Throng

Sunday, October 19th at 9:30pm

The countdown for new episodes of Numb3rs is finally over, tonight Special Agent Don Eppes and his mathematical genius brother Charlie return to our screens as they try to solve yet another mystery, Numb3rs screens Sunday, October 19th at 9:30pm on 3.

What fans of the show - which proves mathematics can be used to help catch criminals and solve crimes - may not know is that Numb3rs counts on a real life maths specialist to make sure that the show is as authentic as possible.

Serving as a consultant to the series is California Institute of Technology professor Gary Lorden, who works out the actual numbers behind Numb3rs.

While all these may appear to be effortless for a maths genius, Lorden recently revealed that working for the show is actually quite painstaking.

"It is episodic, so that in the course of 10 days or so, they work on a particular episode in the sense of shooting and so on. That creates a schedule a little ahead of the shooting where they have to finalise the script. And not only what's in the script, but in the case of this show, there is a whole bunch of maths that has to be finalised,” Lorden explains.

“I have got to stay up late tonight so that at tomorrow's meeting with the producers, art department and writers, which I don't attend but the researchers that I work with attend, they will basically present 10 or 12 or 15 pages of maths that I fax the researchers, often at two in the morning, which gives them what goes on the screen,” he adds.

Despite the challenges of his work on Numb3rs, Lorden considers it as a fun experience. He even takes delight in the fact that he is an insider of the show who has become quite a celebrity in the California Institute of Technology community.

“In 40 years of teaching I don't think I have had a student ask for my autograph until I was involved in the show,” he says.

Make sure to catch all of Lorden’s hard mathematical work when Numb3rs returns on Sunday, October 19th at 9:30pm on 3.