in every possible combination. Finch concludes by saying that what they do with those possibilities are up to them, leaving the students stunned.
Fusco goes to see Caleb's mother Lori claiming to be investigating a string of robberies. As Fusco plants a webcam, Lori apologizes because she's running late and clearly has the shakes (symptom of alcoholic withdrawal). Fusco calls Finch to report what he saw as well as the names of the two dealers, Diego Velasquez and Ronnie Samms. They're working for an up-and-comer that Narcotics hasn't been able to identify. He also confides in Finch that Lori is a barely functional alcoholic.
Caleb goes down the stairs past Diego and Ronnie, who are dealing E to a freshman. They tell him not to say anything, but Caleb turns around and tells them to deal in the locker room because the kid will panic. The two dealers start to shove Caleb around but Finch intervenes and they quickly leave. Caleb angrily tells Finch that he doesn't need his help and walks away. Finch notices that he's dropped a piece of paper with computer code written on it.
Beckner is giving a lecture about hacking to his class, including Caleb. Finch hacks the webcam in the room and listens as Caleb defends hackers. Beckner talks about a hacker who got into the ARPANET and opened it up to the world without ever getting caught.
Fusco calls Finch, who informs the detective that Caleb has been coding a program in longhand at home and then taking it to school to enter into the computer because he does not have his own computer at home. Finch admits that Caleb's work could be groundbreaking and tells Fusco to find out more about Ronnie and Diego.
Carter calls and tells Finch that she got his package but will need the right specs. Finch sends them to her, and she goes to a nightclub in a dress. Carter ends up chatting with a. man. Later Carter leaves the club hi, and they get into his car. Suddenly he passes out from the drug she slipped him and Carter swabs the inside of his cheek for a DNA sample.
Fusco calls to tell Finch that he's been following the payoff money halfway across town to a PO Box in Crown Heights. As they talk, Finch spots Fusco nearby and they realize that Caleb is the mystery drug lord they've been looking for.
Finch goes outside the school and meets up with Fusco. They tail Caleb. He goes to an alleyway to meet with his supplier, Roman, and finds him lying on the ground. Three thugs emerge and dump the drugs out. Their leader, Lorenzo, asks Caleb why he's dealing in his neighborhood. Fusco and Finch see what's happening and Finch gets out of the car. Meanwhile, Lorenzo tells Caleb that he can leave town unharmed if he pays back everything he made from his customers by 8 P.M. the next night. Fusco and Finch prepare to move in but Lorenzo decides to let Caleb off with a warning.
Fusco has the transcripts from the night of Ryan's death. They show that Caleb initially reported that Ryan was in a fight with two kids, but then retracted his story and claimed it was an accident. Fusco figures that the two kids were Diego and Ronnie, and Caleb is manipulating them into running drugs for him without their knowing it. Meanwhile, Finch confirms that Beckner is hacking into Caleb's computer at school and accessing the code he is writing. The teacher calls a man named Howard and says that he'll be impressed with what he has. Upon hearing that, Finch tells Fusco to keep an eye on Caleb while he follows Beckner.
Finch follows Beckner to a restaurant where he meets with Howard and listens in as the teacher shows him Caleb's programming. It's a ground breaking compression algorithm and Beckner claims that it's his. He wants Howard to have his firm invest in it, but Howard doesn't believe he has the talent to write that kind of algorithm. Beckner bluffs it out and assures Howard that no one else knows about it and Howard assures him that he can get the money.
Fusco calls to tell Finch that he's going to meet with Andrew Murphy, the transit cop who reported the accident involving Caleb's brother. Finch discovers that Caleb is moving money around to set up a trust fund benefiting his mother. Beckner texts Caleb to meet with him at 8 that night, the same time that Lorenzo wanted Caleb to deliver the drug money. Fusco suggests that they let Caleb fend for himself and concentrate on getting Reese out of prison, but Finch assures him that he already has someone on it.
That night, Carter beaks into the FBI lab and switches out Reese's DNA with the sample she took from the man from the bar.
Finch calls Fusco and says that he'll need his help since they don't know which appointment Caleb will keep. Fusco says that he'll be there and then talks with Murphy. He accuses him of not telling the whole story and Murphy explains that Caleb lied when he said there were two other kids. Caleb and Ryan had been drinking and dared each other to cross the tracks. Ryan lost and Murphy admits that he doesn't know which boy got the better deal. He told Caleb that he'd write it off as an accident and admits to Fusco that some things can't be fixed.
