The Man of Numbers: Fibonacci's Arithmetic Revolution

As the first chapter started with 0, I thought it will be numbered as a Fibonacci series, but it was not so. 

Most of us know Fibonacci (pronounced as fi buh naa chee) only for the Fibonacci Series. I guessed, the book will be only about Fibonacci series but was very much surprised as I progressed. The Fibonacci series comes only in the last chapter.

It's interesting to know that his real name was Leonardo Pisano and was very famous for his book Liber abbaci. This book was the first to help the merchants, bankers, business people and scholars with the new arithmetic methods.

The below lines from the 0th chapter will give a different perspective as to what we know:

"Most of the credit for inventing and developing the methods Leonardo described in Liber abbaci goes to others, in particular Indian and Arabic scholars over many centuries. Leonardo's role was to "package" and "sell" the new methods to the world."

Brahmagupta from India was considered the first to formulate the concept of zero. The mathematical puzzles which originated in India long back have been found in Liber abbaci. I thought Omar Khayyamwas a famous poet from Iran. But he was a renowned Mathematician too.

Pisa had been blessed with two sons: Galileo in the 16th century and Leonardo Pisano in the 13th.

Maths might be tough and confusing for many students. When we solve a problem, we write each step and arrive at the solution. But, in those days, the solution was like reading an essay. The below is the solution for a Maths problem:

"You put 1/4 1/3 in order, and you subtract the 1 which is over the 3 from the 3 itself; there remains 2 that you multiply by the 4; and so on..."

After reading the below in the last chapter, I felt how ignorant I was.

"History almost forgot him, only a nickname given to him by a later historian surviving, and then only to refer to a sequence of numbers arising from a word problem he copied in his book from another source."

The source being one of the Indian Mathematicians. 

I feel every Mathematics book should credit him.

Ariyalur, the Fossil Town

The moment I hear Ariyalur, I could recall the train accident which happened in 1956. That was a major accident and you can get more details from The Hindu.

A few weeks back, I read an article in dtNext, The Hindu and was curious to watch the video. I was very much surprised to know about Fossils near Trichy.

The word Fossil would immediately take us to the movie Jurassic Park. In my school days, I tried to make a fossil by keeping a bushy grass under heavy stones. After a few days, I would remove it and see whether the fossil has been formed or not. But I would find only damp grass.

After watching this video, not only the children, the parents will also be aware of subjects other than Engineering and Medicine. I am sure many children will take Geologist and Paleontologist as their Career in the future.

I used to think only Discovery and History Channels are capable of producing high quality graphics and narrations. But these animations deserve special appreciation, especially the sea water filling effect. The whole team has done a great work and have created a lot of awareness in the young minds.

I have shared the video with my office colleagues and have planned to visit the place.

Andha Naal Movie

  

As I was checking the IMDB most popular movies, I saw Rashomon and Rashomon Effect. It was interesting to know this effect was used in Andha Naal and Virumaandi. I had watched Virumaandi and could easily relate to the Rashomon Effect. Then, I was very much interested to watch Andha Naal and googled for Torrents and Rapidshare Links. All the links were dead and I thought of buying the original DVD. Moserbaer has brought lots of DVDs at affordable prices.

Luckily, I found it on LandmarkOnTheNet. The DVD cost ₹ 67 (with free shipping) and I immediately placed the order. After reading the story in Wiki, I could recall the climax, I had watched long back. But, I couldn't remember the entire story. Please don't ever read the story in Wiki as it's a big spoiler and you will miss a lot. Each and every scene is narrated well. I don't know who sits and writes everything. Even, the directors will appreciate Wiki for presenting the scripts so well. After watching English movies, I read the storyline to get more facts and to confirm whether I understood the story correctly.

Only today, I got the time to watch it. As I knew the climax already, the suspense and thrill was lost. I liked the way Veenai S. Balachander had weaved the story among the 4 suspects and experimenting such a novel theme. This movie was released in 1954 and the director should be appreciated for using this effect long back.

I couldn't believe Pandari Bai was the heroine. She is no more and had done a mother's role in Rajini's Mannan.

This film inspired by the 1950 Akira Kurosawa film Rashômon was a commercial failure. It was the first talkie in India without a song or dance. But it won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil in 1955.

I love the way Virumaandi was portrayed. And Rashomon is the movie in my Next-to-watch-list.