Contents INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1 EUCLIDEAN GEOMETRY 10 CHAPTER 2 PLANE FIGURES 21 CHAPTER 3 CURVES AND CIRCLES 31 CHAPTER 4 SOLIDs 37 CHAPTER 5 NON EUCLIDEAN GEOMETRY 44 CHAPTER 6 TRIGONOMETRIC FUNCTIONS 51 59 CONCLUSION GLOSSARY FOR MORE INFORMATION FOR FURTHER READING INDEX 62 67 69
Intro duction his book covers a broad collection of the principles of geometry and trigonometry inside a nice compact format for the middle school and early high school student Colorful diagrams bring the principles to life The topics are enriched by references to famous mathematicians who discovered these prin ciples and also snapshots of these principles at work in the real world Seldom does a math book bring the story of so many topics in such a comprehensible way The student will find a wonderful resource that can always be consulted for quick help and location of ideas that arise even years later during formal math study and beyond Of course math discoveries are fascinating in themselves and when they lead to wonder ful useful inventions one sees why people study these ideas in the first place For instance could a basic geometric shape be used to stop excruciating pain Perhaps Euclid didn t have disease in mind when he began organizing the simplest of geometric figures such as points lines and curves But over the years other mathematicians took his shapes and proved that certain geomet ric properties had qualities that today make people feel better even if those individuals happen to be doubled over in pain from what are called kidney
INTRODUCTION The particular geometrical shape required for medical healing in this case is called an ellipse featured in this book Inside the ellipse or its three dimensional relative an egg shape or ellipsoid is a point called a focus near one end of the shape Another focus appears near the other end of the shape Scientists found ALL In lithotripsy a lithotripter uses an ellipsoid and a focus point to send sound waves to shatter a patient s gallstones or kidney stones into miniscule pieces Southern Illinois University Photo Researchers Getty Images