Finch admits that he lost Caleb when he got on a city bus and all they can do is stake out Beckner and Lorenzo. Fusco goes to the alleyway where Lorenzo met Caleb earlier. When Caleb doesn't show, Lorenzo angrily tells his men to find him. Fusco calls and tells Finch to find Caleb while he deals with Lorenzo. Finch confirms that Caleb isn't at the school but runs into Beckner. When Finch confronts him about what he's doing, Beckner explains that Caleb approached him about his work and asked for some money up front from Beckner to make a trip. The student didn't want any credit but Beckner has set up the whole deal giving Caleb full credit. He claimed it was his own idea to Howard to raise capital but is giving all of the money from the algorithm, named 17-6-21, to Lori's trust fund. Caleb said that 17-6-21 was a dedication, and Finch realizes what it means and that Caleb won't live to see the money.
Caleb sits in the subway station looking at a photo of his family. Finch sits down next to him and starts talking about taking chances and making mistakes. Caleb isn't interested, but Finch says that the mistakes they make in life are part of who they are and there's no moving beyond them. He's realized that 17 years, 6 months, and 21 days is how old Ryan was when he died... and how old Caleb is now when he's chosen to end his life. Finch suggests that they are both connected because they're reckless people. Caleb figures that he'll just keep breaking things over and over and that he should save people the grief. Finch insists that the world is better off with both of them in it, and tells Caleb that he knows that leaving doesn't make it easier on anyone.
Fusco enters the station as the subway train comes down the tracks. Caleb silently cries while he looks at the train as it goes by... and stays in his seat. Finch puts a hand on the boy's shoulder.
Later, Donnelly receives a report that the DNA they have doesn't match any of the four men they have in custody. He figures that someone got to the DNA samples and orders them sent to Quantico for further examination. Donnelly also tells his aide to get him Carter.
Caleb is arriving at school and finds Finch waiting for him. He thanks Finch for his help, and Finch talks about how a kid with a homemade computer turned the ARPANET inside out during the Cold War. He advises Caleb to keep his code close and choose his friends wisely. He gives him a printout of pi to a value of 3,000 and Finch tells Caleb that his number is in there somewhere and Caleb will figure it out eventually. As Finch walks away, Caleb asks how he knew that the ARPANET hacker had a homemade computer and Finch says that he must have heard it somewhere leaving Caleb wondering.
The warden informs Reese that he will soon be released but suddenly Donnelly shows up and says that all four of his captives have been classified as unlawful combatants and will now be held indefinitely. Reese is returned to his cell while Donnelly turns to Carter and says that there are moles in the FBI and she's the only person he can trust. Donnelly wants her to interrogate all four men starting with Reese.
Points of Interest
Finch uses the infinite value of pi as a metaphor for infinite possibility open to each student, depending upon what they choose to do with that knowledge.
Chris Beckner, the computer science teacher, describes ARPANET, the first computer network, to his students. Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was funded by the U.S. Department of Defense to connect universities and research laboratories engaged in defense-related projects. After several attempts to link various nodes, ARPANET went online in 1969 with a transmission from the University of California, Los Angeles to three other sites [Stanford Research Institute's Augmentation Research Center, the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of Utah]. Although ARPANET was shut down in 1990 [formally decommissioned February 28, 1990], it is widely regarded as the birthplace of the modern internet.
Finch is appalled by the idea that mathematics is used as punishment. From a pedagogical point of view, he has reason to be appalled; it is well established in the field of education that using academic skills as punishment, such as when teachers have children write sentences or do pointless calculations, has little effect on behavior, but increases a student's dislike of the subject matter.
The school principal chastises Finch for telling the students to find a way around the calculation assigned as a punishment. However the formula that quickly solves the problem was found by mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss at school after his professor had given his class the same problem as punishment.
A picture of Carl Friedrich Gauss, the German mathematician Finch discusses, is hanging at the upper left hand corner of the classroom. Gauss's work influenced numerous fields of mathematics, including number theory, algebra and statistics.
