Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land (1959) [video] | Hacker News Reader

Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land (1959) [video]

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134 pointsDrScump31 comments

I absolutely loved this when I was younger! Looking forward to watching it again after so many years.

On the rare occasions when I play a game of pool, a little piece of my brain remembers the pool-table section from this video as I try to make bank shots.

I don't have anything to add to this other than me too. I think I watched the VHS about a million times in the 80s when I was a wee one.

I remember this being the kind of thing that I hoped would result in VHS being invented.

Ditto.

My pool skills are remarkably improved from my youth though.

Wow, I used to think of this when playing pool as well, but at some point I internalized it and completely forgot where I learned it. Well, not forgot, but he memory became disassociated from the action, until you reminded me.

I'm pretty sure The Phantom Tollbooth, Alice in Wonderland, and Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land have merged in my brain into one school animated film blob.

Which one had "Inchworm" in it?

P.S. It's a billiards table.

   You got one, two, three, four, five, six pockets in a table.
   Pockets that mark the diff'rence
   Between a gentlemen and a bum
   With a capital "B,"
   And that rhymes with "P" and that stands for pool!

    All week long your River City
    Youth'll be fritterin' away,
    (I say your young men'll be fritterin'!)
    Fritterin' away their noontime, suppertime, choretime too!
    Get the ball in the pocket,
    Never mind gettin' Dandelions pulled
    Or the screen door patched or the beefsteak pounded.

Wow. I don't think I've come across anyone else who has even heard of The Phantom Tollbooth. I haven't seen it in years but it was one of my favourites. I don't remember an inchworm in either that or AiW, and I haven't seen the linked video.

My teacher read it to us in elementary school. I don't recall if I ever saw it as a movie, but I might have. The only thing I remember is from the very beginning, a spelling bee (insect)?

The first time I saw this as a young math nerd, I remember being so indignant when the little man said π was equal to:

    3.141592653589747…

Rather than:

    3.141592653589793…

Didn’t they fact-check anything? :) Of course, the voice actor probably just got it wrong. And this came out around the same time as Rocky and Bullwinkle—it’s not as if anyone noticed or cared at the time that Boris and Natasha don’t sound anything like Russians…

If you Google 3.141592653589793 then you'll find it cited as π in plenty of places. I wonder what the cause of the discrepancy is?

Looks like it's the result of taking exactly 19 terms of a certain Taylor series expansion for π.

Did you account for inflation?

Supposedly several writers for the Simpsons are formally trained mathematicians. I've often wondered why they haven't gotten together to make videos about math. Perhaps something like the Khan Academy, but done by folks who have the perfect combination of academic knowledge, story telling ability, great writing skills, access to animation/production, lots of money, etc.

They do have a lot of math jokes:

http://gu.com/p/3tp38?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

One of my favorite math-related scenes in The Simpsons is where Prof. Frink is standing on stage in front of a group of scientists and not getting attention.

Prof. Frink: "Looking for some order. Some order please with the eyes forward and the hands neatly folded."

(Audience not paying attention.)

Prof. Frink: "Hrm..."

Prof. Frink: "Pi is exactly three!"

(Collective gasp from the audience. Prof. Frink now has their attention.)

---

Edit: Went looking for part of the quote which I couldn't catch, found a book which seems interesting. Simon Singh, 2013. The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets [1]. Singh is also known for his 1997 book Fermat's Enigma [2] and his 1999 book The Code Book [3]. The former of the books I've heard is interesting and the latter of which I enjoyed very much back when I read it.

[1]: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17287021-the-simpsons-and...

[2]: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38412.Fermat_s_Enigma

[3]: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17994.The_Code_Book

I think every elementary school student saw the film in school (in the San Jose, CA area anyway). They could have shown it monthly, and it would never get old.

Odd thing is, as I looked for this on Youtube, there are numerous Donald Duck cartoons labeled with this title that are completely unrelated. Clickbait?

This is the only VHS cassette I own -- tracked down just a few short years ago.

My math teacher would show that to us every year in high school. Love it.

I remember seeing this when I grew up in China (translated into Chinese). Last time I saw this film was 30 years ago. Thank you so much for sharing.

Same, but I watched this in Brazilian Portuguese! Glad I can watch it again in its original English.

Does Donald Duck have his distinctive manner of speech when speaking Chinese?

I have it on good authority that he does.

Yes, I remembered it was weird childish sound in Chinese. Sounds like a duck.

I started showing this to my son when he turned 3.

My high school used to screen this film in the auditorium once a year. Every math class would head over and watch it.

A good memory.

DONALD DUCK - Chip and Dale NEW!!! Cartoons Full Episodes! 2015 https://youtu.be/khrTRwzTJFQ

The creature gets pi wrong at 1:55. It says, "3.141592653589747 etc." The right value is 3.1415926535897932 (etc.)

I do not remember watching this episode when I was kid. But it is really cool. Thanks for sharing!

And now I know how to play pool...

Someone's been reading Jalopnik today.

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