2001 A Space Odyssey: The mysterious monolith Today, another article of Dodka, Mathematics and Film, dedicated to film 2001: A Space Odyssey . As with all items that are rescuing the sinking of Dodka, we took this opportunity to correct and enlarge the text.
For anyone who has not yet seen the movie, be advised that this article comment extensively on its argument, and it is our intention to spoil (spoil in English) the plot, so if you want to view the film without preconceptions, read no further!
Perhaps best remembered for this film is its soundtrack, where it appears that magnificent composition entitled
Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Richard Strauss . The chords resounding go listening as a supposed precursor del homo sapiens aprende a manejar un hueso, golpeándolo violentamente contra otros huesos esparcidos por el suelo. Entre tanto, la escena está siendo contemplada por un misterioso monolito que ha venido de no se sabe dónde y que se convierte después en el núcleo de la película.
El monolito negro y enigmático aparece en ese momento en que comienza el despertar de la raza humana. Resulta ser una especie de guía, un instructor, un objeto cuya presencia es el punto de partida del desarrollo del hombre. No se sabe quién lo colocó allí, pero evidentemente se trata de una inteligencia superior que quiere que el ser humano evolucione, y que en esas épocas de fragilidad para la especie humana viene a ayudar en developing skills that will enable intelligent hominids take advantage compared to the ecosystem and other competitor species.
film then jumps to a future time located at the beginning of 2001. It has been three billion years in which the human species has evolved to develop a technological civilization capable of undertaking the first interplanetary travel. In Earth orbit are building a large space station, and travel to the Moon are daily trips for scientists and astronauts, who have set up a permanent base in Clavius \u200b\u200bcrater. During investigations
on the moon, scientists discover another monolith similar to that witnessed the beginning of the human race, buried beneath the rocky surface of the crater Tycho. When the strange object is found and excavated, and receives the first rays of the sun, sends a powerful radio transmission toward Jupiter. The device was placed on the moon as a sort of alarm or warning of such unknown beings that helped mankind in its infancy, the unearthed it means that the human race has succeeded in its technological development, and is able to leave their own planet, and the monolith is scheduled to send a message with the news.
The scientists decided to send a ship,
Discovery toward the planet Jupiter, manned by several cosmonauts among which is the main character, David Bowman. After suffering some setbacks
with on-board computer HAL 9000, Bowman finally arrives at the vicinity of Jupiter and is there in the middle of space, another monolith, like the first two, but a gigantic .. .
The film, directed by Stanley Kubrick and based on a screenplay written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke is already a classic, not only in the genre of science fiction, but in the entire history of cinema. The choice of form of the objects is just one of its strengths: monoliths, to call in some way, very specific characteristics, its color is black, opaque, without reflection. The material they are made is unknown and resists any analysis. The only thing you can say is they are made by a nonhuman intelligence. But this statement barely hints ... It's like a truth that nobody wants to accept and less to say ... All is mystery ...
What has sustained the principle that the monoliths are created by an intelligence and not a product of nature? Not really its color and material, but its perfect geometric shape. The mathematics are responsible for giving us the proof that these objects are not appearing at random.
scientists Clavius \u200b\u200bmoon base have discovered the monolith to study the lunar magnetic fields. In the crater Tycho has detected a strong magnetic anomaly indicating the presence of something unknown, and when they dig, they find the perfect geometric object, deliberately buried by an alien intelligence millions of years ago.
In the novel, Arthur C. Clarke wrote to while developing the idea and the script with Stanley Kubrick, and published almost simultaneously that the movie premiered, he mentions a special feature of the monolith:
A curious, and perhaps unimportant feature block, had provoked endless discussions. The monolith was 11 feet high and 1 ¼ by 5 feet in cross section. When its dimensions are measured with great care, were found to be in exact proportion 1 to 4 - 9, the squares of the first three integers. No one could suggest any convincing explanation for this, but could hardly be a coincidence, because the proportions were maintained until the limits of measurement accuracy. It was humiliating to think that all terrestrial technology was not capable of shaping a block, even inert, of any material, with such great accuracy. On his way, this passive but most arrogant displays of geometric perfection was as impressive as any of the other attributes of the monolith.
Thus, each block is a perfect cuboid with dimensions accurate. If we consider the width as 1 unit, the length would be 4 units and 9 units high, ie, their dimensions are proportional to the numbers 1, 4 and 9.
To get an idea, I can not think of anything to compare it with a small bar of nougat, which had 1 cm thick, 4 wide and 9 long. Or another 2 inches thick, 8 wide and 18 long. Both tablets would be similar in a mathematical sense, although of course one would be bigger than the other, but the dimensions of both follow the same proportions 1:4:9.
That's what happens with the monoliths. The three are similar, the three are exactly the same proportions, but are of different sizes. In the novel, scientists will measure the moon monolith recognize with astonishment that the measurements are accurate as far as the precision of measuring instruments: there is the slightest mistake in their manufacture. They are so perfect that the world does not seem real, as if they were truly physically embodied ideal mathematical entities.
