Dear Rebecca
I have embedded a couple of thoughts into your e-mail which follows:
>To Whom It May Concern:
>
>Greetings! I am a senior math education major at Shippensburg
>University in Shippensburg, PA. As part of an independent study, I am
>giving a series of seminars on using math history in the classroom,
>specifically providing activities using ideas from math history. As
>part of my next seminar, I will be discussing the development of
>trigonometry in the study of astronomy. One activity I would like to
>have relating to this concept is the construction of sundials.
>Unfortunately, I haven't had much luck in finding information about
>this. If possible, could you please send me some information on
>constructing a simple sundial using trigonometry, or at least suggest
>some good sources? I would appreciate any help. I can be reached at
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Try to get hold of a copy of "Sundials - their theory and construction" by
Albert E. Waugh published by Dover (ISBN 0-486-22947-5). This will give you
the answers that you are trying to head towards!
Good luck with the project. I hope it proves more successful than the one I
tried to initiate some time ago. The kids liked being talked to about
sundials - well I like to think that they did - and I set them a project to
construct one or more working as teams and offering a prize to the best
team. There was hardly any take-up and no sundial was ever constructed!
Perhaps it's the poor English weather!!!
One idea a couple of lads had though was to try to construct a sundial using
the shadow of the student standing on a fixed spot to indicate the time. The
idea would probably serve to illustrate that the solution is rather more
complex if nothing else!
>Thanks for your time,
>
>Rebecca Shubert
>
>P.S. If you have any other ideas that would relate to your company that
>you feel would be useful, interesting, or fun to incorporate into the
>teaching of mathematics, let me know. One of my goals as a future
>educator is show students the connections between mathematics and
>real-life applications from business,industry, and science.
>
>
No ideas as "A Company" because I am not one!!!! However you may like to
skow them the Euler formula which shows that for three dimensional
solidswith plane faces and without a hole in them:
No. of vertices PLUS No. of faces MINUS No. of edges = 2
Try it with a tetrahedron and a cube for starters just to ensure that you
get the idea if you haven't seen it before. Sorry to tell you the obvious if
you have!
Then try piercing a hole of which again has plane faces through the object
and try it again.
How about the "Bridges of Konnigsberg" introduction to Graph Theory and
Hamiltonian & Eulerian Cycles. This could lead you on to the unsolved
travelling salesman problem!
Best of luck
Andrew
-----------------------------------------Andrew
Pettit-----------------------------------------
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Postman Pat: 3, Lucastes Road, HAYWARDS HEATH, West Sussex, RH16 1JJ,
ENGLAND
Tel. UK: (+44) (0)1444 453111
