Mathematics in Duckburg: outline of lecture

Nils Lid Hjort nils at math.uio.no
Sat Jan 27 01:54:02 CET 2001


I've had a couple of requests after my lecture today on
"Mathematics in Duckburg". I do not have real "notes",
but in response to the interest (and to preserve my own
memory) I will indicate the main outline of the talk. 

The lecture was very well attended, with perhaps 200 high
school pupils. This was helped I'm sure by a very nice
mini-poster produced for the occasion (nicely coloured), 
with a Don Rosa drawing made for Marco Barlotti; used here 
in Oslo with the permission of Don and Marco. It was 
distributed to teachers in the Oslo schools, and I hear it's
on several math teachers' walls! 

I *might* endeavour to write an article for publication 
later on, adding to the Duck part of my CV. 

More than half of the preparation, and more than half of 
the talk, possibly, consisted in selecting suitable illustrations
from the Barks (mostly) canon to accompany the topics
I had chosen to focus on. I was generously helped by a 
colleague to make colour scans onto .tif files and then
to print these out as colour xeroxes for overhead projector.
I was quite pleased with the quality of these, compared
to the simpler ones I've made on earlier occasions, with
b/w xerox copies. The illustrations are still on file 
in my computer.

My sections were as follows:

1. Introduction: 
   what to include and what not, and how: 
   quote from Freud's humour analysis ("The Joke", 1904).

2. Counting (basic to all mathematics): 
   four vs. five fingers; octal vs. decimal systems; 
   big numbers (Scrooge's wealth, the number of drops down Niagara 
   in one week); decimals (FC 318); agent minus-X (FC 308); 
   infinity (WD 33); spontaneous polydactilism (various); 
   Phooey Duck; difference between 10^6 and 10^9 (Tralla La).

3. Physics: 
   three cubic acres (dimension six); analogue to "Flatland"
   (1884); various physics laws in comics; JW making a bridge
   with cosine calculus; Don Rosa Lost Eldorado; difference between
   mathematicians (loving the problem more than its solution)
   and engineers; speedskating story last inner track; more.

4. Probability theory (and statistics):
   quote from Luke Rhinehart (1971) "The Dice Man" ("if it's 
   a one, I'll go downstairs and rape Arlene"), preceded by 
   flipism; recurrence of random walk in dimension 2 (but not in 3);
   insurance company; Dostoyevskij and Douglas Adams (improbability
   drive). 

5. Computers & Cyberworld:
   various 1950-ies computers in Duckburg; Duckburg Institute
   of Science; Ludwig von Drake vs. Laura (?); Gyro inventions
   like translating languages and the cyberworld one of WD 199.

6. School & education:
   made the point that the nephews appear pretty dense in their
   early years; many cases 1940-1950 where they cannot add 
   or subtract small numbers; pointed to rigid school system
   and omnipresence of inspectors; then pointed out their immense
   evolution in grasping higher mathematics (the train accident
   being prevented) after a couple of seasons with a voluntary
   merit-badge oriented outside-school organisation; finished 
   off with Don Rosa's splendid page from Finnish Aku Ankka 
   last year, where HLD are bored at vacation, longing to get 
   back to school & learning. 

Nils Lid Hjort 



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