Proportions followed are not random. 1, 4 and 9 are the squares of the first three natural numbers, 1, 2 and 3. By choosing these proportions has made a simple but elegant choice. Indeed, the size of the monoliths is sleek and imposing. And also seem to suggest a sequence: 1, 2, 3 ... obviously, the next number would be 4, and the series of squares, 16. If we associate each side with a dimension of space, we have represented in the monolith the three dimensions, but the sequence points to a fourth dimension, then a fifth, sixth, etc.
When released, the genre of science fiction films was transformed by 2001: A Space Odyssey . But no lessons were learned that showed on your bill. There have been many science fiction films with an excess of special effects that interest beyond them, come to overwhelm the viewer. Like a continuous display of fireworks, the explosions occur, ships across the screen, impossible feats in the last second. The writers are refusing to represent what the space really, and very few films that know how to combine an intelligent script with a correct staging and fanciful.
is something already well known that in space there is no means by which it can transmit sound. It also happens that in space, especially if you travel at the speed of light, the flights are very long, and it takes months and even years to reach a celestial body to another. Moreover, each planet is different in weight, composition, life ... An astronaut reached a different planet but this planet was similar to Earth would probably need an adjustment period. Of course, there would be a terrible danger in the possible extraterrestrial virus and bacteria. You do not leave the planet Earth and have to suffer such an adaptation. When we travel to some tropical countries, needs to be vaccinated for many diseases. In other countries it is common to have passenger woes by changing water and food, and in Mexico it is common for English visitors suffer Montezuma's revenge, severe diarrhea that appear the first few days because of the water change.
Imagine then what might be landing on another planet. In fact it is normal that there are other planets gravitational force. If more light would occur as the moon, the astronauts would appear to jump steps, and any object launched seem to move in slow motion. But in the more massive planets gravity the human body would be subject to a heavier weight and the bones of astronauts suffer horribly, I would be very difficult to walk and be exhausted by the slightest effort. An object thrown into the air fall to the ground lead.
These small details that anyone can understand have been little exploited by Hollywood writers, partly because of the complications of having to represent these characteristics. In the original series Star Trek , released in the 60's, due to the limited budget and the difficulties in representing a more real, it was decided to invent the teleporter to keep the players had to be using shuttles all the time to get down to planets, and also decided that the ships have artificial gravity. Also, almost all planets have visited Earth-like features, and players do not need any adaptation or protection against the new environment of the planet. Just
films such as 2001 have come in their effects and real space approach, and surprisingly, the result has been great. The scene in which the shuttle and orbital base while turning rhythmic fit perfectly with the music of the Blue Danube in the background, the best achieved. Contemplate the long ship that travels to Jupiter moving month by month in the terrible vacuum of space, amid the silence is overwhelming. Approach the vast bulk of the largest planet in the solar system by maneuvers that have for days makes you respect and understand the meaning of a planet, an entire planet, giant, for the insignificance that we are human beings.
Finally the film ends in a final enigmatic, open to all sorts of speculation. It's just one of the strengths of the film. In the end, Bowman is inserted through the stargate that opens in the monolith of the orbit of Jupiter, through interdimensional passages flanked by endless bright geometric patterns, results in strange places of the galaxy where new stars are born continuously from gas clouds and dust and finally reached a planet unimagined in which landscapes are deployed inverted colors, until finally the capsule ends in the middle of what looks like a hotel room, synthesized by the same intelligence that has made the monoliths and has guided the capsule to the site. In a succession of quiet scenes, Bowman is aging rapidly to death, and afterwards becomes a kind of child star, as if he had transformed and was born to a new reality, beyond the three-dimensional space and dimensions Temporary Earth.
Notes: To understand the movie fully, it is important to read the novel by Arthur C. Clarke. It reads easily, is very interesting, and gives many more details than are on the screen. There are also several points where the novel and film are different, even though Clarke wrote the novel as Kubrick filmed, and both worked together to get the script. The differences are explained by the different views people have of the same story as is told in a book or film is expressed, in addition, at the time of filming, special effects technicians and allowed certain scenes, but other scenes were too complicated to shoot in the sixties. For example, Kubrick placed the third monolith in Jupiter's orbit, whereas in the novel, the third monolith is erected on the surface of Iapetus, a satellite of Saturn, Jupiter was a planet more familiar and easy to represent Saturn with its ring system. For me personally, these differences between novel and film does not bother me, and I find very interesting.
On the other hand, if we bother to measure on-screen proportions of the monolith that appears in the film, it may not exactly match the triplet 1 - 4 - 9. I have not measured, but I'm sure the black block used by Kubrick is narrower than it should be, and I think more elongated. This seems to have a more stylized and enigmatic. In film, the proportion of things is changed often to get certain sensations.
I also recommend reading my other entry
HAL, IBM and other trifles to learn more interesting details of the film.
