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Geometry (Greek: geo = earth, metria = measure) arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. It was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers. In modern times, geometric concepts have become very complex and abstract and are barely recognizable as the descendants of early geometry.
Work in pairs or groups and investigate the history of the foundation of geometry. Describe the various stages of development and how the following cultures used geometry to improve their lives.
In this section we study how to calculate the surface areas and volumes of right prisms and cylinders. A right prism is a polygon that has been stretched out into a tube so that the height of the tube is perpendicular to the base. A square prism has a base that is a square and a triangular prism has a base that is a triangle.
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It is relatively simple to calculate the surface areas and volumes of prisms.
The term surface area refers to the total area of the exposed or outside surfaces of a prism. This is easier to understand if you imagine the prism as a solid object.
If you examine the prisms in Figure 1, you will see that each face of a prism is a simple polygon. For example, the triangular prism has two faces that are triangles and three faces that are rectangles. Therefore, in order to calculate the surface area of a prism you simply have to calculate the area of each face and add it up. In the case of a cylinder the top and bottom faces are circles, while the curved surface flattens into a rectangle.
Surface Area of Prisms
Calculate the area of each face and add the areas together to get the surface area. To do this you need to determine the correct shape of each and every face of the prism and then for each one determine the surface area. The sum of the surface areas of all the faces will give you the total surface area of the prism.
Study the following prisms and the adjacent image showing the various surfaces that make up the prism. Explain to your partner, how each relates to the other.
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The volume of a right prism is calculated by multiplying the area of the base by the height. So, for a square prism of side length
Volume of Prisms
Calculate the area of the base and multiply by the height to get the volume of a prism.
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Now, what happens to the surface area if one dimension is multiplied by a constant? For example, how does the surface area change when the height of a rectangular prism is divided by 2?
NOTE: unable to translate the contents of this figure.
Rectangular prisms
The size of a prism is specified by the length of its sides. The prism in the diagram has sides of lengths
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The volume of a prism is given by:
The surface area of the prism is given by:
If all the sides of the prism get rescaled, the new sides will be:
The new volume will then be given by:
The new surface area of the prism will be given by:
When the length of one of the sides is multiplied by a constant the effect is to multiply the original volume by that constant, as for the example in Code 1.
Polygons are all around us. A stop sign is in the shape of an octagon, an eight-sided polygon. The honeycomb of a beehive consists of hexagonal cells.
In this section, you will learn about similar polygons.
Fill in the table using the diagram and then answer the questions that follow.
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If two polygons are similar, one is an enlargement of the other. This means that the two polygons will have the same angles and their sides will be in the same proportion.
We use the symbol
Two polygons are similar if:
Show that the following two polygons are similar.
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We are required to show that the pair of polygons is similar. We can do this by showing that the ratio of corresponding sides is equal and by showing that corresponding angles are equal.
We are given the angles. So, we can show that corresponding angles are equal.
All angles are given to be 90
We first need to see which sides correspond. The rectangles have two equal long sides and two equal short sides. We need to compare the ratio of the long side lengths of the two different rectangles as well as the ratio of the short side lenghts.
Long sides, large rectangle values over small rectangle values:
Short sides, large rectangle values over small rectangle values:
The ratios of the corresponding sides are equal, 2 in this case.
Since corresponding angles are equal and the ratios of the corresponding sides are equal the polygons ABCD and EFGH are similar.
If two pentagons ABCDE and GHJKL are similar, determine the lengths of the sides and angles labelled with letters:
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We are given that ABCDE and GHJKL are similar. This means that:
and
We are required to determine the
The corresponding angles are equal, so no calculation is needed. We are given one pair of sides
Working in pairs, show that all equilateral triangles are similar.
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Analytical geometry, also called co-ordinate geometry and earlier referred to as Cartesian geometry, is the study of geometry using the principles of algebra, and the Cartesian co-ordinate system. It is concerned with defining geometrical shapes in a numerical way, and extracting numerical information from that representation. Some consider that the introduction of analytic geometry was the beginning of modern mathematics.
