Archive post
Nice motivator, Holt.
Archive note: this brief post is an early snapshot of Scott's writing about textbook motivators and the limits of surface-level real-world framing. The original text is preserved.
The Holt Geometry book starts every section with some “real world” application of the topic.
Its a bad book.
EDIT: I’ll revise my comments from earlier this year. Its an OK book. In writing classes a common piece of advice is “show, don’t tell.” The Holt Geometry book, along with many others, fail in this regard. It does nothing for a student to read in chapter 1 that a^2+b^2=c^2. The Pythagorean theorem is a result of a long logical flow of geometric arguments. (and still, the inane “Who uses this?” motivators make me want to defenestrate somebody) -2010.05.04
Archived comments
My favorite inane geometry application from a high school textbook is "there are triangles in umbrellas!". My school actually stopped using that publisher's textbooks because their "applications" were worse than average (i.e., really bad instead of just bad).
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Love it (and found my way here from dy/dan). I'm especially charmed because "defenestration" is the threat I issue most often in the classroom for certain offenses, famously cell phones. (First offense: it; second offense: you)
Elizabeth
As if bandanas came in multiple sizes anyway.