THE MATH behind NUMB3RS
Original Math Notes
All Seasons
Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Season 5 Season 6
Season 4: Episode Index
Episode 401 Episode 401:
Trust Metric »
Colby escapes from prison after being put there for being a mole within the FBI. Don and his team attempt to track him down and uncover the truth behind his alleged betrayal. More »
Math used:
trust metric, set covering deployment, global optimization, illumination problem, friendship math
Episode 402 Episode 402:
Velocity »
An out-of-control car crashes into a coffee shop, killing one person and injuring many others. But what looks to be an accident is revealed to be much more after Charlie analyzes the scene. More »
Math used:
angular momentum, centripetal force, conservation laws, Newton's laws of motion
Episode 403 Episode 403:
Hollywood Homicide »
A woman is murdered in a hot new actor's Hollywood Hills mansion, and the actor becomes the prime suspect in the case when it's learned his past involves dirty secrets and blackmail. More »
Math used:
Snell's law, Goos-Hänchen effect, Archimedes' principle, evaporation, Apollonian networks, game theory, friendship math
Episode 404 Episode 404:
Thirteen »
Don and his team track a serial killer who is obsessed with recreating the deaths of biblical characters. Meanwhile, Charlie analyzes numerological patterns in Bible verses the killer leaves behind. More »
Episode 405 Episode 405:
Robin Hood »
A seemingly modern-day Robin Hood loots the contents of wealthy people's safety-deposit boxes and donates the liquidated assets to charities. Don and Charlie investigate to determine the real motivation behind the thefts. More »
Math used:
Listing's law, projectile motion, the mathematics of love, Fields Medal, online dating services
Episode 406 Episode 406:
In Security »
A woman in the Witness Protection Program is gunned down in her home, and Don feels responsible for her death. More »
Math used:
escape radius, goal theory, path analysis, mazes, classification and regression tree (CART), figure-ground illusions, stenganography, deconvolution
Episode 407 Episode 407:
Primacy »
A man plunges to his death while participating in an alternate-reality game, and Amita's life is placed in jeopardy when her formerly hidden gaming skills become the key to catching the killer. More »
Math used:
combinatorial matrix theory, alternate reality games, evolutionary algorithms, Higgs boson
Episode 408 Episode 408:
Tabu »
An ultra-rich heiress is abducted by an extremist group that wants to punish her industrialist father. Don and his team search for the captors, but their investigation is halted when they learn the group's real motivation for the kidnapping. More »
Math used:
game theory, tabu search, Bayesian priors, Heron's fountain, minimax theorem, cake cutting, dual-tone multi-frequency
Episode 409 Episode 409:
Graphic »
An extremely rare comic book worth $2 million is stolen at a convention during a deadly robbery, but the investigation reveals that the missing item may be a fake. Also, Charlie becomes concerned after he learns that a national magazine is writing an article on him. More »
Episode 410 Episode 410:
Chinese Box »
A former FBI subcontractor guns down an agent inside the agency's headquarters and takes a member of Don's team hostage. More »
Math used:
elevator paradox, Chinese room, chomp, cluster analysis
Episode 411 Episode 411:
Breaking Point »
An investigative journalist goes missing, and Charlie is physically intimidated in an effort to disrupt his work on the case. More »
Math used:
asymmetrical threat analysis, large numbers, regression analysis
Episode 412 Episode 412:
Power »
Don's team tracks a serial rapist who uses his position as a cop to entrap his victims. More »
Episode 413 Episode 413:
Black Swan »
Don and his team invade an inner-city illegal drug operation and Don, on instinct alone, arrests a bystander who is later discovered to be plotting a more evil scheme than anyone at first realized. More »
Episode 414 Episode 414:
Checkmate »
An imprisoned gang leader is suspected of passing secret instructions to a teen chess prodigy about which gang members should be killed. Don investigates and crosses paths with a former flame, Robin Brooks, he suspects is leaking information. Also, Charlie goes through FBI training to learn how to protect himself. More »
Math used:
mathematics of folding, diamond cutting, supervised multiclass labeling, chess, n-dimensional datasets
Episode 415 Episode 415:
End Game »
The family members of an ex-marine who is wanted for the murder of a serial killer are taken hostage by a gang of thieves in the military. More »
Math used:
cylinders, OODA loops, statistical decision theory, wind power
Episode 416 Episode 416:
Atomic No. 33 »
The FBI investigates when a mass poisoning takes place at a cult compound and the survivors refuse medical care. The probe uncovers a murder conspiracy and a history of bad blood between members. More »
Math used:
non-Newtonian fluids, Riemann zeta function, Bayesian network analysis, social network analysis, affinity analysis, association rule mining, k-optimal pattern discovery
Episode 417 Episode 417:
Pay to Play »
A rap star is gunned down in a drive-by shooting and the investigation links his murder to a possible conspiracy that involves embezzlement and bribery. Meanwhile, Charlie readies himself to meet Amita's parents for the first time. More »
Math used:
abacus, string metric, Gröbner basis
Episode 418 Episode 418:
When Worlds Collide »
In the fourth-season finale, one of Charlie's colleagues is arrested on suspicion of being linked to a terrorist group that may be planning an attack on local schools. While Charlie works to free his friend, his actions cause him and Don to confront their opposing beliefs in how the FBI conducts its business. Meanwhile, Megan resigns her position to concentrate on pursuing her education and to counsel women who are in prison. More »
Math used:
Byzantine fault tolerance, figure-ground illusions, M. C. Escher, hyperbolic geometry, six degrees of separation, small world networks
 
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