One of the simplest things that can be done with analytical geometry is to calculate the distance between two points. Distance is a number that describes how far apart two point are. For example, point
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In the figure, it can be seen that the length of the line
The length of
In order to generalise the idea, assume
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The formula for calculating the distance between two points is derived as follows. The distance between the points
However,
Therefore,
Therefore, for any two points,
Distance=
Using the formula, distance between the points
The gradient of a line describes how steep the line is. In the figure, line
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The gradient of a line is defined as the ratio of the vertical distance to the horizontal distance. This can be understood by looking at the line as the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle. Then the gradient is the ratio of the length of the vertical side of the triangle to the horizontal side of the triangle. Consider a line between a point
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Gradient
For example the gradient of the line between the points
Sometimes, knowing the co-ordinates of the middle point or midpoint of a line is useful. For example, what is the midpoint of the line between point
The co-ordinates of the midpoint of any line between any two points
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Then the co-ordinates of the midpoint (
It can be confirmed that the distance from each end point to the midpoint is equal. The co-ordinate of the midpoint
and
It can be seen that
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In this section you will learn about how the co-ordinates of a point change when the point is moved horizontally and vertically on the Cartesian plane. You will also learn about what happens to the co-ordinates of a point when it is reflected on the
When something is moved in a straight line, we say that it is translated. What happens to the co-ordinates of a point that is translated horizontally or vertically?
Complete the table, by filling in the co-ordinates of the points shown in the figure.
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| Point |
|
|
| A | ||
| B | ||
| C | ||
| D | ||
| E | ||
| F | ||
| G |
What do you notice about the
When a point is moved vertically up or down on the Cartesian plane, the
For example, in Figure 22 Point A is moved 4 units upwards to the position marked by G. The new
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Complete the table, by filling in the co-ordinates of the points shown in the figure.
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| Point |
|
|
| A | ||
| B | ||
| C | ||
| D | ||
| E | ||
| F | ||
| G |
What do you notice about the
What would happen to the co-ordinates of point A, if it was moved to the position of point G?
When a point is moved horizontally left or right on the Cartesian plane, the
For example, in Figure 24 Point A is moved 4 units right to the position marked by G. The new
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When you stand in front of a mirror your reflection is located the same distance (
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We can apply the same idea to a point that is reflected on the
If a point is reflected on the
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Find the co-ordinates of the reflection of the point P, if P is reflected on the
We are given the point P with co-ordinates (5;10) and need to find the co-ordinates of the point if it is reflected on the
The point P is above the
For a reflection on the
The co-ordinates of the reflected point are (5;-10).
If a point is reflected on the
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Find the co-ordinates of the reflection of the point Q, if Q is reflected on the
We are given the point Q with co-ordinates (15;5) and need to find the co-ordinates of the point if it is reflected on the
The point Q is to the right of the
For a reflection on the
The co-ordinates of the reflected point are (-15;5).
The final type of reflection you will learn about is the reflection of a point on the line
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Study the information given and complete the following table:
| Point | Reflection | |
| A | (2;1) | (1;2) |
| B | (- |
(-2;-1 |
| C | (-1;1) | |
| D | (2;-3) |
What can you deduce about the co-ordinates of points that are reflected about the line
The
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Find the co-ordinates of the reflection of the point R, if R is reflected on the line
We are given the point R with co-ordinates (-5;5) and need to find the co-ordinates of the point if it is reflected on the line
The
The
The co-ordinates of the reflected point are (5;-5).
Rules of Translation
A quick way to write a translation is to use a 'rule of translation'. For example
So if we translate (1;2) by the rule
Translating a Region
To translate a region, we translate each point in the region.
Example
Region A has been translated to region B by the rule:
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Work with a friend and decide which item from column 1 matches each description in column 2.
| Column 1 | Column 2 |
| a reflection on x-y line | |
|
|
a reflection on the x axis |
|
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a shift of 3 units left |
|
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a shift of 3 units down |
|
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a reflection on the y-axis |
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