Abstract

As part of the 2013 Cambridge Science Festival, we are screening the award-winning indie film ‘Travelling Salesman’ at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences in Cambridge on Thursday 14 March at 6.30pm.

Travelling Salesman is an gripping, dialogue-driven intellectual thriller which imagines that four brilliant mathematicians discover a solution to one of the major unsolved problems in mathematics, P vs NP, with profound implications for computer science and cryptography. Offered $10 million dollars by the US government for exclusive access to their work, they must grapple with the practical and moral repercussions as they make a life-changing decision.

Travelling Salesman uses the mathematical context to explore issues of ethics, moral responsibility, and intellectual freedom versus patriotic duty. It has won several awards including Best Feature Film at the 2012 Silicon Valley Film Festival.

Offering a rare chance to see the film ahead of a confirmed date for general release, this screening forms part of the Cambridge Science Festival and takes place on Pi Day. The screening will be introduced with a short talk by Rachel Thomas, the editor of Plus, the free online mathematics magazine (http://plus.maths.org).

Tickets are £5.50 each – for more information and to book online see http://plus.maths.org/content/PvsNP