Why is 1729 So Important to FUTURAMA? [Television]

If you’ve watched Futurama you know they love math. But no number was more important to them than the number 1729.

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Math jokes are a big part of Futurama.
There’s a reason the show has been called the “Geekiest Show on Television.” This is no surprise since several of the writers are mathematicians.
This includes J. Stewart Burns (who holds a master’s degree in maths
from UC Berkeley), Bill Odenkirk (who holds a chemistry PhD from
University of Chicago), Jeff Westbrook  (who holds a computer
science PhD from Princeton), Ken Keeler (who earned an applied
mathematics PhD at Harvard) and, of course, head writer David X.
Cohen (who majored in applied maths at Harvard and earned a masters in
computer science at UC Berkeley).

While my brother has listed the 11 Nerdiest Jokes on FUTURAMA (And What They Mean), but the one joke that’s popped up more than any other is the number 1729.

The number 1729 is known as the “Hardy–Ramanujan
number” based on a story told by British mathematician G. H.
Hardy when he visited his good friend, the Indian mathematician
Srinivasa Ramanujan, in the hospital.

“I remember once going to see [Ramanujan] when he was ill
at Putney.” Hardy recalled, “I had ridden in taxi cab number 1729
and remarked that the number seemed to me rather a dull one, and
that I hoped it was not an unfavorable omen. ‘No,’ he replied, ‘it is a
very interesting number; it is the smallest number expressible as the
sum of two cubes in two different ways.'” The number can be “unpacked” as 1,729 = 1³ + 12³ = 9³ + 10³.

Here are all the episodes that have the number 1729 in them.

“Xmas Story” (1999)

The robot chef Bender receives a card from the robot arm that
built him calling him “Son #1729”. Ken Keeler said, “Bender’s serial number is 1729, a historically significant integer to
mathematicians everywhere; that ‘joke’ alone is worth six years of grad
school, I’d say.”

“Love’s Labours Lost in Space” (1999)

Zapp Brannigan’s starship Nimbus has the hull registry number BP-1729.

“The Lesser of Two Evils” (2000)

Bender’s serial number is the sum of two cubes: his number is
2716057 = 952³ – 951³, while his robot brother
Flexo is 3370318 = 119³ + 119³.

Bender: Hey, brobot, what’s you serial number?

Flexo: 3370318.

Bender: No way! Mine’s 2716057!

Fry: I don’t get it.

Bender: We’re both expressible as the sum of two cubes.

“The Farnsworth Parabox” (2003)

One of several parallel universes is labeled “Universe 1729” and filled with giant Bobbleheads.

“Bender’s Big Score” (2007)

When Fry goes to the past and takes a taxicab home the number is
87539319. This is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in three different ways: 167³ + 436³ or as 228³ + 423³, or 255³ + 414³. Of course, it’s the third taxicab. The
Hardy–Ramanujan number is also known as the “taxicab number.”

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Is Futurama the geekiest show on television? Are there any other math jokes you noticed in Futurama?

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