Season 4 Activities

Episode 411 - "Breaking Point" airdate: 1/11/2008

January 15th, 2008

This episode has a quite prominent factorial in Charlies boardwork. The value 28! is part of a formula Charlie uses to evaluate the threat risks for a journalist who has disappeared and may have been kidnapped. With a long list of suspects, Charlie suggests creating an Asymmetric Threat Assessment to determine motive.
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Episode 410 - "Chinese Box" airdate: 12/14/07

December 18th, 2007

In this episode a paranoid man storms into the FBI building and holds David hostage in an elevator, leaving Charlie and the FBI to scramble to find a way to free their friend and colleague.
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Episode 409 - "Graphic" airdate: 11/23/07

November 27th, 2007

Charlie works to find an extremely rare comic book that was stolen during a deadly robbery at a comic book convention.
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Episode 408 - "Tabu" airdate: 11/16/07

November 20th, 2007

In this episode, a high-profile heiress is kidnapped by a group intent on attacking her father. Don and the team try to save her before its too late.

The math...
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Episode 407 - "Primacy" airdate: 11/9/07

November 14th, 2007

Charlie talks in this episode about modeling species in an ecosystem. Think of a pond. A pond is a healthy ecosystem where predator and prey are in balance. However, if an outside predator is introduced then the ecosystem changes. An evolutionary algorithm highlights abnormal alterationsand locates the source of a problem. The FBI is responding to an apparent murder of someone playing a Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Game. Charlie likens the behavior of game players to animals in the ecosystem. We could develop an evolutionary algorithm that searches the games history for abnormally aggressive activity. Amita adds Thats true. People aggress in video games in similar ways.
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Episode 406 - "In Security" airdate: 11/02/07

November 6th, 2007

In this episode, Charlie continues to anxiously await the release of his new book as well as his first book signing. Of the many thoughts that occupy his mind are concerns over how to sign his name and how long it will take to sign his name. Should he use an initial for Charles, or should he use Charlie? Will writing his full name take too long? In his own words I could use an adaptive algorithm adjusting the variable of time per person. Three hours, less than 1,000, but greater thanI better bring a stopwatch. It sounds like Charlie is obsessing over this point just a bit too much.
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Episode 405 - "Robin Hood" airdate: 10/26/07

October 31st, 2007

A bank for the rich and powerful is robbed but the stolen contents of the safety deposit boxes are being liquidated and donated to charities, and it's up to Don and Charlie to uncover the true motivation behind the humanitarian thief.
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Episode 404 - "Thirteen" airdate: 10/19/07

October 25th, 2007

Episode 404, entitled Thirteen, revolves around Dons team (with Charlies help) trying to catch a killer who leaves clues in the form of number grids at the site of each violent murder. Teachers and parents, please note that this episode contains some fairly violent scenes. Below is a discussion of the math involved, but you may want to screen the episode before discussion with students.
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Episode 403 - "Velocity" airdate: 10/12/07

October 17th, 2007

This episode opens with the dramatic crash of a car slamming into a busy coffee shop. The apparent accident turns suspicious as the FBI team discovers evidence suggesting foul play. Charlie and our new character, Ray Galuski, take on the task of developing a computer simulation to reconstruct the crash scene. Charlies father finds it peculiar that Charlie and Rays simulation does not include a slew of equations plastered all over the garage. Enter the first "CharlieVision..."
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Episode 402 - "Hollywood Homicide" airdate: 10/05/07

October 10th, 2007

In last week's episode, a series of secrets and blackmail involving a young, up-and-coming actor are exposed when Don and his team investigate the murder of a young woman in his Hollywood Hills mansion. And now for the math...
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Episode 401 - "Trust Metric" airdate: 9/28/07

October 1st, 2007

Summary: After being arrested for treason and espionage in last season's final episode "The Janus List", Colby Granger escapes from custody. Don and his team must track down their old friend before he can escape to the Chinese. But things are not always how they appear, and Charlie must come to the FBI's aid once again.
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