Author: Matt Davis / Source: Big Think
- One of the iconic scenes from Good Will Hunting shows Matt Damon’s character anonymously solving a nigh-impossible math problem on a blackboard at the university where he works as a janitor.
- This story, while modified for the purposes of the film, actually happened.
- George Dantzig, who would later become a famous mathematician, was late to his graduate statistics class one day when he saw two statistical problems on a blackboard that he mistook for homework.
Good Will Hunting Scene Math Problem
If you’ve ever seen Good Will Hunting, you’re probably familiar with the setup. Matt Damon’s character, Will Hunting, is a young Bostonian with a quintessentially ’90s haircut working as a janitor at MIT. A professor at MIT has set up a challenging math problem on the blackboard outside his office; Will solves it anonymously and easily, even though he doesn’t attend the college.
The professor sets up another, even harder math problem. Again, Will solves it, although the professor catches him in the act this time, prompting Will to flee. When the professor asks his name, assuming the janitor is vandalizing his blackboard, Will responds “Fahk you,” and disappears. The professor is shocked to discover that the janitor has written the correct answer on the blackboard.
It’s pure Hollywood, improbable and endearing. But this particular scene actually has its roots in reality, although the protagonist in this case didn’t have a strong jawline and huge forehead. Instead, it was based on an anecdote from the life of the legendary math student George Bernard Dantzig.
Luckily late to class
Dantzig, who died in 2005, was a celebrated mathematician best known for his development of the simplex algorithm, a popular algorithm used in linear programming to find the optimal solution to problems that can be described through linear mathematics; for example, how to maximize profits and minimize losses, or how…
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