Movies - TV
Futurama’s Time Equation Actually Has A Real-World Use
By WITNEY SEIBOLD
In the 2007 “Futurama” movie “Bender’s Big Score,” a tattoo of Bender with a hidden binary code is found on Fry’s right buttock, which allows the klepto robot to travel in time.
In response, Professor Farnsworth calls in Ethan “Bubblegum” Tate to prove that paradox-free time travel can’t exist. The viewers can see various calculations on their work board.
While it might not seem like it, this calculation is a genuine formula penned by the show’s math expert, Sarah Greenwald, called the Equation of Time, or EOT.
The equation is written E = 9.87sin(2B) – 7.53cos(B) – 1.5sin(B). Show co-creator David X. Cohen discussed the EOT on the movie’s DVD commentary.
Cohen shared, “It is the equation for correcting the time given by a sundial.” However, the show included an additional figure to the actual equation.
He said, “We added one extra term to what is about to be written here as the ‘doom field.’ So that one with the delta, the greek letter at the end, that very last part we added.”
Viewers might have noticed the Greenwaldian Theorem written on the Professor’s blackboard. Cohen revealed this is a tribute to Greenwald, and it doesn’t actually exist.