#Yep the distances are all read from the map of the sailing distance calculator

[luciuscaelus]

Ody Does Math

“Good morning, teacher.” sang the kids, faces radiating vitality.

Indeed, it was a good morning. You can hear the larks chanting in the forest, oak leaves whispering secrets of the wind, and see the open fields bathing in the blazing sunlight casted by Lord Helios. Every bit of this scenery was calling for your attention.

But now is not the right time for that. Commented Athena, in her mind. Now is the time for their math class, and none of them can escape this fact.

So she simply nodded to their greeting. So far so good. She gave a quick glance around the classroom. Odysseus, her favorite student, seemed rather eager for the class. He’s doing good as always, Athena thought. Eurylochus, on the other hand, seemed quite unsettled. Curious. Is it because of his homework? Athena wondered. And as she set her eyes on the next student, she called:

“What are you doing there, Mr. Polites?”

She could see his panic alright. But soon as Polites reclaimed himself she heard him say: “Sorry, Ms. Athena. I was just trying to pack this bag real quick.”

“What for?”

“Er, Ms. Athena…I don’t suppose this is the right place to say—”

“What for, Mr. Polites?”

He sighed. “It’s for a friend of mine, really. Today’s his birthday.”

As he finished, Athena caught a glimpse of the mild blush on Odysseus’s face. It wasn’t hard to figure out what exactly was happening here, but she merely said:

“Well, in that case, I might as well congratulate this friend of yours with a ‘happy birthday’. Hope he gets to be a valiant warrior, a warrior of the mind. And yes, you may sit down, Mr. Polites.”

As everybody settled on their seats, Athena quickly chalked a line of Greek on the blackboard. It reads: ΣΤΟΙΧΕΙΑ ΓΕΩΜΕΤΡΙΚΑ (Elements of Geometry). As soon as she finished, she said:

“Welcome to today’s math class, everyone. We’ll begin with a discussion on a simple problem in your textbook. Now, please turn to page 43, and evaluate the problem quickly. I’ll ask for your ideas in a few minutes.”

It’s not hard. Thought Odysseus. Just some simple geometry. You draw a perpendicular BC at point B with half the length of AB, and…

“Mr. Eurylochus, if you may?”

Eurylochus’s hesitation was all written on his face. And his silence was loud enough to speak for his cluelessness. I should help him. However, it’s not my turn. Thought Odysseus.

Athena apparently noticed something. “Mr. Odysseus, if you may?”

“Yes ma’am. You need to draw a perpendicular BC…now we have an auxiliary right triangle ABC, right? Draw an arc with center C and radius BC intersecting the hypotenuse at a point D. Then draw an arc with center A and radius AD intersecting AB at a point, say E. Now E should be the golden ratio point.”

“Good job. Now prove it.”

”Prove it?” now it was Odysseus’s turn to hesitate, but he hoped that he didn’t show it. However, Athena was quick to pick up something…else. “Well,” he started, “all I gotta do is…huh, what’s this bag for?”

A look at Polites was sufficient to explain everything.

“Mr. Polites! You seem quite eager to hand the present out, I see. Why don’t you give Mr. Odysseus a hand, by proving this point E to be the golden ratio point as he claims?”

Polites was eager, alright. He stood up swiftly, and said, “May I have a chalk, Ms. Athena?” After a moment Polites finished the proof on the chalkboard, saving the day. Then Athena complimented both Polites and Odysseus, and the class moved on.

But Eurylochus was uncomfortable with the compliment that Odysseus had received. Geometry is his strong point alright, thought Eurylochus, but let’s just wait till we get to arithmetics.

…

And soon they got to arithmetics. But there were only 10 minutes left for the class. So Athena decided to give a little quiz.

“I have a challenge, a test of skills.” said Athena, “the problem is, are you all ready for it?”

All nods. Ok. “Then let us begin by introducing a geographic fact. This is Troy, 600 miles away from us if you travel by sea. Now suppose that a ship travels at a speed of 5.755 miles per hour without the wind, and it is heading from Troy to Ithaca in full speed, and when it is 2.8 miles away from Ithaca it takes a turn to Temesa, sailing through 290 miles in total, and from there to Aeaea 158 miles away. Suppose the ship sails in a uniform speed, without any wind. How long does it take in total?”

Odysseus could see their expressions clearly. He could see Eurylochus busy doing the calculations, which wasn’t a surprise at all since he was so good at it. I could use a good right-hand man like him. Odysseus thought. And let’s see how Polites is doing. He seems to be struggling with it, which is not a good sign…

But what are you doing, Odysseus?

He had no idea. To be honest he haven’t even figured out how a decimal point works, but he’ll do it anyway, after all he’s a warrior of the mind! What do those miles add up to? 420? 420 divided by 5.755 is…730, right? Wait that 730 looks so familiar…isn’t that twice as long as 365 days? My goddess, that’s a really long time!

“Mr. Odysseus, what’s your answer?” From afar, he could hear Athena calling to him. But this time, there is no more hesitation. He had found his confidence. He knew his result to be true, though somehow he doubted the validity. But he’s gonna answer it anyway, knowing that had it been wrong, the fault was not his at all, but Athena’s. She provided the data, didn’t she? So nothing can go wrong. Just you chill, just you stand, just you answer.

”Ma’am…it’s two long years.”

#It’s 181.6 hours with no storm or tidal wave #He made two different mistakes over the decimal points #see if you can spot them #And the last mistake was about unit conversion #odysseus #epic the musical #fanfic #math #12 long years #somehow i don’t suppose this little nerdy fic can go popular? #Nonetheless I’d still like to nerd out something concerning my data #So I consulted the wikipedia to discover that specific map made by Abraham Ortelius depicting the return journey of Ody #It sets the land of Laestrygonians and Aeaea in the south of Rome #Which means that if Ody was to be blown by the storm from Ithaca in-sight (about 2.8 miles away) all the way back to Aeolia #And from there to the Land of the Giants #he’ll have to take a slight turn to visit Temesa #putting the distance he traveled from Ithaca to Temesa to be 290 miles (I checked the map literally) #Yep the distances are all read from the map of the sailing distance calculator #And the speed of the ship was VMG (5 knots look pretty normal so I picked it) #And by inserting those three mistakes that everyone has potential to make #I get the number cleanly (with some rounding offs ofc) #And isn’t that incredible? #Gosh I’m so excited about this little coincidence