Month: July 2010

Is a square a rectangle?

Elementary School Geometry, Elementary School Mathematics, Questions and Quandaries

Note: This article is written for an elementary school students’ point of view.

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I have noticed that the topics I am discussing is getting deeper and harder, so let me break the spell by this very elementary question:

Are squares rectangles?

Before we answer that question, we must know first what a rectangle looks like, and we must also know its properties.  Many doors and windows, for example, are in a shape of a rectangle. We can observe that a rectangle has the following characteristics:

  1. It has four sides and four angles.
  2. The measure of its interior angles is 90 degrees.
  3. Opposite sides have the same lengths.
  4. Opposite sides are parallel.


For those who have already learned about the parallel postulate, you will probably agree that some of the observations above can be derived from the other properties, but we will leave it that way, for it is not that relevant in the following discussion. » Read more

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GeoGebra Basic Construction 6 – Constructing a Parallelogram

GeoGebra, Software Tutorials

In this tutorial, we  use the Parallel Line tool of GeoGebra to construct a parallelogram.  To construct the parallelogram, we first construct points A, B and C. Then, we use the Parallel Line tool to construct a line parallel to AB and passing through point C, then construct another line parallel to BC and passing through point A. We use the intersection of the two lines to determine the fourth vertex of our parallelogram.

Parallelogram constructed using GeoGebra

Figure 1

If you want to follow this tutorial step-by-step, click here to open the GeoGebra window in your browser. » Read more

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Math and Multimedia Carnival Criteria for Selection of Articles

Blog Carnival, High School Mathematics

The Mathematics and Multimedia Blog Carnival is now accepting articles  for the next issue. Although any math article might be accepted, below are the Revised Criteria for Blog Carnival Selection.  This will be characteristics of the articles that will be prioritized.  Articles with no links are done, but not yet posted.

1. Connection between and among different mathematical concepts

2. Connections between math and real life; use of real-life contexts to explain mathematical concepts

3. Clear and intuitive explanation of topics not discussed intextbooks, hard to understand, or  difficult to teach

4. Proofs of mathematical theorems in which the difficulty of the explanation is accessible to high school students

5. Intuitive explanation of higher math topics, in which the difficulty is accessible to high school students

6. Software introduction, review or tutorials

  1. Investigating Polyhedrons with Poly
  2. GeoGebra Tutorial Series

7. Integration of technology (Web 2.0, Teaching 2.0, Classroom 2.0), in teaching mathematics

  1. Using Google Sketchup in Teaching Mathematics
  2. Use of Google Docs  in Teaching Mathematics.

Mathematics and Multimedia Blog Carnival is still in its infancy, so please help spread the word about it. I would appreciate if bloggers who has benefitted from Mathematics and Multimedia, especially those whose article was accepted in the previous carnival, would announce it in their blogs.

To submit article the Math and Multimedia Blog Carnival, click  here.

The Math Teachers at Play Carnival and Carnival of Mathematics are also accepting math articles for their carnivals. Please do not duplicate submissions.

Erlina Ronda of Keeping Mathematics Simple will host the Mathematics and Multimedia blog carnival special edition on December 2010.  Her topic will be on Teaching Algebra Concepts. You can email her to submit in advance.

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Photos: Wikipedia Concept Map by juhansonin, Mandelbrot Julia Section by Arenamontanus

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