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Tweet `M’ For Murder

September 29, 2011
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A bit of silliness

Ray Milland was a great star who played the villain in the classic Alfred Hitchcock movie, “Dial `M’ For Murder.”

Today I want to take a quick break from the hard work of writing a proposal for NSF. It is due soon, and I should be working on it right now. But I had a few minutes and thought of a game. I hope you do not hate it.

The movie “Dial {\dots}” is in my opinion one of the great suspense movies of all times. The plot is inventive, the murder unexpected, and the final scene simply brilliant. If you have not seen this masterpiece, see it soon.

A Name Game

I wondered what it would be like if theorists and mathematicians named things. So I decided to see what movie tittles and book titles might be in such a world. Note, Tweet `M’ For Murder could also had been Dial {10^{3}} For Murder, among probably many other choices. It doesn’t hurt that Ray Milland’s name itself is comprised of a geometrical term and {10^3} and {\wedge}.

Here are Ken’s and my quick list of some examples. Perhaps you can create more and better ones. Now back to serious work, hacking away on our proposal. Oh well.

  • Law {\wedge} Well-Order
  • {O(1)} Good Men
  • A {o(1)}-sized House on the Prairie
  • The {\mbox{World's~} \det(S(p)) = 0}
  • No {>} Glory
  • Sublime Superfactorial Angry Men
  • {111_{2}} Samurai
  • Fight Set
  • The

    \displaystyle \left[ \begin{array}{cc} a & b \\ c & d \end{array} \right]

  • North {\times} Northwest
  • Traversed Edges of Glory
  • {\exists} Like It Hot
  • Topologically Closed Metal Jacket
  • Slumdog {\$10^{6}}-aire
  • {8.4999\dots}
  • Stalag Third Fermat Prime
  • Great {\mathsf{E}[X]}‘s
  • {\$}
  • Catch-{\lceil 7\pi \rceil}
  • {<} Angels
  • The Non-Composite of Miss Jean Brodie
  • A {10^{3}} Acres
  • Death {\in} Venice
  • The Einstein {\cap}
  • {\cup} Pacific
  • Ada {\vee} Ardor
  • The Not Even Women
  • The Set Closed Under a Binary Associative Operator With Inverses
  • The {\mbox{(Story)}^\omega}
  • {\$ S_2}
  • The {3^1 + 3^2 + 3^3} Steps
  • {3 \times 23 \times 29}
  • {2 \times} Indemnity
  • It’s a {\mbox{Mad}^4} World.
  • Five Base Two Dalmatians
  • The Killing {\mathbb{Q},\mathbb{R},\mathbb{C}}
  • The Lord of the {\mathbb{Z},\mathbb{Z}_4,\mathbb{Z}_6}: The {2^{2^{2^{2^{2...}}}}}
  • {i} Heroes
  • The {\sqrt{\;\;\;}}
  • J.B.: A {\mbox{Play}^{-1}}
  • {\mbox{A Cricket} \in \times \; \square}
  • The Bourne {=}
  • WALL-2.718281828…
  • Les {20^2} Coups
  • The {\Delta F}
  • The {1^x}
  • Gone In {'}

Open Problems

What are each of these? Most are trivial—but perhaps not all.

Can you create some good Math/CS titles of your own?

from → Ideas, Oldies, People
23 Comments leave one →
  1. Dave Lewis permalink
    September 29, 2011 9:18 am

    (2 \times 10^2)^3 Ways to Die \in LA

    Reply
    • rjlipton permalink*
      September 29, 2011 9:42 am

      Dave,

      Hope okay. To use latex map put word latex after first dollar sign.

      Reply
  2. gowers permalink
    September 29, 2011 9:24 am

    How about Self-Avoiding Walk I, II, III, IV, V, …?

    Reply
  3. steve uurtamo permalink
    September 29, 2011 9:31 am

    … ouch.

    Reply
  4. Vadim permalink
    September 29, 2011 11:45 am

    Ha ha, very nicely done!

    Reply
  5. magnusfind permalink
    September 29, 2011 12:46 pm

    perhaps $cos^{-1}(-1)$ is a little to easy :). A similar idea is expressed at http://spikedmath.com/401.html

    Reply
  6. martin permalink
    September 29, 2011 3:26 pm

    \pi

    Reply
  7. martin permalink
    September 29, 2011 3:33 pm

    American \pi

    Snakes on a n \dot (x - x_0) = 0

    Reply
  8. John Sidles permalink
    September 29, 2011 5:53 pm

    The Power of 1^{1^{1^{\ldots}}}

    Reply
  9. Robert W J Furber permalink
    September 29, 2011 6:48 pm

    There are already things called Killing fields, infinitesimal isometries.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_vector_field

    Of course, they are named that after Wilhelm Killing.

    Reply
  10. gowers permalink
    September 29, 2011 7:30 pm

    A(4,inf)e^rn_0 (where A is the Ackermann function).

    Reply
  11. Allen K. permalink
    September 29, 2011 9:26 pm

    While it’s not quite the same concept, I can’t help but share my algebraic geometry list:

    Variety
    Schemes
    Multiplicity
    Intersection
    Blowup
    Singularity
    Motives
    Normal
    Perfect
    The Complex
    Adele (soon)
    Radical (soon)
    Mumford
    Krull
    Zabriskie Point

    Reply
  12. Bootvis permalink
    September 30, 2011 12:46 am

    3.1415.. : {1, \ldots, 4}

    Reply
  13. Joey permalink
    September 30, 2011 10:27 am

    The bounded treewidth Graph of Life.

    Reply
  14. Cem Say permalink
    September 30, 2011 10:34 am

    No idea how to make this look pretty, but:

    $frac{5}{2}$ Men

    Reply
  15. GASARCH permalink
    September 30, 2011 11:17 am

    The good $\wedge$ the bad $\wedge$ the ugly

    Reply
  16. Fred permalink
    September 30, 2011 12:39 pm

    $latex\mbox{\rm To Be} \vee \neg (\mbox{\rm To Be})\\
    \mbox{\rm To Have} \wedge \neg (\mbox{\rm To Have})\\
    \mbox{\rm The Couple} \not \equiv 0~ (\mbox{\rm mod}~2)\\
    \mbox{\rm 5 Pieces} \in P\\
    \mbox{\rm A Day’s Night} \not \in P$

    Reply
  17. gowers permalink
    September 30, 2011 2:05 pm

    d_1(x,y)<\gamma, d_2(x,y)<\delta, d_3(x,y)<\epsilon.

    Reply
  18. student permalink
    September 30, 2011 7:03 pm

    @Tim,

    What was that movie?

    Reply
    • gowers permalink
      October 1, 2011 6:46 am

      SPOILER ALERT!

      It’s a bit cryptic, but here’s a clue: if I say that d(x,y) is at most some number that’s represented by a Greek letter, I’m typically saying that x and y are close.

      Reply
  19. Bootvis permalink
    October 1, 2011 12:07 pm

    The (Story)…

    How many ways to write ‘The Transformers’?

    Reply
  20. GASARCH permalink
    October 1, 2011 10:44 pm

    4!

    Reply
  21. Madeline permalink
    November 19, 2011 12:25 am

    LOL at the Two Towers.

    Reply

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