As an example of Finch's theory of Pi, the sequence 09-11-01 is present in the first 10,000 digits of pi.
Finch's alias, "Mr. Swift", is another bird name. A Swift is a medium-sized aerial bird.
This episode is the first during which Finch was forced to stop a violent crime from occurring without Reese's help. It is also the first episode without any scenes of or in the Library.
I had trouble pulling it off and just went for "n" apparently mistakenly thinking that would be ok. I can contact a mod tomorrow to see about fixing my mistakes AGAIN tomorrow, but I am not doing it tonight. Yeah, not happening tonight.
posted by miss-lapin at 5:30 PM on December 11
posted by miss-lapin at 5:30 PM on December 11
Hope the move and everything is going ok
2Πr
posted by porpoise at 9:11 PM on December 11 [1 favorite]
2Πr
posted by porpoise at 9:11 PM on December 11 [1 favorite]
Thanks. The move isn't happening until next month. Right now I'm in the middle of the buying process, starting to pack things, and dealing with a few other very serious issues. It's not been a good year. I'll let a mod know to fix the title tomorrow.
posted by miss-lapin at 9:46 PM on December 11 [1 favorite]
posted by miss-lapin at 9:46 PM on December 11 [1 favorite]
MATH NERD TIME
Fun fact: I can never remember what the sum of the numbers from 1 to 100 is but there's an easy way to figure it out in your head. Imagine if you took each number from 1-49 and paired it with a number from the other end to make 100: 1 + 99, 2 + 98, 3 + 97, and so on. The last step would be 49 + 51. So that's 49 hundreds, plus the 50 in the middle that didn't get included, plus the 100 at the end. 4900 + 50 + 100 = 5,050.
This is the trick Carl Friedrich Gauss did in elementary school, the show didn't explain it very well because they skipped to the formula he derived from that.
(His version used pairs adding up to 101, i.e. 1 + 100, 2 + 99, and so on. I used pairs adding up to 100 to make it easier to multiply by 49 in my head.)
COMPUTER NERD TIME
The story of a mysterious ARPANET hacker isn't real but they mentioned Kevin Mitnick who is real.
Also I liked their idea of a compression algorithm being an earth-shattering discovery, there have been a couple of those (i.e. LZW) that really have made huge differences to how technology progressed.
This episode resonated with me because I taught myself programming in the late 80s and spent a lot of time writing code on paper or typing it on my Dad's manual typewriter because I didn't have access to a computer.
I completely failed to revolutionize the Internet or invent social networking though.
posted by mmoncur at 11:16 PM on December 11 [3 favorites]
Fun fact: I can never remember what the sum of the numbers from 1 to 100 is but there's an easy way to figure it out in your head. Imagine if you took each number from 1-49 and paired it with a number from the other end to make 100: 1 + 99, 2 + 98, 3 + 97, and so on. The last step would be 49 + 51. So that's 49 hundreds, plus the 50 in the middle that didn't get included, plus the 100 at the end. 4900 + 50 + 100 = 5,050.
This is the trick Carl Friedrich Gauss did in elementary school, the show didn't explain it very well because they skipped to the formula he derived from that.
(His version used pairs adding up to 101, i.e. 1 + 100, 2 + 99, and so on. I used pairs adding up to 100 to make it easier to multiply by 49 in my head.)
COMPUTER NERD TIME
The story of a mysterious ARPANET hacker isn't real but they mentioned Kevin Mitnick who is real.
Also I liked their idea of a compression algorithm being an earth-shattering discovery, there have been a couple of those (i.e. LZW) that really have made huge differences to how technology progressed.
This episode resonated with me because I taught myself programming in the late 80s and spent a lot of time writing code on paper or typing it on my Dad's manual typewriter because I didn't have access to a computer.
I completely failed to revolutionize the Internet or invent social networking though.
posted by mmoncur at 11:16 PM on December 11 [3 favorites]
I have a very soft spot in my heart for this episode because of the pi speech. And the triangular number formula.
