Calculations

I know that many people (including myself) sometimes find calculations boring. These people prefer hands-on type learning and have a more intuitive understanding of Geometry. These people can see why a construction works, but can not necessarily explan why. People such as these can gain more by understanding how do calculate various parts of constructions, and be able to explain why they work.

Whether you are finding a cone's surface area, calculating pi, or creating new constructions, the underlying principles of mathematics are the same. The formulas you use are only slightly more complicated than those you got in algebra. The difference is, and the reason why Geometry is a year-long course is because all of those formulas need to be applied to reality. Of course you can describe a parabola with an algebraic function, but geometry tells you what it actually looks like and its relationship to the surrounding world. Formulas are applied mathematics. They are useful because they describe everyday objects.

Funcions and formulas come from algebra, where we learned how to make and modify them, but Geometry applies formulas. Geometry is the next step after Algebra. Formulas are really for calculating the way things move and interact. You can use formulas to calculate aspects of any object. Click here for a list Geometrical Formulas.

Geometry is especially crucial in engineering. Shipmakers, for example, use Geometry and material science to determine if their ships will sink or float. Airplane designers use Geometry in wing design and construction. Architects design buildings with Geometry. Geometry explains how things are related to each other in simple terms. That is why it is so useful.

There is more to Geometry than formulas, however, other aspects of Geometry include measuring, constructing, proving, and pi.

Constructing is one of the more useful aspects of Geometry. Using this skill, which combines many skills, you can create figures which can be measured or made into a diagram for designing.

Proving is an aspect of Geometry probably not prefered by the people that I described in the introduction to this page. Proving involves using a set of accepted statements called postulates to prove conclusions using deductive reasoning, which means that something is deduced by facts, not a pattern or observation. Proving can be used to prove very interesting facts about specific Geometric figures. Proving is quite interesting.

While not exactly separate from a formula, pi is one of the most interesting and contraversial of all formulas. Pi is the ratio of the diameter of a circle to the circle's circumference. Click here for more information on pi and a pi-related construction.

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