Clockwork Kingdom - Algebra Road

Algebra Road

At the center of the city lies the House of Wisdom, one of the world’s earliest universities and largest public libraries. Traveling through the bustling streets, we arrive at a large stone gate leading into a tranquil courtyard.

Algebra Road is a high-intensity indoor coaster chronicling the invention of algebra and modern mathematics at the House of Wisdom. Algebra Road is an S&S Axis Coaster, an exciting new model which allows for one-of-a-kind spins irrespective of coaster track. Paired with intricate theming and a tight layout, this indoor coaster makes for an incredibly unique experience.

At the House of Wisdom Courtyard, guests may choose to explore the surrounding corridors or enter through the door onto Algebra Road’s queue. Exploring the corridors allows guests who do not wish to ride the chance to experience its short preshows, titled simply the House of Wisdom.

Entering through the door into the academy, guests enter large ornate hallways poured with bookshelves, diagrams of math and astronomy, and beautiful Islamic architecture and calligraphy.

However, these hallways are largely empty aside from the sounds of marble echoing as one walks down the halls. Upstairs, we can see a terrace of silhouetted scholars, either speaking in hushed tones or peering through a book.

After a few switchbacks, guests continue back towards the edge of the courtyard to meet some of the famous scholars of the House of Wisdom. This small event can be witnessed outside the queue by those wandering the corridors. Along the walls are vast blank pieces of parchment, but on occasion, one of the parchments will begin to move…

House of Wisdom

Queue / Mini-Show

In the main library hall, seven strawn-out empty parchments lie in parallel. The shows alternate between each, about 40 seconds on / 20 seconds downtime. The experience is similar to the preshow of the Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland Park.

Each piece of parchment is a screen projection connected to a draw an animated figure of great note from the Islamic Golden Age in Baghdad. As the drawing concludes, the figure speaks out and is animated to describe their scholarly research and accomplishment. This then abruptly concludes with a silly skit of their work behaving in unexpected ways.

The seven parchments include:

BACK TO RIDE QUEUE

The queue continues past the main library into an alcove featuring a propped-open secret door. Guests walk inside, to find…

The private study of Al-Khwarizmi, perhaps the most famous scholar of the Islamic Golden Age. Known as the father of algebra, Al-Khwarizmi conceputalized “balancing” equations, leading to the discovery of the quadratic equation and more.

The study is packed with parchments, papers, and books filled with ideas, notes, and mathematical calculation. It is lit by flickering candlelight. Around the bend, guests can see the silhouette of a figure urgently scrawling across the pages in deep thought, however, they cannot get an in-person view from here.

Passing through the study, we are ushered down a long, dark and warmly-lit sandstone hallway. Now beneath the House of Wisdom, cast members divide parties into group for a brief prelude. Once they enter into a small room, the doors close and a voice speaks overhead.

Welcome, travelers across time. I am Al-Khwarizmi, called the father of algebra. Today, I will share with you the wonders of mathematics and calculation. But instead of lecture, why don’t I show you?

The stone cavern rock suddenly splits open – like magic – with an empty rollercoaster waiting.

Come friends, and enter the word of algebraic fantasy.

All guests board the axis coaster from the top-facing direction. Within minutes they are given the all-clear and depart the station into the sandy cavern. Onwards!

(The way this thematic reveal works, with an all-empty boarding room, is with four separate “speech rooms” that alternate on a very tight schedule. You can spot the tip of the last coaster leaving just as the doors open).

The Ride

The wind howls as the coaster burrows its way through dusty rockwork. It’s hard to see very far, not helped by the coaster’s meandering across tight turns – but its’careful to not reveal the axis coasters’ unique ride system yet. When suddenly – a white mist begins silently engulfing the tunnels and a wondrous, explorative tune hummers in the background. As the misty wonder overtakes the train, the axis coaster starts gradually revealing its tricks, rocking the individual carts left and right alongside the twists and turns, giving the impression the cavern itself is abstractifying…

Finally, the entire room is mist, just as the music reaches crescendo, and the train rushes out to reveal…

A land of algebraic abstraction. A giant room hosting the indoor coaster (akin to Space Mountain or Rock in Roll Roller Coaster), the dark room contains a pale white grid extended seemingly infinitely along all three geometric planes (x, y, z). Colored lines, abstract shapes, and even simple algebraic equations floats overhead amidst a black void. This edge is a massive screen, akin to a planetarium, allowing for timed effects to occur in small instances overhead.

But uniquely, there is still a clear reminder of our origin. Faint, Islamic-inspired music can be heard overhead and each time the coaster completes a beautiful rotation. Many of the writings and the track itself are painted Islamic green. Early Islamic mathematicans viewed their work not only as compatible but actively engaging with faith to learn about the beauty of the created world. Over the course of the ride, these simples lines, curves, and shapes weave into beautiful tapestries similar to that of Islamic caligrpahic / architecture; as the Arabic world is inspired by basic mathematical principles.

The coaster slowly begins ascending up a lift hill. Above, we can read in floating purple text:

y = x

But the text starts distorting, flashing as a number of alternate equations pop into mind. When suddenly, it is replaced by Al-Khwarizmi’s famous quadratic equation…

ax² + bx + c = 0

The coaster dives down in an initial -90 bend, before progressively turning up to 0 degrees and then back upwards along the quadratic formula.

After the quadratic formula, the axis rotates 90 degrees, switching the “gravity” of the math onto the x-z plane irrespective of y; i.e. the ride is now predominantly horizontal, but the axis coasters’ unique system keeps guests upright. More equations follow, including a spiral pattern rotating the coaster until it seems about to crash into itself.

The first two segments, graphed. Although I will not graph the entire ride, everything from this point is a sum of (approximations of; we need transitions lol) increasingly complex equations.

Scribbles of (arabic) writings paired with numerals familiar to both Al-Khwarizmi and ourselves scrawl overhead, not orderly and contained, but in a rush like a damn has broken. Ideas rattle the coaster and it begins to sway even further.

By this point, the ride has departed from exclusively covering early algebra, rushing across centuries of space-time to develop itself. Here, the axis coaster turns again at just the right moment, aided by the track itself, switching the plane again. Three-variable equations follow as the ride spirals down and utilizes all three planes; the axis ride system accelerates its rotations to create an extremely disorienting yet engaging experience.

Imaginary numbers rush overhead, although they cannot be graphed, so whenever one is near the axis coaster seats rotates itself away. As the roller coaster loses steam and veers towards the bottom of the large room, more graphs seem to pop up, again and again… until they start creating art through math. Coming full circle, sinusoidal equations start resembling shapes and real-like structures… like an Islamic House of Wisdom, transforming into a living and breathing mathematical graph.

The rotating spires, arches, and domes move wave-like as the graph continues. The axis coaster makes one final turn – an elaborate, difficult-to-graph function diving upwards and rotating along the individual cars so that it inverts doubleside. In contrast to the relative simplicity of the ride’s beginning, this moment is given no equation, but perhaps me might wish to solve it after?

Exiting the large black building, the coaster zoom past a short fog and returns to the sandy cavern as if nothing happened (...because nothing did...). Al-Khwarizmi speaks overhead:

Math… art… mind.. in my view, all are one.

So now you see: algorithms for you, algorithms for me.

Without another word we depart through a separate exit to return to the famed House of Wisdom. Entering the Study Hall, a brief themed gift shop wing of the Academy, we can then leave the House into the bustling streets of Crossroads City.

< Back To Subland Page