Eureka!

Sara is your typical teenager – good student, stellar athlete-but lately, she’s been struggling with her math classes. On the eve of her big test, she’s visited by some of the luminaries of the mathematical world, including Albert Einstein, Blaise Pascal, Lady Ada Lovelace, and Pythagoras. Together, these mathematical luminaries show her how math is part of the world. They explore the Pythagorean Theorem, number theory, order of operations, probability, prime numbers, the Fibonacci sequence, Pascal’s triangle, the origins of the calculator and the computer, pre-calculus, and more. They demonstrate the relationships between pineapples, pine cones, and the golden ratio, and help spark an interest in mathematics as the code that defines the universe.

*check out these articles about Eureka! in the Boston Globe and the Patriot Ledger

Here is a sneak peek

at the script for EUREKA!

SARA

I’m not a bad student! I just don’t see how understanding theorems and formulas can help me in real life. I don’t care who you are, you’re not going to convince me that I’m ever going to use the quadratic equation to do anything but pass math tests!

EINSTEIN

Ah, but that’s just it! Of course you’re losing interest in math – it’s just this series of memorization and regurgitation for you.

SARA

That’s exactly what it is! You stay up cramming, and hope you remember enough to pass the test the next morning.

EINSTEIN

But mathematics is so much more than that! Mathematics is the language of movement, the code that can explain the universe! You can use it to understand almost anything- from the paths of the stars to this little… stick of gum you listen to music with.

SARA

That’s my shuffle.

EINSTEIN

Look- I’m here. I’m not going away. I have traveled across the void, through the gulf of the space-time continuum to help you with your math, so that’s what I’m going to do.

SARA

You came back from the dead to help me with my math homework?

EINSTEIN

You’re lucky it was my turn on the roster! So, how can I be of service?

Albert Einstein and Blaise Pascal

have a "Eureka" moment, “Eureka!”

EUREKA! was written by Shaun Wainwright-Branigan.

Special thanks to Jean Kelley, Julie Berteletti, and Arthur Frank.

Sara from "Eureka!"

What Our Characters Have to Say:

ADA LOVELACE:

Mathematics is almost all imagination, dear – it’s about seeing through the veil of the physical underneath.

PYTHAGORAS:

Even after you graduate from school, you don’t stop being a student! You can learn new things your entire life, but you have to start with the basics. Learn these tools, and you can use them to see beyond the here and now – into the depths of an atom, or into the reaches of cold space.

PASCAL:

Arithmetic is about finding one absolute answer. Math is about finding the patterns in life – and as you know, there are very few certainties in life. Arithmetic is just the tool.

EINSTEIN:

And so, a band of roving, dead mathematicians interrupts someone’s private life and instills in her a lifelong love of mathematics. Just another day…just another day. So be ready! They could come to you next.

Ada Lovelace, Pascal, Einstein, and Pythagoras with Sara, “Eureka!”