Monday, November 16, 2020

Dancing Euclidean Proofs!

 The first thing that came into my mind when I watched the video was I have never seen something like this before. Putting Euclidean geometry and dances together is not something that I would have thought of. However, I have to say that Sam and Azul did a very good job in presenting the proofs as dances. You know right away what they were trying to do when they drew on the sand using their bodies. This is especially true for dance number 1. To me, I did not even have to look at the Euclidean geometry proof itself to know that they were trying to draw an equilateral triangle. 

Another thing that stops me is the visual representation of the proofs. As mentioned in the article, if we are just reading the text, we are completely detached from its representation on the page. But with the dances, it is like making the proofs into a movie. That visual and sound of the music would make a deeper impression than just reading the Euclid text. Similarly, if we learn something by visualizing it, the memory will definitely last longer than just reading it on paper.

The third thing is the connection between the dances and the land. In the second dance, we saw that the students used a wooden stick and a rock as a line and point respectively. The drawing on the sand also leaves a trace of the circle and other lines. I think it is a very ingenious idea to have the land (the beach) play a part in the dance. So it is very nice to see the connection among the Math, dances and the land. It would be cool if we use the wave and water as an eraser. So when the waves come ashore, the water will remove the trace of the circle and then the students can draw on them again like a new whiteboard. But that will take too much time and effort to catch that on video. 

1 comment:

  1. Nice! And the idea of the waves as an eraser is a lovely way to put this.

    ReplyDelete

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