What's Cooler Than Magic?
What's cooler than magic? That's the question Peter Parker, a.k.a. Spider-Man, asks Dr. Stephen Strange as the two allies turned temporary foes match wits in Marvel's recent movie Spider-Man: No Way Home.
The answer? Math, of course.
If you haven't yet seen the film, a few spoilers follow.
The film opens where Spider-Man: Far From Home left off. A less-than-honest video released to the world by the duplicitious Mysterio exposes Spider-Man's secret identity and blames him for the catastrophe on London Bridge.
No Way Home examines Parker's struggle to maintain normalcy when the whole world knows who he is. It details how his life as Spider-Man impacts the lives of the people he cares most about: his family and his friends.
The burden of his double life being exposed leads Parker to visit Dr. Strange to beg for a magic spell to make the world forget. As Strange begins to craft the spell, he's interrupted constantly by Parker's conditional exceptions -- everyone should forget but his aunt, everyone but his girlfriend, everyone but his friends. In trying to accommodate the requests, Strange's spell goes awry. The unintended consequence of the spell opens a time rift allowing the multi-verse to merge. Villians from other dimensions, and a few other surprises, find themselves together in the current reality. Chaos ensues.
Parker and Strange find themselves at odds over how to resolve the dilemma and relegate all the duplicate versions and various characters back to their own dimensions.
In an attempt to remove Parker from the situation long enough to implement his solution, Strange begins to create a spell that will confine Parker in the Mirror Dimension. But the webslinger has different ideas.
Watching the pieces of Strange's spell come together Parker recognizes the geometric patterns involved. He realizes he can use mathematical formulas to counteract Strange's spell.
As he binds Strange in his own magic, Parker pauses:
"Hey Strange. You know what's cooler than magic? Math," he says before he leaves the shocked sorcerer bound in the Mirror Dimension.
It might just be a movie, but Spider-Man is on to something. Magic is an illusion. It's not a reality. Math, on the other hand, is real but with a fundamental knowledge of math comes the ability to make magic.
Every invention in the history of the world requires some mathematic component to make it work. Roads, bridges, buildings, airplanes, automobiles, televisions, cell phones, computers, microwaves, all require mathematic calculations to function. Baking, cooking, developing recipies all require the use of measurement -- a mathematic function. The practice of pharmacy, medicine and nursing all demand a knowledge of math.
Math is everywhere. You can't escape it. It's cooler than magic.
Let Mathnaisum of Mobile help you unlock the mystery and magic of math. With the Mathnasium Method behind us, we can show you just how cool math can be.
