3Blue1Brown
The channel name and logo reference the color of Grant's right eye, which has blue-brown sectoral heterochromia.[1] It also symbolizes the channel's visual approach to math.[‡ 1]
Personal information
Born
Grant Sanderson
Website3Blue1Brown.com
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2015–present
Genre(s)Mathematics, Education
Subscribers5.9 million[2]
Total views465 million[2]
Associated actsMatt Parker, MinutePhysics, Numberphile, Smarter Every Day, Mark Rober
100,000 subscribers2016[3]
1,000,000 subscribers2018[3][‡ 2]
Last updated: February 10, 2024

3Blue1Brown is a math YouTube channel created and run by Grant Sanderson.[4] The channel focuses on teaching higher mathematics from a visual perspective, and on the process of discovery and inquiry-based learning in mathematics, which Sanderson calls "inventing math".[5] As of December 2023, the channel has 5.6 million subscribers.[‡ 3]

Grant Sanderson

Early life and education

Sanderson graduated from Stanford University in 2015 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics.[‡ 4] He worked for Khan Academy from 2015 to 2016 as part of their content fellowship program, producing videos and articles about multivariable calculus, after which he started focusing his full attention on 3Blue1Brown.[‡ 4]

Career

In 2020, Grant Sanderson became one of the creators and lecturers of the MIT course Introduction to Computational Thinking, together with Alan Edelman, David Sanders, James Schloss, and Benoit Forget.[6] The course uses the Julia programming language and Grant Sanderson's animations to explain various topics: convolutions, image processing, COVID-19 data visualization, epidemic modelling, ray tracing, introduction to climate modelling, ocean modelling, and the algorithms that lie behind these topics.[7]

In February 2022, Sanderson determined that the best starting word in the game Wordle was CRANE using information theory.[8] Later, he stated that the code he wrote to determine the best starting word had a bug in it, and the actual best word is SALET.[9]

In January 2020, Sanderson delivered a talk in An Evening with Grant Sanderson, hosted by the Stanford Speakers Bureau.[10] Sanderson offered his perspective on engaging with math: instead of prioritizing usefulness, he emphasizes emotion, wonder and imagination. He aims to "bring life to math" with visuals, graphics, and animations.[11] In August 2021, Sanderson was one of several featured speakers at SIGGRAPH 2021.[12]

In November 2022, Sanderson delivered a keynote speech, "What can algorithms teach us about education?", at the 17th Dutch National Informatics Congress CelerIT hosted by Stichting Nationaal Informatica Congres (SNiC).[13] Sanderson offered his perspective on how mathematics education should evolve in the future and related his findings with the way neural networks learn, he emphasizes the need for students to grasp concepts and understand them.

Origin

3Blue1Brown started as a personal programming project in early 2015. In an episode of the podcast Showmakers, Sanderson explained that he wanted to practice his coding skills and decided to make a graphics library in Python, which eventually became the open-source project, Manim (Mathematical Animation engine).[14] To have a goal for the project, he decided to create a video with the library and upload it to YouTube. On March 4, 2015, he uploaded his first video. He started to publish more videos and to improve the graphics tool.[14]

Videos, podcasts and other media

3Blue1Brown videos are themed around visualizing math, including pure math such as number theory and topology as well as more applied topics in computer science and physics, The visuals are predominantly generated by Manim, a Python animation library written by Sanderson, though occasionally visuals are drawn from other software such as macOS's Grapher application.[‡ 1]

The channel's videos have been featured in Popular Mechanics,[15][16][17] ABC News,[18] and Quanta Magazine.[19] Sanderson has appeared on numerous notable podcasts, including Numberphile,[20] Lex Fridman, the Art of Problem Solving,[21] Siraj Raval,[22] and Showmakers.[23][24]

References

  1. ^ Grant Sanderson The Hope Diamond
  2. ^ a b "About 3Blue1Brown". YouTube.
  3. ^ a b "3Blue1Brown Monthly YouTube Statistics - Socialblade.com". socialblade.com. Retrieved 2018-09-28.
  4. ^ "3Blue1Brown". 3blue1brown.com. Retrieved 2023-10-08.
  5. ^ What does it feel like to invent math?, retrieved 2022-11-28
  6. ^ "MIT 18.S191 Introduction to Computational Thinking Welcome".
  7. ^ "Course Materials | Introduction to Computational Thinking | Mathematics". MIT OpenCourseWare. Retrieved 2023-09-17.
  8. ^ "Wordle's best starting word found by YouTuber using math". Polygon. 7 February 2022.
  9. ^ "These are the best starting words to use to play Wordle, according to a math expert". USA Today.
  10. ^ Wei, Patricia (24 January 2020), 3Blue1Brown creator Grant Sanderson '15 talks engaging with math using stories and visuals
  11. ^ Kapadia, Huzefa, EP 159: 3Blue1Brown on How to Show the Natural Beauty of Mathematics, archived from the original on 2020-09-22, retrieved 2020-02-07
  12. ^ "Featured Speakers". SIGGRAPH 2021. Retrieved 15 October 2021.
  13. ^ "What can algorithms teach us about education?". celerit.nl. 30 November 2022. Archived from the original on 1 December 2022.
  14. ^ a b "Grant Sanderson - 3Blue1Brown - Math Education & Programming Animation Software". Showmaker's. Jan 12, 2018. Archived from the original on 2019-07-12. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
  15. ^ "How Cryptocurrencies Really Work". Popular Mechanics. 2017-07-10. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  16. ^ "A Nitty-Gritty Explanation of How Neural Networks Really Work". Popular Mechanics. 2017-10-06. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  17. ^ Weiner, Sophie (2017-08-13). "Here's a Cool Way to Visualize Higher Dimensions". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved 2020-07-29.
  18. ^ "Mathematicians say preventative measures could have huge impact on coronavirus spread". ABC News. Retrieved 2020-07-29.
  19. ^ Sanderson, Grant. "How Pi Connects Colliding Blocks to a Quantum Search Algorithm". Quanta Magazine. Retrieved 2020-07-29.
  20. ^ "The Hope Diamond (with 3blue1brown)", Numberphile Podcast, retrieved 2019-08-22 – via YouTube
  21. ^ "Becoming a Renowned YouTube Educator, with Grant Sanderson" (podcast). AfterMath. Art of Problem Solving. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  22. ^ "3Blue1Brown & Mathematics". Siraj Raval Podcast #3. Retrieved 2019-08-22 – via YouTube.
  23. ^ "Episode 14: 3Blue1Brown - Math Education & Programming Animation Software" (podcast). Showmakers. 2018-01-12 – via YouTube.
  24. ^ "3Blue1Brown and the Beauty of Mathematics", Artificial Intelligence: AI Podcast, retrieved 2020-01-19 – via YouTube

Primary sources

In the text these references are preceded by a double dagger (‡):

  1. ^ a b "FAQ/Contact". 3Blue1Brown. Retrieved 2020-07-29.
  2. ^ "Grant Sanderson on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  3. ^ "3Blue1Brown - YouTube". YouTube. 4 December 2023. Archived from the original on 2023-12-04. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
  4. ^ a b "About the author". Archived from the original on 2020-05-26. Retrieved 2020-05-26.

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 3Blue1Brown.
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