070813 Homework
Points and stuff
continuedÉ
Today we continued our discussion about basic concepts in geometry. You need to remember that these
concepts are ideas. They are not real things! As in the homework over the weekend, the questions below
will help you to think more about these ideas.
- In
class we talked about how a point is an exact location with zero thickness,
zero length, and zero width. Here is a dilemma that confuses a lot of
people: Points have no width, depth, or length. Line segments are made of
points. So how can a line segment have a length when it is made entirely
of points, all of which have a length of zero?
- Today
we talked about rays and lines, and how we represented them by
highlighting points to either side or both sides of a segment. Recall that a ray extends without
end, as does a line. In your thinking, are rays and lines ÔstraightÕ or do they curve in space? Explain why you think so.