Math Is Fun Forum

KerimF

Member

From: Aleppo-Syria

Registered: 2018-08-10

Posts: 164

Parallelism

Hi All,

A natural fact is that knowledge, scientific or else, has to be taught in steps according to age.
I chose ‘parallelism’ to explore it.

I was personally taught parallelism in 3 steps; 3 successive definitions while I grew up.
Definition 1:
If you remember well the first definition you heard of at school when you were little kids (first year of geometry), you can easily fill the gap in the following sentence:
Two straight lines are said parallel if...

I didn’t complete it because I like to know first if we all heard of the same definition at that age. Thank you.

For instance, the end result of this topic is more philosophical than mathematical. It is related to a natural truth that the multitudes around the world are not supposed to hear But you will be aware of this hidden truth if you too were able to recall, as I do, the 3 definitions of parallelism we learnt while we grew up (I assume you are older than 20 years).

Kerim

KerimF

Member

From: Aleppo-Syria

Registered: 2018-08-10

Posts: 164

Re: Parallelism

It seems no one around here recall well the first definition of parallelism he heard of at school It was:
Two straight lines are said parallel if they don’t intersect.
Kids see this wrong definition as being true because they see the geometrical figures on their sheets of paper only or on any other planes.

Only when these kids will grow up and start to see them (geometrical figures) in space, they will know it is wrong and it needs to be updated as:
Two straight lines are said parallel if they don’t intersect and are on the same plane.

As long they will not need to learn the perspective geometry, the second definition is all what they need to know about how parallelism is defined.

But those who will need learning it (the perspective geometry), they will hear the complete definition of parallelism which is:
Two straight lines are said parallel if they do intersect at infinity.

I guess, it is out of question introducing parallelism to kids using its third and best definition, right?

Similarly, introducing the fact of Creation to the kids of humanity, our very old ancestors, by unreal tales was very important at those early times, as the first definition of parallelism is also wrong but important for the kids at elementary school.

So now, I don't need to hear any tale to know that there is a supernatural Will/Power that let me (actually forced me to) exist temporarily in a realm which is defined/limited by time and space. Fortunately, like any other human, I was also given, by design, a human brain in which I used to trust its power to no limit (equivalent to trusting its maker to no limit). It helped me discover, with time, the logical answers to all important/crucial questions, related to my own existence and the real world on earth, which I was looking for.

Kerim