Donald Duck in the 'Mathmagic Land'

Part -1

Describing the Video in Depth

Mathematics is the sole word behind the existence of this world. Nothing is possible without it. Mathematics has existed ever since! Many of the Mathematicians have discovered various concepts of math over time and the journey will continue till humanity exists. In fact many mathematicians have been born even before Christ! So now you can see how hold mathematics would have been.

Mathematics is connected to every single sphere of life. First and foremost we will talk about mathematics in music. The modern musical scale was discovered by the famous Greek Mathematician Pythagoras. It was discovered by applying the simple knowledge of fractions. Dividing a number by half and then further by half. (In this case a string) In this process when you strike the strings you get the identical sounds. Thus it was a simple concept of fraction that led to the foundation of today's music. The musical notes produced by the varying lengths of the string we were as follows: Sa-Re-Ga-Ma-Pa-Dha-Ni- which corresponds to Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti- the western system. These notes are referred to as the octave. An Octave is the distance between two Musical Notes. (physically the strings) Apart from music Dmitri Mendeleev, a chemist used these notes as the reference for creating his periodic table of elements discovered in his age. He in his table had divided the elements in 'Octaves' using their respective mass numbers as the reference. Pythagoras shared his secret discoveries with his 'Pythagoreans'. (Pythagoras's special groups of members) They discussed it in secret and only members were allowed. Members had secret emblem drawn on their hand 'The pentagram'.

Shape:- Pentagram and golden rectangles

Pythagoras discovered that the pentagram was full of 'Math Magic'. (Full of wonders and tricks) There are four lines segments in a pentagram. If we place them in increasing orders their lengths than the sum of shortest and the second shortest line segments is exactly equal to the third one and the second and the third sum up exactly to the fourth one. These exact proportions are called Golden Section. A golden rectangle can be created from the Pentagram itself. (In general words Pentagram is a star) Golden rectangle is the most remarkable shape. If you measure the sides of a golden rectangle and then start dividing the rectangle into two identical parts, a square and a rectangle even till infinity you would still get sides proportional to the one you did start with! Golden Rectangle also contains a magic spiral.

Greeks admired the golden rectangle a lot. The arts and architecture of Greeks, find in them the golden rectangle since they thought it to be so elegant. Many golden rectangles are found in their art and architecture. Art not only includes paintings but also Sculptures. After a few centuries the concept of golden rectangles was considered as a boon to the world of art and architecture throughout the western world. The paintings of Renaissance also included golden rectangles, the famous being the Mona Lisa painting. Today in the modern world, golden rectangle is included in paintings and architecture to a great extent. It would astonish you that even we humans are in golden ratio! Our body forms many golden rectangles.

Shape: Pentagon

Also note that innumerable Pentagons can be formed within the Pentagram and Pentagons. Pentagon is widely found in nature. Most of the flowers with five petals are of the Pentagonal shape. A few examples of natural pentagons are Petunia, Star Jasmine, Star fish and Wax flower, Hoya and sea shells. Everything prevailing in the nature has some significance with mathematics. Golden Sections are found in nature's spirals eg. Shell of a snail.  The gynoecium of a flower and the various branches on a tree are all in the mathematic golden proportion. The leaves on the trees are arranged in the trigonometric series.

Mathematics in games:

Chess:

Lewis Carol - a mathematician used chess as setting in his classic tales. Chess is a mathematical game of calculated strategies. Chess Board is also Geometrical with 64 squares. The moves are also mathematical and require nothing more than simple logic.

Almost all the games are played on the basis of geometrical laws. Football is played on a rectangle field divided by 8 lines. Basketball is game of circles, spheres and rectangles. Hopscotch a game of squares is also ultimately related to mathematics.

Three-Cushion Billiards: A game played on the field of two perfect squares combined to form a rectangle, with three spheres and a hell lot of diamonds. The cue ball must not only hit the ball but also it should hit at least three cushions before hitting the final ball targeted for. One should be an expert before he can hit more than three cushions before hitting the destination ball.

The Tricks of Mind:

This is a game played with circles and triangles in mind. Think of perfect circle. Put a triangle inside the circle. Now spin the circle. You get a sphere. Slice the top of a sphere and we have a magnifying glass. In fact all optical instruments are made with the aid of geometrical sphere, a lens for example. Thus the Magnifying Glass, Telescope, Microscope, Spectacles, Binoculars and endless other itmes are made up of a sphere. Role the circle and triangle together and you get a wheel, used for transport, the fast spinning fan of an aero plane! A Sphere, if found in to wheels, telephones, (old landlines) Digital disks like CDs, DVDs, HDDVDs and BDs and drum set.

Now if we just spin the triangle inside the circle we get cone. Slice off the cone from muddle. The remaining cone, which is its base, is used as a gear, a very useful component of many simple and compound machines.  Now keep on slicing the cone many a times, diagonally and then arrange all the slices with the base at the center of it. You get the orbits of all planets as well as satellites. It doesn't matter how you slice the cone, every time we get a different use. Again if you slice the cone from around its base diagonally, you get a reflector of a search light.  If you slice off the base of a cone you can get a mirror of the telescope. If the cone is covered with a horizontal line we get a drill and a spring! Isn't it truly amazing!!!

Mind is the birthplace of Man's all Scientific Achievements. The mind knows no limit when used properly. It is only in the mind that we can see till infinity, no object could probable ever reach minds capabilities. Indeed it is far beyond the imagination! Mathematical thinking has opened the doors for scientific thinking.

The Two Famous Quotes:

In the words of Galileo: "Mathematics is the alphabet with which god has written the universe." ("Les mathématiques sont l'alphabet avec lequel Dieu a écrit l'univers" - French version)

The words of Pythagoras: "Everything is arranged according to number and mathematical shapes." ("Tout est arrangé selon le nombre et les formes mathématiques." - Greek Version)

Part - 2

Reflection, critique and other elements

From the very beginning I didn't watch cartoons but this particular cartoon video was really amazing and unique. It was much similar to the one we had seen last year: 'Flatland' which was about 2-D and 3-D shapes. But this video has described in depth about Mathematics. It has brought out the importance of Mathematics in our lives. Almost every single thing mentioned in this video was new for me. Every seemingly boring point was presented interestingly. This is also a very good way in which the necessity of Math can be elucidated to young children. I recommend that this video must be watched by grumblers who say that Math is 'Useless and Boring'. I feel that this video must be shown in the school to all the students. `Mathematics is not simply about solving sums and framing equations but there are infinite other uses of Mathematics. In fact, after watching this video I believe that the numerical part of Math is just a very tiny part of the real majesty! This video was produced in 1959 so it doesn't surprise me to the think that the quality of video wasn't good enough. The audio and video of this video were relatively poor. In many places it became difficult to catch up what was being narrated. Therefore, after analyzing the importance, uniqueness and innovativeness of the video I believe that it should be retouched and be produced in a better quality. Though it has been produced in DVD quality in the year 2007 it is not appealing. The real life example shown here relating to the various games, shapes, nature, music and every other reference have elevated the importance of Mathematics in the video. Actually whatever I've described in the above paragraphs was something really new and exciting for me to know and so I'm not describing each and every thing in depth all over again.