Flatland

Some of us are born to lead a life of isosceles triangles. The angle of our brains is just not big enough and no matter how much we develop it, we will never reach that 60 degree angle of perfection, the angle needed to move to the next echelon, to become equilateral.

Some of us are born irregular and while we should not be destroyed, there is no way to make us fit. The parallelogram, for example, will never easily fit into the pentagon home. His sides are just too off.

Now, let me explain what I am talking about. I just finished reading the most wonderful book, Flatland, by Edwin A. Abbott. Flatland is the story of a world that exists in two dimensions. Lines (not line segments, one of my problems with the book) are women. I have to forgive the sexism because the book was written in the 1800's. Isosceles Triangles are the lowest class. Isosceles aspire to gain entry into the next class by increasing their vertex angle. Next comes the Equilateral Triangle, which is the middle class. Professional men are Squares and Pentagons. Nobility begins as a Hexagon and the number of sides increase until the sides themselves are so small that a figure cannot be distinguished from a circle.

Flatlands goes on to explain the hierarchy involved in this class system, the problems faced by introduction of colors, a one dimensional world and then a three dimensional world. The math teacher in me loved the book. The social libertarian loved the class struggles. The revolutionary in me loved the Square's pursuit of explaining the third dimension and the injustice of his life in prison for proclaiming loud and clear and without giving up that a third dimension exists. The Educator in me liked the idea of accepting that not everyone is capable of doing the same thing. The NCLB laws would never have worked in Flatland.

I am grateful to my intellectual son for pointing this book out to me. I cannot believe that I never heard of it before he brought it to my attention. It would be a great book to share with my students. Although it might be too difficult for some of the geometry kids, many will be able to understand it and maybe it will help them find relevance in some of the things they are learning this semester.

I just finished watching the movie version of the book. While some of the story is different, the premise holds true. I plan on showing it to my calculus class (if I can find a tv set to use) after the AP exam. They will understand and hopefully be inspired to read the book and some of the sequels. I wish there was time to share it with the geometry kids as well. I could stop and explain things as we went along. They might actually see some relevance in what they have learned this semester. I wish they were mature enough to be able to show a movie to.