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Inscribe Semicircle In Square by Geometric Construction
As an exercise in geometry: Inscribe a semicircle in a square using compasses...
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Mathematics Forum on LinkedIn.com Achieves1000 Members
Math, Math Education,Math Culture
, the populardiscussion forum on theLinkedIn.comsocial
network has achieved
cover a range of topics from
philosophical contemplationof the "Effect of math onhuman cognition?" to ahumorous look at a schoolmaths problem, "The mean weight of 50 students in a class." The forum was created inSeptember 2007 by Opher Liba, an educator, researcher and author. LinkedIn.com is notthe kind of social network where you would post a photo of your pet cat. It operates morelike an online CVor resume, with some incidental featuresfor networking with other
professionals. It does provide about adozen third party applications, such as sharing
Powerpoint presentations, or postsfrom your blog, but these slow down the website.
Alternative meeting places in cyberspace for mathematics enthusiasts include:
http://mathematics24x7.ning.com/ (almost 300 members) andMathematics/Mathematik
in German and English on Xing.com(almost 2000 members). These sites are free of
charge, with optional extras for paying members. Facebook has discussion groups like
I
HEART MATHEMATICS(over 2700 members), with discussions suchas"Funny Math T
-
Shirts." The Facebook groupMathematicians ONLY!
whom are brave enough to discuss the "Definition of a Mathematician".
Math_Forum_on_LinkedIn
A lecturer asked me to recommend a web sitewhere students could read onlinenews about
Information Technology. One sitethat comes to
mind iseWeek.com
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RECENT COMMENTS
Colin McAllister
said:Two other challengingconstructions are
Napoleon's problem and
Compass constructionof Pappus chain. Auseful reference isGeometry ConstructionReference.
read more
onRediscovering
Straight
-edge and
Compass Construction
Colin McAllister
said:The geometry files forsemicircle in square areavailable for download
in the Box.Net panel on
my
mathematics24x7.ning.c
profile page:...read
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Straight
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Compass Construction
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from Google Docs, I
clicked on the...read
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Tags: computer, pc, science, software, physics, astronomy, cosmology, ict …
q
Microsoft's Big Windows 7 Week. Microsoft's
2006
-
2007 release of Windows Vista wasreported as disappointing; causing many PC users to stick with Windows XP, sothe release of Windows 7 has been widely anticipated.
q
NASA Space Funding Reaches Critical Point. NASA is planning the future ofspace travel against a background of controversial decisions, such as: whether touse the Moon as a stepping stone to Mars, whether to use humans or robots toexplore space, and whether space travel should be a commercial or government
funded venture.
q
Why the Droid Can Challenge the iPhone. Should mobile phones be locked toapplications and services that Apple Inc. permits, or should you have a free choiceto customise mobile applications and services, as with (An)Droid?
q
Windows 7 Comes on USB Drives for Netbooks.
Software and documents have
traditionally been stored on spinning magnetic discs that are prone to mechanical
failure, but we are now in the decade where solid
-
state memory (with no movingparts), has become a cost effective and more reliable alternative.
q
Tilera Talks 100
-
Core Processor. Some calculations, such as simulating thecollision between two black holes, would be too dangerous to try as experiments(1) and too complex to solve on an office PC, so scientists use dozens ofcomputers on a single silicon chip, to complete their calculations in days ratherthan years. This new technology makes supercomputers available for businessapplications. My comment (1) about making black holes collide is just a joke, as scientists do not havetheability to performsuch an experiment. I explain the joke, because some people wereneedlessly worried by speculation that the
Large Hadron Collider
experimentscould
create a black hole
. To observe the
collision of two black holeswouldbe a physicists
dream, and it will eventually happen at some vast distance fromour galaxy, and release
enough energy to be detected on Earth. Scientists cansimulate a collison of blackholes
using super computers, since it is described by Einstein's equations of generalrelativity.
