WORLD WITHOUT MATHEMATICS!!

The budding students, all over the world once got united when it came for Mathematics. There was a unity among them; the unity for dislike towards Mathematics. They all felt that there wasn’t any necessity for Mathematics and that it only makes them cram their head leading to migraine at times (as they felt !!). One fine day, they all woke up for a protest against Mathematics. The whole world was watching the call of young minds for banning Mathematics. They wanted to live in a world without Mathematics. They gathered together, raised their voice and shook the government. The government and the elderly people were baffled. They wanted to make the young minds understand the importance of Mathematics, but they know that their advice won’t be taken. So, they thought of letting the students to go in their own way and realize its importance by their own experience. The government of every country went for a ban of Mathematics for a week and asked the students to come up with other substitutions for Mathematics wherever necessary. The ban was implemented and that is it. The students cheered up. They sang along:

One two three four,
Usage of Math, not anymore,
And, it’s now easy to score…
So we sing and dance as we roar.
One two three four,
Usage of Math, not anymore…

So this became the student’s anthem and they felt a huge sigh of relief after the ban. They sang and danced along as they returned to their home. As they went back home, they found that numbers have become an inseparable part of their life. On their back home, they had to get a bus or an auto, for which they had to pay the fare and get back the change if necessary which involves nothing but basic calculations. At home when they looked at the clock or the calendar they had numbers. May be numbers can be avoided in case of a clock by assigning colors in place of numbers and thereby reading the time as “Blue: Green am” or “Red: Yellow pm” and so on. Similarly, the dates in the calendar can be assigned flower names. What about phone numbers? Very simple!! Substitute numbers with alphabets. So, you will have numbers as “cdabxmoqrp” and so on.

They felt they could have such substitutions and thus make Mathematics vanish from their life. They looked forward for other alterations but ended up in disgust. They realized mathematical calculations are in every pace of life. Even in cooking we have its application. To boil rice, we need to put rice and water in correct proportion to boil properly. Proportion is a very important part of cooking. Then comes the billing part. Be it an electricity bill or telephone bill, the amount to be paid is calculated from the units consumed which again involves simple mathematical calculations. They were puzzled to know that even some rangoli patterns involves Mathematics – for example, a rangoli pattern named “HRIDAYA KAMALA KOLAM” involves a particular sequence for joining the dots and the sequence comes out of mathematical calculations based on modulus function. Things like this have been a part of our life and it is an example for using Mathematics even without our consciousness. Every little thing baffled them. They felt even in simple household works or utilities Mathematics plays a role. They came out of their home wondering why couldn’t they get rid of Mathematics. They were vexed and sat under a fern tree to cool down under fresh air. They took a leaf out and were admiring its arrangement. They were chit chatting for a while coming out of the world of Mathematics (as they thought!!). By that time, a Mathematics professor passed them and questioned them if they admire the fern leaf’s arrangement. They all accepted that they do like and admire it but when they came to know the hidden Mathematics behind its arrangement, they were dumbstruck. They got to know from the Professor that fern leaf is an example for a fractal. In a fern leaf, every leaf part of the bigger one has the same shape as the whole fern leaf.

It is self-similar. They understood that fractals are structures that can be magnified many terms and after every step, the same structure; which is the characteristic of that particular fractal; can be seen. At this point they started to realize the beauty of Mathematics too. They now started losing their dislike for Mathematics. Instead they developed a curiosity and an interest to learn Mathematics as an art and science as well. They looked around and found fractals in the nature. Honeycomb; a natural fractal; amazed them. Even door grills and floor tiles looked as man-made fractals for them. Their thought started changing. Every student found some application of Mathematics in their field of study. They all gathered together once again. One stood up to say the importance of Mathematics in architecture. The bridges or the pillars are built after calculations are made to make sure as of how much weight it can balance. Engineers heavily rely on Mathematics for their calculations. The other student shared his experience. He is an artist and said that portraits or any other works are painted having a particular scale. If the scale is not proper the art doesn’t look as it has to be. It will look weird. Scale and dimensions is an integrate part every drawing. Similarly, each student added up points as of how important is Mathematics in every field. Be it in operating computers using binary language, usage of Fourier transforms in music compression using MP3, Mathematics has a great deal of applications. We have its application and necessity in every pace of our life. Very soon they all realized their ignorance for raising their voice against Mathematics. They realized that had there been no Mathematics in the world, there would have not been many discoveries or inventions and that we would have lived a life of animals just eating and sleeping and not using our minds for discovering new things. So they all got together yet again; but this time, to put an end to the ban of Mathematics. They now enjoyed Mathematics and appreciated its value and had their anthem changed as:

Hillie Hillie Hoe,
Math- No more our foe…
So let’s stand up to bow,
For the respect we show…
Hillie Hillie Hoe,
Math- No more our foe…

Thus there were no more bans for Mathematics; as a world without Mathematics, will have human beings with nothing less than the animals. There wouldn’t have been discoveries or inventions and we would have still been in dark. Thus, Mathematics has brightened this world and will for sure stay green forever.