The Story of 1

The Story of 1 is a BBC documentary about the history of numbers, and in particular, the number 1. It was presented by former Monty Python member Terry Jones. It was released in 2005.

Synopsis

Terry Jones first journeys to Africa, where bones have been discovered with notches in them. However, there is no way of knowing if they were used for counting. Jones then discusses the Ishango bone, which must have been used for counting, because there are 60 scratches on each side of the bone. He then journeys to Sumer. Shortly after farming had been invented and humans were starting to build houses, they started to represent 1 with a token. To explore why the development of numbers occurred there and not some other place, Jones travels to Australia and meets a tribe called the Warlpiri. In Egypt, the numeral system provides a fascinating glimpse of Egyptian society, as larger numbers seem more applicable to higher strata of society. The Egyptians had a standard unit, the cubit, which was instrumental for building wonders such as the pyramids. Jones then journeys to Greece to cover the time of Pythagoras. Archimedes was also in love with numbers. Jones discusses India's invention of a more efficient numeral system, including the invention of the concept of zero. Jones discusses finally how Gottfried Leibniz invented the binary system, which is the foundation for modern digital computers. He planned on building a mechanical computer to use this system, but never followed through with the plan. Leibniz was convinced that 1 and 0 were the only numbers anyone really needed. In 1944, a computer called Colossus was used to crack enemy codes during World War II. Computers like Colossus evolved into modern computers, which are used for every type of number calculation.

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Category:British documentary movies
Category:Numbers