Theabove NASA image, showing two spiral galaxies colliding is somewhat relevant, as it
demonstrates that cosmological events 100's of millions of light
years away can be viewed
like format of weekly publications made sense when they were printed on
http://slashdot.org/ , by contrast, has become the classic site wheretechnologynews is
posted and rated by its readers. It is worth wading throughthe sometimes inane
comments to find an occasional gem of alternative opinion.
I have nointerest in any of the above mentioned
Collision_of_Spiral_Galaxies
Rediscovering Straight
-
edge and CompassConstruction
Aug 17, 2009
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People who haven't had the right opportunity to learn math have
something in common
with people who were born before math was invented.
Perhaps some of the techniques ofEuclidean geometry
could be revived in a format
that is more accessible today.Specifically, the ancient tools ofstraight
-
edge and compass, could be reinvented to suittoday's teaching needs. Take this geometry problem:
What is the largest area of the semi
-
circle that can be inscribed in a square of edge length 1 unit?
That was thequestionposted by harpreetin the topic " maxima & minima" on aMathematics forum
on
Orkut.com. Some mathematics enthusiasts took a team approach tothis problem on theMathematics24x7social network, Christian drew a diagram of the solution and Stevecalculated the radius of the semicircle. We calculatedthe radius as 2
-
sqrt(2) and the area
as
(sqrt() represents the square root.)Danny proposed a less abstractexpression of the problem, which would be more interesting to students.
"I have been a sked to help paint a mural on the outside wall of a
gr ocery store in my neighborhood. My
t ask is to create the background for the mural. The in structions are to create the largest p ossible semicircle on the wall, with the semicircle tou ching all 4 sides. The
wall is square
w ith 10 feet on each side. I need to find out how to po sition the semicircle to satisfy the instructions. I also ne ed to know t he radius and center of the semicircle. How can I figure this out with the basic math that I know?"
In the discussionStraight Edge and CompassConstruction For Developmental Math, I described a method of drawing the mural using
a
long plank, lengthsof rope, a few pegs and some chalk.
Use the rope to extend the base of the wall, to the right, by its width, and mark the point with a peg. This defines an
imaginary s quare
that is side by sid e with, and on the right of the square wall. Draw a diagonal o n the original square, because we know that the solution is symmetrical about the diagonal. Mark a diagonal on the imaginary square by stretching a rope from the peg to the top right corner of the square wall. This is a way of calculating the square root of two. Using the peg as the center point and the rope as a radius, follow an arc down to the base of the wall, and mark the point where the arc intersects the base. The distance of that point from the left wall is 2
-
sqrt(2), which is the radius of the semicircle. Draw a perpendicular from that point, and where it meets the diagonal, peg the center point of the semicircle. Attaching a length of rope to the peg, stretch it to the furthest wall,
and with
chalk held fixed on the rope, draw the semicircle.
I also described the construction inmore abstract terms, and used the
GeoGebra
geometry software to demonstrate.(See thediagram, where the biggest semicircle that fits in the square is positioned diagonally in thetop left of the diagram.)
Draw the square as a 4 sided regular polygon. Draw
an identical square to its right Draw the diagonals of the right hand square and use them as radii of arcs that intersect the left hand square. Create points where the arcs intersect the base and top side of the lef t hand square. Join these two points with a vertical line. Its intersection with the diagonal of the left hand square defines the centre of the semicircle.Draw the semicircle through any one point on the square and notice that it touches or intersects the square at 4 points. Draw the base of the semicircle through the two intersection points.
(I mistakenly drew the wall as 11 feet instead of 10, but that does notdetract from the construction.) Constructive geometry involves no measurement of length,except use of the compass as a tool to copy a length and duplicate it somewhere else
on
the plane. It also involves no algebra. We multiply a length by extending it with additional
Semicircle_In_Square
of 00
A Blog About Mathematics, Science and Computing on Vox.com
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