Jeric Renz D.

Carolino May 2, 2019

2013-06029 Math 10

I have read chapters 1 and 2 of the 1985 science fiction novel, Contact
by Carl Edward Sagan, a renowned scientist turned author. The book’s initial
chapters had my interests hooked because of the curiosity it emanates in the
character of Ellie. Among the first two chapters a few passages had struck
my eye with the like of:

“With her tongue between her lips, she removed the screws and exposed the innards. As
she had suspected, there were no tiny orchestras and miniature announcers quietly living
out their small lives in anticipation of the moment when the toggle switch would be
clicked to "on." Instead there were beautiful glass tubes, a little like light bulbs.”

The first passage reminded me of my curious self when I was a child.

I’ve always thought of the most obnoxious explanations just like Ellie’s
anticipation of tiny orchestras or miniature announcers living inside the
radio. I thought of people living inside the television, a person living inside a
telephone machine and a person giving out money from the inside of an ATM
machine. I like how this passage relates to both young and old readers.

“The world only looks flat, she thought to herself. Really it's round. This is all a big ball...
turning in the middle of the sky... once a day. She tried to imagine it spinning, with
millions of people glued to it, talking different languages, wearing funny clothes, all
stuck to the same ball.”

This next passage is another manifestation of Ellie’s curiosity. She

knew that even though the world looks flat, it really is round. She even had
the grasp of the diversity that the world possesses. It is indeed amazing that
a girl at her age being highly inclined in topics such as the shape of the
world and cultural and racial diversity.

“After school she bicycled to the library at the nearby college to look through books on
mathematics. As nearly as she could figure out from what she read, her question wasn't
all that stupid. According to the Bible, the ancient Hebrews had apparently thought that pi
was exactly equal to three. The Greeks and Romans, who knew lots of things about
mathematics, had no idea that the digits in pi went on forever without repeating. It was a
fact that had been discovered only about 250 years ago. How was she expected to know if
she couldn't ask questions?”

A lot can arise from questions. It could be as simple as answering

something trivial or until the magnitude of bringing life to solutions that
address the problems of the world. It is amazing the Ellie had the
determination to go through her public humiliation on the topic of pi by her
teacher and go research upon pi. It is through questioning that breathes life
to the ever-growing curiosity of the human mind, and it is through these
inquiries that we humans, find the answers we seek in this world.

“In fact there was an infinity of transcendental numbers. More than that, there were
infinitely more transcendental numbers than ordinary numbers, even though ? was the
only one of them she had ever heard of. In more ways than one, ? was tied to infinity. She
had caught a glimpse of something majestic. Hiding between all the ordinary numbers
was an infinity of transcendental numbers whose presence you would never have guessed
unless you looked deeply into mathematics.”

This passage introduces the concept of transcendental numbers. These

are numbers that are either real or complex numbers but not an algebraic
number. These numbers are important because they play a huge role in the
higher mathematics. Some examples of this are pi, e, sin(x), cos(x) and
tan(x) to say a few.

“Staughton had made it clear that an interest in radio and electronics was unseemly for a
girl, that it would not catch her a husband, that understanding physics was for her a
foolish and aberrational notion. "Pretentious," he called it. She just didn't have the ability.
This was an objective fact that she might as well get used to. He was telling her this for
her own good. She'd thank him for it in later life. He was, after all, an associate professor
of physics. He knew what it took. These homilies would always infuriate her, even
though she had never before--despite Staughton's refusal to believe it--considered a
career in science.

More than 30 years ago, in 1985, women empowerment was at the

forefront of the social uprising along with racism. This passage is a
testament that gender discrimination was an issue especially in the field of
science. I liked how Ellie showcased her strength despite the loss of her
father and the emergence of a step father that despises her. It shows her
maturity and determination that would play a huge role in her life
eventually.

The first two chapters had me instantly hooked. Ellie reminds me of

my younger version who had a knack for the science-related things and the
endless questions about anything and everything which was borderline
annoying for those at the receiving end. The book also had the notion about
space as something that is far greater and infinitely growing entity that we
live among and that we are only a speck of dust in this vast deep space
ocean. I think that the book has an amazing outlook of what the world is and
what it could be and at the same time the same outlook of the kind of girl
Ellie is and what the kind of girl she will be. The book is amazing at it
stimulates curiosity and attracts readers with the help of science.