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WDCS044 The Mad Chemist
After
a bump to his head Donald suddenly acquires scientific
skills enabling him to come up with a formula for a
powerful explosive, Duckmite. He elaborates on the
formula depicted in the panel by adding: If I mix CH2 with NH4 and boil the
atoms in osmotic fog, I should get speckled nitrogen!
The actual
chemical CH2 had not yet been discovered when Barks made his story. Today it
is known as a methylene compound (one carbon atom bound to two hydrogen
atoms) just as Donald 'foresaw'.
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U$69 The Cattle King
The nephews succeed in saving a high-speed
train from colliding with a trainload of explosives. One
of the nephews says: According to the Junior
Woodchucks' Guidebook's page of differential equations in
problematic variables for diminishing ratios... -
His scared brother hurries him: Get to the point!
And the equation follows as seen in the panel.
Notice the subtle reference to former US President Lyndon
B. Johnson, generally known as LBJ, who came from Texas
where the story unfolds!
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WDCS244 Missile Fizzle
Duckburg
is about to send up its first rocket into space. Over and
Over Commanding General Bragg explains: Our seven-stage,
solid-fueled, triple-reverse-trust space probe will milk
the mystery from the milky way! And keen-minded, big-brained
scientists second his words as seen in the panel rendered above.
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WDCS136 'Bridge Building'
The nephews (as
Junior Woodchucks) solve a simple
trigonometry problem (well, simple if you
know how, of course!). They have to
bridge a gully and for that end they have
to know the exact distance across the
stream. Using their JW protractor and
some calculations they soon figure out
the distance to be 23 feet.
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WDCS272 Spare that Hair
Donald is an expert
barber who takes on all sorts of requests.
One comes from an insecure young man who
wants to be an egghead in order to
impress his girlfriend. By simply
applying a huge build-up dome of plastic
foam and ivory enamel to the man's scalp
he completely changes personality:
All of a sudden I understand barycentric
calculus and the interpolation of
isoperimetric arcs!
F(x) = dx = Dy + 2z!
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U$57 The Swamp of No Return
A scientist employed by Scrooge has invented an ingenious
apparatus that can completely change the personality of any living
being. In the above panel Barks offers these impressive ingredients
on differential equations from the wonderful world of
mathematics.
Notice that Barks happened to make one of his very rare spelling errors in the
dialogue of this panel: Quadrantic should read Quadratic.
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WDCS195 'Train Collision'
Barks presents us
with two calculus problems that are both
solved by the nephews. At first, they
play on the floor with their toy trains;
they try to figure out the precise speed
of two locomotives in order to prevent
them from colliding on the track. Later
on, gruesome reality sets in when a TV
announcer prompts people for help; a
runaway locomotive and The Limited, a
passenger train, are on collision course
and the rescue people need to know
exactly where the collision will take
place. He offers a number of details: The
Limited's speed uphill is 60 mph less ice
slippage of 8.64%! Headwinds of 50 mph
will be met for 12 miles below Blue
Canyon! At mile 23 the grade increases 4%
...
Information continues to pour out enabling the
nephews to calculate the point of collision, the
rescuers can throw down rubber mattresses onto the
track, and lives are saved!
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U$48 The Many Faces of Magica de Spell
Magica has used several dastardly potions throughout the stories, but in
general we are not presented to details of ingredients except in this
story. Magica
worked frantically on no less than two special hex juice concoctions. The first
one was meant to disfigure Scrooge and make him lose face, as it were, and when
this failed she tried to make a second brew in order to restore her own face.
Here are the ingredients' lists in case you need ideas for your next party
drinks:
1: Powdered dragons' teeth, fat from a royal fathead, dingbat fuzz, a cross-eyed
cat's whiskers.
2: Dried bats' ears, swamp scum, hair from a red-tailed monkey, horns from a
knock-kneed hoot owl, butter from a green-eyed goat, sulphur, molasses,
stardust, two faded photographs, Tulebug toenails. |
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FC0275 In Old Persia
The
scary professor in this story is obsessed by the thought of being able
to resurrect dead people and maybe even produce eternal life. Inside an
ancient Persian temple ruin he finally gets the last piece to the
puzzle.
Here are the needed ingredients to make the all-important resurrection
water: Myrrh of Chaldee, Oil of Assyrian artichokes, Sap of Dead Sea
cattails, Dust of a dehydrated beetle, and a fraction of a thunderbolt.
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U$34 Mythtic Mystery
Scrooge, Donald and the nephews are blown through the air to a nearby
small planet that seems to be Valhalla, the home of the ancient gods!
The scientific part of the story is very strange indeed, and the
astronomer really had to come up with some convincing explanations in order
to get us to accept the whole concept. See how I explain away such
anomalies with scientifically provable hogwash, as Barks uttered in a
later interview.
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