Shirali, Padmapriya
(2019)
Ratio.
At Right Angles (4).
ISSN 2582-1873
Abstract
How does one introduce a topic like ratio, which is so widely present in daily life and so intimately connected with human experiences? Our cherished cultural achievements are permeated with it: music is full of ratios, as is art. Our daily existence involves cooking and shopping, and these are filled through and through with the usage of ratio. Shadows, which are present with us all through the day, offer a visual depiction of ratios in action. In mathematics as a subject, the notion of ratio is embedded into many topics – sometimes in an obvious way, at other times not so. Fractions, scale drawing, enlargement, trigonometry, tables, linear equations… are all illustrations of this.
Considering that ratio is linked in an essential way to so many concepts in mathematics, it is important to lay a strong foundation and develop the necessary conceptual base when teaching this topic. A basic error that often arises while studying ratio is the application of additive thinking to a context that requires multiplicative thinking. This is an error that students make quite frequently while solving ratio problems. There is a clear need to point this out in various ways and by using different examples, so that students clearly see that ratio and proportion are based on a multiplicative relationship.
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