The travelling salesman

We continue our series about bringing maths to the stage and screen by going back to 2012 when we were lucky enough to host the UK premiere of the Travelling Salesman, here at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences, our home. It is an unusual movie: despite almost every character being a mathematician there's not a mad person in sight. Moreover, the plot centres on one of the greatest unsolved problems in mathematics, does P = NP? Timothy Lanzone, the writer and director, tells us about creating drama from mathematics, and we discuss the maths behind the movie.

(The sound effects used in this podcast are by jlozano and nemoDaedalus.)

You can read more about the travelling salesman problem, P versus NP, and cryptography on plus.maths.org