danielle caschetta geometry project 30 points due: august 13, 2012
TRANSCRIPT
PYTHAGOREAN THEOREM!Danielle CaschettaGeometry Project
30 PointsDue: August 13, 2012
History
Equation: a2 + b2 = c2
Was Pythagoras the first to discover the relationship between the different sides of a right triangle? Not at all. Though he was the first one to write a formal theorem relating the sides.
Pythagoras headed up a college of mathematicians and philosophers that wanted to find balance in the world, through mathematics and science.
History
The men of his college were even rumored to throw a man from their boat while fishing for suggesting that there are numbers that you can not write as a rational number ( ), such as . Which was later acknowledged to exist, but for a time numbers such as that were the “Unmentionables.”
The Pythagorean theorem makes a basic relationship between the different sides. There were other civilizations that made this relationship through different methods.
Why do I care?
Baseball: The bases are loaded, the ball gets hit out towards second base, the baseman has to make a choice, throw the ball to third to get the guy out, or home base to do the same. He knows how fast he can throw the ball but which distance will insure the out? Each base is 90 ft from the next.
Complete example as a class.
Why do I care?
Firemen needing to know what size ladder they should use to reach the 10th story window of a burning building.
Measuring the size of your TV, in stores they tell you the hypotenuse and not the length of the two legs. Bet you didn’t know that! You might know the dimensions of your
entertainment center and have to calculate the diagonal line (hypotenuse) to know the biggest size TV you can buy.
Assignment:
In pairs: Research on the computers the different
civilizations that used this theorem. Choose one to look at more in depth. Discover the differences in how they dealt
with triangles. Make a poster or presentation of your choice
to share with the class discussing your civilization and their methods of manipulating right triangles.
See Explanation/Reflection sheet for more directions.