Several weeks ago, our calculus class was presented with a project that proved to be both interesting and informative. The project was to relate math to several topic areas. We were divided into groups and each given a specific field to study.
The first part of our project involved answering three questions: “What is Art”, “What is Math”, and “How do Math and Art Relate.” For math, we gave both the technical and philosophical definitions. We discussed how math is found everywhere-including nature. For art, we discussed its prevalence and importance in the world. When discussing how they relate, you have to go deeper into the subjects than what is seen at first sight. For art, many would think that it doesn’t pertain to math in any way. But everything in art involves math. There were two main artist’s that used math prevalently in their work. One was M.C. Escher and the other was Piet Mondrian. Both used math by using various shapes and planes like in geometry, and by using straight lines and the xy-axis like in Algebra. This shows how the two subject areas relate.
The second part of the project was to design a web page. On the web page we had to include the following items: the three questions, a timeline of each of our artist’s lives, a defense of each artist, and a timeline of events that occurred in the world during one artist’s lifetime. This part of the project proved to be the most interesting because we learned more about the relationship between math and art and we learned how to create a web page strictly to our liking.
This project, though of great magnitude, gave us many skills we would not normally develop. It taught us how to develop a web page, work as a group, and learn interesting facts about art and math in general. All in all, this project was one of great interest and likeability! |
