Ramachandran, A.
(2020)
A word and an idea.
At Right Angles (6).
p. 42.
ISSN 2582-1873
Abstract
It may be a truism to say that a word can make or mar
matters. New words are constantly coming into vogue while
some go into disuse. I want to highlight a word that could
make life a bit simpler for math teachers and learners. When
I first joined an Anglo-Indian school about six decades ago
there were no sharp divisions between subjects. In one craft/
math class we students cut out 2D shapes from coloured paper
and stuck them in scrap books, besides naming objects around
us that resembled those shapes. The first shape we learnt was
the square, a figure with four equal sides and similar-looking
corners. The next was the ‘oblong’ – a four-sided figure with
opposite pairs of sides equal but one set longer than the other,
and with all corners appearing similar. (We did not know about
right angles then.) We could find plenty of objects around of
that shape – table top, door frame, window frame, book, etc. -
many more than we could for the square. It was after a few years
that I encountered the word ‘rectangle’ – introduced as a figure
with four right angles, which could be a square or an oblong
shape. I was seldom troubled by the existential question ‘Is the
square a rectangle?’
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