Constraint Based Geometry
Geometry Expressions is a constraint based geometry system. The benefits of this type of system are:
- Many geometric configurations are much more easily specified using constraints than constructions
- It is a much more convenient style for expressing real world problems
- This is the approach used in modern Computer Aided Design (CAD) systems
Symbolic Geometry
In Geometry Expressions if you put symbols in as the values of constraints, you get symbolic expressions out for measurements (see above figure). This means:
- Reinforcing multiple representations (geometric and algebraic) of the same problem
- Symbiosis with CAS (like Maple, Mathematica, Nspire, ClassPad Manager)
- Makes the geometry software extremely relevant in algebra, precalculus and calculus courses, as well as in university and professional engineering contexts.
“The best thing about Geometry Expressions is the ease of use. GE has very convenient menus and one can do nice things like specify lengths of segments and have them appear as desired.
”
Prof John A Velling
Department of Mathematics,
Brooklyn College, USA
Latest News
- Geometry Expressions v2.2 has been released. New features in v2.2 include:
- Symbolic areas of curve-sided regions (including area under and between functions)
- Arcs (both circular and based on other curves)
- Symbolic Arc length
- Regular polygon (generic n)
- N-sided curve approximation (with generic n)
- Enhanced annotation features
- If you're just getting started with Geometry Expressions, we recommend our online professional development unit "Using a Constraint Approach in Teaching Mathematics"
- We just got a new book from the printer titled:
The Farmer and the Mathematician: using Geometry Expressions and Goggle Earth to investigate crop circles, written by Larry Ottman. The lessons in this book utilize images from Google Earth, and a lighthearted scenario of a discussion between a farmer and a mathematician to introduce important mathematical concepts that are appropriate and adaptable for students in a range of courses from Pre-Algebra, Algebra, and Geometry, up through and including Calculus.
