UFO (2018)

Alex Sharp: Derek

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Quotes 

• Professor Hendricks : Chapter four. Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors. Now, if we have a square matrix "A" that represents a linear transformation, then this matrix times the vector is equal to a scalar lambda times the same vector. Now, the "v" is called an eigenvector, and the lambda is called an eigenvalue, and these kinds of problems have applications in all kinds of things, like structural engineering, and spin transitions and neutral hydrogen.

  Professor Hendricks : [after a pause]  And it has a wavelength of 21 centimeters. That would be significant, wouldn't it? Derek?

  Derek : It doesn't matter. The matrix is double, or half, or whatever.

  Professor Hendricks : Twenty-one centimeters.

  Derek : [confused]  Twenty-one centimeters, what?

  Professor Hendricks : The frequency of hydrogen. The spectral line of neutral hydrogen has a frequency of 1,420 MHz and a wavelength of 21 centimeters. Two lines, 38 increments east.

  Derek : And 22 north.

  Professor Hendricks : And then you multiply both by 9,433.

  Derek : And then by 21 centimeters. The wavelength is the unit of the measurement. It is coordinates.

• Professor Hendricks : I know you think that if we stare at that signal long enough, that something is going to click, but you can't force it. And I am certainly not the person who's going to help you crack it. I mean, math, science, physics? It's a young person's game. Riemann. Galois. Einstein.

  Derek : Eugène Ehrhart was 60 when he got his PhD. The Ehrhart polynomial? Yitang Zhang was 57 when he proved that there were an infinite number of consecutive pairs of primes that were separated by less than 70 million.

  Professor Hendricks : [reluctant]  Two examples.

  Derek : Schrodinger. Frohlich. Smale.

  Professor Hendricks : [funny]  Okay! Okay!

• Derek : Hundreds of years go by and people make tiny, little improvements. And then there's an opportunity to take a giant leap forward. Like with relativity, or going to the moon. When it's your finals week, you cut yourself off from everyone. You go to the library, you drink 100 cans of Red Bull. You don't talk to anyone for, like, four days, because you know everything is riding on it. This is my finals week. What are the most important questions in the world? "Is there a God?" "What happens when we die?" And "Are we alone in the universe?" If anyone answered any one of those questions, it would change everything.

  Natalie : We're never as alone as we think we are.

• Franklin Ahls : The sighting at CVG wasn't the first. There were others. And every time we tried to establish contact with them using a variation of the Arecibo signal, we failed. They put the Fine-Structure Constant in their message to build a common mathematical language.

  Derek : Uh...

  Franklin Ahls : I didn't know it could be used for determining intelligence. In the new signal we received today, there are 19 decimal places. We can only measure it to 12. And this one is much more complex than anything we've seen. The last one was 14-bit, but this one is 42-bit. And not only is it laid out on a grid, it's three-dimensional. Which tells us a couple of things. One...

  Derek : They're a hell of a lot smarter than us.

  Franklin Ahls : And two, when we're trying to find them, we might be off by a lot. In their first signal, they sent two-dimensional coordinates here on Earth. In this new signal, I believe they sent...

  Derek : Three-dimensional coordinates in space.

  Franklin Ahls : Well, the focus of research now is not that it changes throughout the universe, but that it changes over time.

  Derek : Okay, so we have to work out a more accurate way of measuring the FSC.

  Franklin Ahls : Which means developing new technologies, new theories. And that could take five years or 500. Or five months, with your help. And you do understand what this means?

  Derek : We're not alone.

• Lee : So, if this was a UFO, right? And there were aliens on it what do you think they would look like?

  Derek : You mean, do I think they're like little grey people with big black eyes?

• Derek : [going to a park bench]  Okay, now will you come with me? Please? Over here. Okay, so if this is the distance between the Sun and the Earth, how far do you think the next closest star is? Proxima Centauri?

  Natalie : Twenty feet?

  Derek : [pointing to a highway]  See, 71? About twice as far as that, 4.3 miles. Now, if that's our scale, how big do you think the galaxy is? You'd have to keep walking in that direction until you got right back here; all the way around the world, and then do that three more times. And that's just our galaxy. There are at least 100 billion other galaxies out there.

• Derek : Sorry if I woke you guys up.

  Professor Hendricks : No you're not.