The film is about Vivek who has always topped school but is now expected to get into IIT. His father hauls the reluctant lad to Kota where all he has of home is a pearl pet bottle of laddoos. The hostel is littered with dreams of unwashed lads who write on walls but don’t qualify in exams, well thumbed Playboys, unpalatable food and girls who are inevitably better at everything. But all is not lost. The film starts with Vivek’s voiceover saying that Euler’s equation is the most beautiful mathematical theorem.
In a flash Richard Feynman’s words saying that Euler (pronounced ‘oiler’) has given is a most remarkable theorem. It simply goes like this: e raised to the power of i pi plus one equals zero. This equation uses five mathematical constants beautifully.
The Number 1: The Counting Number
You know that ancient Egyptians, Indians, Chinese as well as the Greeks used the decimal system to calculate numbers. The Mayans used lines and dots, the Chinese depicted numbers with bamboo sticks placed horizontally and vertically in boxes leaving the box empty to say zero! No matter how you count, the number ‘1’ has given us a system of column by column calculations. The binary system uses ones and zeroes. But the coolest method was used by the Mesopotanians. They counted to sixty, just as our watches.
Thankfully when you have to invest today in international offerings, ensure that you are using a credible counting system. The value of currencies fluctuate and you need to be on top of your game to win. They say that there are three types of people who understand numbers. Those who can count and those who don’t. Only one manages to work hard to become number one.
Zero: The Nothingness Number
As you know Aryabhatta first invented the concept of ‘shunya’ or zero, but it was Brahmagupta who gave us the rules for using zero. The Bodleian Library at Oxford has an ancient parchment which is dated 300-400 BC which mentions the number zero as we know it!
As a smart investor, you have heard of zero-sum games. It assumes that when one party wins, the other loses equally. But you know that there are transaction costs, so if playing, you must aim for positive sum games.
Also Read: Taika Waititi’s Next Goal Wins: 3 valuable money lessons to teach investors
Pi: The Circle Number
From pizzas to the moon in the sky, man has been fascinated in calculating the value of circles. Maths nerds celebrate the fourteenth of March as the day of Pi, in Vienna Metro at Karlsplatz, the value of Pi (to a hundred decimal points) is celebrated all across the platform, William Shanks is celebrated (although he got some last decimal places incorrect) at the Palais de la Découverte in Paris, you can visit the Pi room.
A simple maths lesson here: No matter what kind of investor you are, you want a bigger piece of the pie. So step out of the risk circle that is limiting you, and discover that little extra piece which will go a long way!
E: The Exponential Number
It is said that the king was so pleased with the game of chess, that he asked the inventor, ‘What would you like as a prize?’ In those days, bags of wheat were generally considered as a gift. The inventor replied: one grain for the first square, two for the second and so on until all 64 squares were covered. The king was happy, but the treasurer was alarmed beyond belief! The inventor had asked for 18, 446, 744, 073, 709, 551, 615 grains of wheat. That pile was as big as Mount Everest!
Everyone needs their investments to grow exponentially. But when investing, ask how many times the interest is being calculated! Do the maths yourself and see the fun you can have when you calculate annual, bi-yearly and quarterly interest rates!
I is the Imaginary Number, The Square Root of Minus One
Without getting into the seriously cool mathematics of imaginary numbers, just know that imaginary numbers are real, and they find great use in alternating current (your electricity), in quadratic equations, even in those colourful lights on the spectrum analysers when music is playing.
When investing you are dealing with your hard earned money, you are dealing with cold hard numbers that get added to your bank account.
The film All India Rank is as predictable as a bank account statement. It is what it is. The Marathi film Shala which has a similar plot made me want to go back to school and fall in love again. But the film gave Euler a heads up, and made maths fun again!
Manisha Lakhe is a poet, film critic, traveller, founder of Caferati — an online writer’s forum, hosts Mumbai’s oldest open mic, and teaches advertising, films and communication. She can be reached on Twitter at @manishalakhe.
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Published: 24 Feb 2024, 11:49 AM IST