33 days


did i miss something about the importance of the father asking about how many precise days she missed? then she admits to sleeping in until non so its really 33 and a fourth days. what did she miss or what was this part representing?

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33.25 days is the expression of Catherine’s heart, written in a language few could understand, stashed away in a drawer, hoping someone could understand. Locked away, a key she keeps around her neck given to a man she though would understand her heart. “Prime” is the days lost tiring to regain. I think the scene you refer to is the cornerstone to the movie and reveals Catherine’s motivation, also watch the first scene when Catherine finds the notebook Hal has stashed under his coat. What did it say? What was the line Hal was tiring to show Catherine and why? A Proof is a mathematical expression, similar, a poem by William Butler Yates, a painting by Jackson Pollock, or a philosopher, an argument by Michel Foucalt. We all write what we know and for Catherine what she knew was math, her worries of her father’s insanity, worries about herself, ‘I am a genus but am I also like my dad crazy?’, secretly wanting just to be understood like everyone else, ‘screaming in a room full of people no one understanding.’ 33.25 days are the number of days ‘prime’ she has lost, wanting to get back, she explains to Hal, “You have got a lot of ground to make up,” but these are days lost to depression Catherine wants to regain. Inspired by her dad, a man that speaks like her, she is inspired to work, write a proof, a notebook given to her by her father Robert, to regain the days lost. On the day completing, her proof, her realization, her epiphany walking to her dad softly as he calls, hoping that some one would understand the darkness in her heart, hoping her dad could see, the journey of her proof. But her dad, Robert is on the dark side of the moon, gone beyond understanding. Realizing, no more the great man that had once redefined mathematics, or the only man that understood her and got her. Her sister surly did not, only wanting to lock her away in a convenient location. Catherine’s adviser also only saw incoherent expressions of a good idea. Her only hope was Hal who wrote a song about imaginary numbers, the prince to sleeping beauty waiting for that one kiss that would awaken Catherine from her sleep. “If I could go back to the beginning I could start it over again.” Prime are Catherine’s best days, finally awaken, finally living…

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wow... spot on. wow.

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omg...what a response.

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Thank you for that response....I'm watching this movie now, for the first time...

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Wow! Very good answer.

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Yes that's a great answer; I am embarrased to try to add to it. however, her father points out that if it had been 33.25 years instead of days, it would amount to 33.25 * 52 = 1729 weeks (actually it's more like 1735 weeks, including leap years and all, but never mind). And 1729 = 1000 + 729 = 10^3 + 9^3 but also 1729 = 1728 + 1 = 12^3 + 1^3, so it's the sum of two cubes in two different ways, and happens to be the smallest number with that property. This is the mathematics in one of the most famous anecdotes about mathematicians, obviously known to Catherine as well as to her daughter. If you don't know it, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1729_%28number%29.

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whata hell are you guys smokin, that response is completely incoherent. I dont get it for jack. it sounds pretty but I dont see no substance.

Its a very subjective interpretation, that looks like it misses the point entirely. the whole 'prime' thing has nothing to do with nothing they said, theyre talking about prime numbers.

and the whole thing was simply a way to mention the number 1729, so they could incorporate what S. Ramanujan said to G.H. Hardy, a famous story in the biographies of both first-class mathematicians. Hardy went to go visit Ramanujan while he was sick, and commented about the number of the taxicab he rode in, 1729, as a rather dull number. Ramanujan immediately replied the the exact thing repeated in the movie, that its the lowest number representable by the sum of two different cubes in two different ways.

Basically, Catherine says she's lost some days, and Robert immediately wants to know how many. She says about a month, and Robert being a mathematician and knowing that Cathy is one as well, says that he bets she's keeping count. Then she says 33 days, and the reason they mentioned sleeping til noon earlier was so they could say she wasted another quarter day sleeping that day sleeping, thus making it 33.25 days.

then robert says that if she had a year for every day she wasted, it would be 1729 weeks, because 52weeks a year times 33.25days = 1729. It was a lame way to find a way to bring up 1729 if you ask me. It was more for shock value to make up for the lack of real mathematics in the movie. It was about the most mathematical thing mentioned, knowing that it would get a response from mathematicians because like I mentioned, most of us know about that pretty well.

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Thank you. It was just a way to sneak in a little something about math. If there were a drinking game for every time they used the word "prime," nobody would make it to the end.

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[deleted]

It wasn't poetry, it was a gimmick, because the characterizations in this movie are shallow and without deep characters you have nothing. Poetry is the structure of Wuthering Heights.

~~~~~~~
Think cynical thoughts.

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That's utter nonsense.

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