It's time for another edition of Maths Matter on RTÉjr. Have a listen to what Julie and Phil have to say about geometry in this one.
Julie explains more below...
Patterns and sequences exist in numbers, but also in shapes. And shapes are part of a type of maths called geometry.
To give you a proper definition, Geometry is the study of shapes: you can use it to measure the area of a flat shape, the perimeter (the distance around something) of a flat shape, or you can use it to measure the volume or surface area of solid shapes.
Geometry as a mathematical tool can be traced back to the Ancient Egyptians, but it was the ancient Greeks who gave it the name it has. When translated from ancient greek, Geometry literally means measure of Earth: "geo" for Earth and "metron" for measure. And that's exactly what they used it for: to measure how large or small a piece of land was.
The most famous ancient mathematician to study geometry is Euclid. He wrote a book around 2300 years ago that was still used to teach maths only a few hundred years ago. This book, called Elements, described geometry in very simple steps (check out the podcast to find out what they are!)
From those basic explanations Euclid created about lines and angles, all sorts of shapes can be created. There are 2 dimensional shapes, which have a height and width and can be drawn on a piece of flat paper, and 3 Dimensional shapes, which have a height, width and depth and, if small enough, can be held in your hand.
But understanding the relationships between shapes, and spaces, helps us to understand our natural world.
Have a look around you (again, and not for the spider in the corner), and see what shapes you can find? And how do those shapes fit into the space?
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