Donald Duck Mathematical Magic Trick - Essay Example

Donald Duck’s Mathematical Magic Trick The short animated film “Donald Duck in Math Magic Land (1959) shows Donald Duck in a magical land filled with math concepts and “The True Spirit of Adventure.” The Spirit guided Donald through many everyday applications of mathematics discovered by what Donald fondly called as “Eggheads.” One example shown there was the math behind the pentagram or what is more common to us as the five-point star. The pentagram contains the “Golden Rectangle” or a rectangle whose sides form the ratio known as the “Golden Mean.

” As what we studied in class, a ratio is a relationship between two numbers. The Golden Mean is a special ratio equal to 1:1.61803399, which is considered to be the ratio of beauty. The Ancient Greeks used this ratio in Golden Rectangles found in many of their architectural designs like the Parthenon. In later years, the Golden Ratio was used in even more architectural and artistic designs like the Cathedral of Notre Dame and the Mona Lisa painting. The Golden Mean is also known to be able to multiply itself until infinity.

Infinity is another concept that we discussed in class. It means something that goes on forever and does not end. The Golden Rectangle was found in the pentagram and it can be formed from the parts of the pentagram at an infinite number of times. The video showed that when the pentagram is deconstructed, and the parts were arranged according to their lengths, the two short parts combined formed the longer part in the ratio of the Golden Mean. This shows the application of algebra in the things that we see everyday.

Reference:Walt Disney. (1959) Donald Duck Math Magic Land. http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=35970