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The programme appeared to describe not just a code based on numbers but, more specifically, DECIMAL numbers - or does the code also work with other numbering systems? We live in a decimal universe?

its all about interpretation..language helps us visualise thoughts and ideas..the decimal system facilitates the visualisation of these ideas...there have been many systems of calculating over the millennia...the decimal system is the one most widely used today so it could have been almost and of the numbering systems of the past had they survived the test of evolution

Oh dear.
Marcus du Sautoy's first programme in the series "The Code" has tarnished his reputation.
Firstly, the production team, by repeatedly stressing "The Code", has allowed obscurantist occultism to occur. Mathematics in general and numbers in particular are NOT a code. They can be used in codes but they are not of themselves codes. I just hope programmes 2 and 3 have not also given in to a version of Dan Brown popularism.
In common with many mathematicians Prof. du Sautoy has allowed the programme makers to air ontological claims about numbers that don't stand up to scrutiny. Whilst mathematics provides powerful descriptions of the world about us it should not be confused with the world about us.

Hello, it was a great pleasure to see my favourite stone circle on TV but did you know many stone circles are not round, but complex ellipses - I wonder how many stone circle anoraks have emailed to point out this out. :)

Engineering Professor Alexander Thom accurately measured and proposed a classification of hundreds of stone circles into seven different types of circles, near circles and ellipses. (He's better known for the controversial theory of the Megalithic Yard but we don't need to go into that here).

However Sunkenkirk is one of the stone circles that is a true circle. So well done for choosing one that works. Or I wonder if perhaps you tried your experiment at another better known circle such as Castlerigg first and found that it wasn't round!

Best Wishes from the Megalithic Portal

The content was broken by not giving details of the math, well only through what I would see as a subliminal use of numbers that were not connected properly to the images and ideas given. They appeared in 384,000 fishes, 192 and the Nautilus spiral with a growth of 1.08, so maybe the problem is that Macus is fully aware of copyrights already existing on the math, but if so then why not ask to use them as for my part I wouldn't have had a problem with this. He could then have explained the inherent patterns in integers (in their contracted and expanded runs) and fraction that relate to all things including the movement of the Heaven and dimension's of the Earth. But that said his comments and program content have drawn people's attention to the fact all is governed by the program of math that is universally the law of physics - all is determined by a firm, simple and unbreakable set of numbers. These math appear throughout our history as Sacred Numbers but they firstly appear in the oldest known txts to mankind, and a puzzle remains as to how at some time in the past our own ancestors knew this math and passed it down as a simple integer to binary images contained in Map's of directions on how to fit numbers and images together. This correctly reveals the working's of Time and the measure of the mean (Average Numbers), all contained in a symbolism connected to animal behaviour, and objects in order to tell a narrative of Creation. Knowing of this is not a religion or a belief system connected to any side of the coin, it's a working math lost and misunderstood in the passing down through the ages only to be again found in modern physics. Let hope he gives more detail in further programs.

Can someone tell me if the formula used to predict the maximum size of the dover sole has a name? I'd like to find out a bit more about it.

kind regards.

Nothing new here except the labelling of this knowledge as The Code. Mathemetics helps us understand and predict nature and the universe. Natural phenomena are not doing any calculating, just behaving. The application of "i" was too quickly abandoned as was the approach to "e" which disapperared. As for the flaming projectile, only MdS said it was accelerating upwards. It was accelerating downwards the moment it left the sling. This programme is playing loose with the facts in pursuit of The Code which is an invention. Are we labouring towards to exp(i.pi) = -1? Dumbed down and disappointing so far. erc.

Generally surrounded by too much numerology-esque mysticism. I do hope however that this spurs some people on to study mathematics independently.

Nothing of any substance here, very disappointing. What about "e" the golden ratio in relation to the Fibonicci sequence etc?

Overall, I found the first episode quite interesting but there were a couple of points which I found irritating (1) the rather misleading idea that everything in the natural world be calculated by ‘The Code’, a rather abstract concept which somehow manages to encompass all of the various disciplines of mathematics. That’s a bit like saying that the Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything is 42, (2) Marcus du Sautoy intrigued us with the concept of imaginary numbers and went on the cite radar (in an air traffic control scenario) as one of its practical applications but then gave us absolutely no explanation of how it actually works. Disappointing.

I think some of the comments made here forget that its not meant to be and Oxford lecture that gets in to the nitty gritty of the mathematical formulas, but instead within the bbc's remit of educating those who have a general knowledge and particular interest in this subject - and therefore totally appropriate. I watched this from an art students point of view as study for my dissertation (on pattern and variation in nature and art) and it was a very helpful starting point for my research.

I am not an academic but I do admire numbers (often dreaming of discovering an all important simple formula that no one thought of before). The show does seem a little rushed & vague but bbc have already made numerous documentaries on mathematics. I guess they see this as a bit of fun for everyone mildly or wildly interested (with booty to boot). You can't cram a lifes time of studying into a couple of episodes!

I think I've got the first password. I liked the survival puzzle (Although most of the clues had nothing to do with cracking codes, just visual clues in the clip (a little disappointing)).

megalithic - You better hunt around your favourite stone circle :). I bet the treasure is hidden there. Under the rabbit maybe (I reckon it's fake (The rabbit that is))?

@Steven Conner: The name of the function used to predict the maximum weight of the dover sole is called the Probability Density Function for a Normal Distribution. See for more info.