Around 300 BC, Euclid wrote "The Elements", a major treatise on the geometry of the time, and what would be considered "geometry" for many years after. Arguably "The Elements" is the second most read book of the western world, falling short only to The Bible. In his book, Euclid states five postulates of geometry which he uses as the foundation…

In this paper, using the Lambert series and other known results, the authors consider the computation of a class of series involving the powers of generalized Fibonacci and Lucas numbers, and obtain their approximate values.

In this article quadrilaterals with concurrent maltitudes are characterized. A generalization of the maltitudes is given, and a larger family of quadrilaterals for which an analogous property of concurrency holds is determined and studied.

Students' difficulty with reasoning and justification in the context of proofs in geometry has been well documented. Studies reveal that many of the ideas that students are asked to prove are known to be true, and therefore, the process of such proof is likely to remain meaningless and purposeless. The implication of this claim is that students…

This note provides a self-contained introduction to conics as loci of points equidistant from circles, lines and points, including a study of the loci of points equidistant from two circles, separated, intersecting or touching. (Contains 1 table and 8 figures.)

Between the 17th and 19th centuries, the Japanese government closed its borders to the outside world in an attempt to become more powerful. Foreign books were banned, people could not travel, and foreigners were not allowed to enter the country. One result of this isolation was the flourishing of sangaku--wooden tablets inscribed with intricately…

As time has progressed, the role of applied mathematics has become increasingly important. Indeed there are now more students enrolled in applied mathematics courses in senior high schools and colleges than in pure mathematics. Such courses become more relevant both to the student and to future employers, if the same constants and equations that…

The author of this article, while recently working through some problem sets on determining volumes by triple integrals in cylindrical and spherical coordinate systems, realized that, although the textbook he was using included many interesting problems involving spheres, cylinders and cones and the increasingly complex solids that arose from the…

Direct sum decomposition of Abelian groups appears in almost all textbooks on algebra for undergraduate students. This concept plays an important role in group theory. One simple example of this decomposition is obtained by using the kernel and range of a projection map on an Abelian group. The aim in this pedagogical note is to establish a direct…

A simple problem relating to birds chasing each other gives rise to a homogeneous differential equation. The solution draws on student skills in differential equations and basic co-ordinate geometry.

This paper gives a broad descriptive account of some activities that the author has designed using Sketchpad to develop teachers' understanding of other functions of proof than just the traditional function of 'verification'. These other functions of proof illustrated here are those of explanation, discovery and systematization (in the context of…

Everyone is familiar with the concept that the cube and octahedron, dodecahedron and icosahedron are dual pairs, with the tetrahedron being self-dual. On the face of it, the concept seems straightforward; however, in all but the most symmetrical cases it is far from clear. By using the computer and three-dimensional graphics programs, it is…

A point "E" inside a triangle "ABC" can be coordinatized by the areas of the triangles "EBC," "ECA," and "EAB." These are called the barycentric coordinates of "E." It can also be coordinatized using the six segments into which the cevians through "E" divide the sides of "ABC," or the six angles into which the cevians through "E" divide the angles…

Presents an Applesoft computer program to help students translate abstract sentences into concrete visible lines and thereby discover and confirm facts about slopes, intercepts, angles, and intersections. The program graphs and analyzes lines, given as equations of the form Y equals M times X plus B. (JN)