Geometry term projects

Projects are due Friday, December 5. Project proposals are due Friday, October 10.

Projects may be done by a group (of no more than 4 people) or individually. The format of the project may be a paper, a class presentation, a web site, GSP files, or any combination of these things. Your class presentation may involve computer, video, or a class activity. I am very open to different methods of presentation. Part of your proposal is to define the group and the format.

You may not do geometry lesson plans as your project unless you have teaching experience.

There is a wealth of geometry on the internet! And don't forget the UGA Science Library. Also, I own many geometry books, and I will lend them to you.

Here are some suggestions for topics, in no particular order. You may go into the history, focus on specific theorems, or combine both viewpoints. You may talk about applications or relations to other parts of mathematics such as algebra or calculus.

• Pythagorean theorem
• squaring the circle, trisecting an angle
• golden ratio
• Pick's theorem
• Fibonacci numbers
• hyperbolic geometry
• Ptolemy's theorem
• Heron's formula
• Napoleon's theorem
• Archimedes
• Descartes
• taxicab geometry
• envelopes and evolutes
• Kepler's laws
• spherical trigonometry
• Lissajous figures
• Gauss and constructibility of regular polygons
• Hilbert's axioms for geometry
• paper folding
• equidecomposability of polygons
• history of the parallel postulate
• computers and geometry
  • computer-aided design
  • computer vision
  • computational geometry
  • computer graphics
  • robotics
• history of navigation
• astronomy and trigonometry
• geometry in another culture, such as ancient China or Africa
• projective geometry
• descriptive geometry

C. McCrory 9/24/08