As an aside, I'd somehow ended up with the impression once upon a time that Gauss originated the triangular number formula as a youth. I was surprised to spot it (as you do) in an article by Leonhard Euler on a method for solving particular diophantine equations (It's under Exemplum 1 on page 12 where he derives a formula for triangular numbers that are also squares) published the year after Gauss was born, and common enough knowledge that Euler felt no need to justify it to the reader. Apparently there are surviving written records of the formula back to 816 and a decent chance that the Pythagoreans knew about it. It's entirely plausible that Gauss came up with it independently, he was that kind of genius. There's also the possibility that the story is somewhat apocryphal.
posted by figurant at 9:20 AM on December 12 [2 favorites]
As an aside, I'd somehow ended up with the impression once upon a time that Gauss originated the triangular number formula as a youth. I was surprised to spot it (as you do) in an article by Leonhard Euler on a method for solving particular diophantine equations (It's under Exemplum 1 on page 12 where he derives a formula for triangular numbers that are also squares) published the year after Gauss was born, and common enough knowledge that Euler felt no need to justify it to the reader. Apparently there are surviving written records of the formula back to 816 and a decent chance that the Pythagoreans knew about it. It's entirely plausible that Gauss came up with it independently, he was that kind of genius. There's also the possibility that the story is somewhat apocryphal.
posted by figurant at 9:20 AM on December 12 [2 favorites]
I found the Caleb story a little distracting: we're all worried about John locked up in Rikers here, and the episode still insists on doing number-of-the-week as the A-plot? OK then.
Michael Emerson playing out-of-character as a teacher is a bit of a Lost nod.
Finch checks Caleb's test score records and discovers that he deliberately answered only 50% of the questions correctly.
And to go the other direction: Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse played the same game with Mile's perfect 0% score.
Also I liked their idea of a compression algorithm being an earth-shattering discovery, there have been a couple of those (i.e. LZW) that really have made huge differences to how technology progressed.
Also the arc of lossy compression state-of-the-art: JPEG, MPEG, H.264, H.265. I feel that's a little what they're hinting towards here: "The Internet's choking on streaming video. They're gonna need a new compression algorithm to continue growing."
(Silicon Valley S1E8 Optimal Tip-to-Tip Efficiency aired about 18 months after this one and kinda occupies most of the "nerdish kid invents revolutionary compression algorithm" pigeonhole for me.)
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 5:08 PM on December 12 [1 favorite]
Michael Emerson playing out-of-character as a teacher is a bit of a Lost nod.
Finch checks Caleb's test score records and discovers that he deliberately answered only 50% of the questions correctly.
And to go the other direction: Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse played the same game with Mile's perfect 0% score.
Also I liked their idea of a compression algorithm being an earth-shattering discovery, there have been a couple of those (i.e. LZW) that really have made huge differences to how technology progressed.
Also the arc of lossy compression state-of-the-art: JPEG, MPEG, H.264, H.265. I feel that's a little what they're hinting towards here: "The Internet's choking on streaming video. They're gonna need a new compression algorithm to continue growing."
(Silicon Valley S1E8 Optimal Tip-to-Tip Efficiency aired about 18 months after this one and kinda occupies most of the "nerdish kid invents revolutionary compression algorithm" pigeonhole for me.)
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 5:08 PM on December 12 [1 favorite]
Also, the ending of this one ratchets up the "how will John get out of THIS ONE" tension of the previous episode's ending.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 5:11 PM on December 12 [3 favorites]
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 5:11 PM on December 12 [3 favorites]
I found the Caleb story a little distracting: we're all worried about John locked up in Rikers here, and the episode still insists on doing number-of-the-week as the A-plot? OK then.
I wonder if the producers arranged a block of Caveziel-light filming because he had some other project going on, or had some other reason he needed to be away for a bit.
Also, the ending of this one ratchets up the "how will John get out of THIS ONE" tension of the previous episode's ending.
Yeah, I'd totally forgotten that his ordeal had been drawn out over a multi-episode arc! It was a little stressful even on the rewatch.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 2:11 PM on December 13 [2 favorites]
I wonder if the producers arranged a block of Caveziel-light filming because he had some other project going on, or had some other reason he needed to be away for a bit.
Also, the ending of this one ratchets up the "how will John get out of THIS ONE" tension of the previous episode's ending.
Yeah, I'd totally forgotten that his ordeal had been drawn out over a multi-episode arc! It was a little stressful even on the rewatch.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 2:11 PM on December 13 [2 favorites]
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posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 4:29 PM on December 11