# Engaging students: Solving proportions

In my capstone class for future secondary math teachers, I ask my students to come up with ideas for engaging their students with different topics in the secondary mathematics curriculum. In other words, the point of the assignment was not to devise a full-blown lesson plan on this topic. Instead, I asked my students to think about three different ways of getting their students interested in the topic in the first place.

I plan to share some of the best of these ideas on this blog (after asking my students’ permission, of course).

This student submission comes from my former student Kayla (Koenig) Lambert. Her topic, from Pre-Algebra: solving proportions.

C. Culture: How has this topic appeared in the news?

Solving proportions, or the idea of a proportion being solved, appears in the news more often than not. One specific example that can be used is the effect of the economy on real estate companies. Say we are given 25% of 16 real estate companies that have closed their businesses due to poor economy. We can use proportions to determine the number of real estate companies that closed. We know that the percent is 25 and that the whole is 16. Therefore $25/100 = x/16$ which gives us 4 real estate companies that closed (Review of Proportions). Proportions can also be used to determine how many miles we can drive on a certain amount of gas, and gas prices are constantly on the news. Also, this will be relevant to high school students who drive and need to find how much money they need to buy gas for the week, etc.

We can also use proportions to find the unit price of an item at a grocery store, or if an item costs a certain amount, you can find out how many of those items you can buy with a fixed amount of money you have. Buying items and saving money are also all over the news. If you find the unit price you can compare items therefore saving money by buying the item that you get the most out of your money.  Another way solving proportions can appear on the news is by the stock market. You can use proportions to find out how much the stock market will rise in a given amount of days given the current amount of points it has raised in a certain amount of days. Making a proportion problem for students to solve is relatively easy and can be related to anything that is on the news. We can use this to our advantage to get the students to be a little more interested in proportions (and mathematics) so they can see different ways it is related to real life.

The idea of proportions was adopted and used by many in the mathematical community. Proportions were used by Greek writers, including one named Nicomachus, who include proportions and ratios in arithmetic (Math Forum). Proportions were also adopted by Exodus who used them in geometry and by Theon of Smyrna who used proportions in music (Math Forum). In 2000 B.C., the Babylonians adopted proportions to represent place value notation (Pythagoras – Geometrical Algebra). Using proportions was accepted by mathematicians and was used to solve so many different equations used for so many different ideas, and is still used today. Early proportions were adopted by the Egyptians and were used to calculate fractions and measurement of farmland (Mathematics History). Later, proportions were adopted by so many more in the mathematical community like in Greece, China, India, and Babylonia in order to learn geometry. Greeks, like Plato, adopted proportions in order to study them with the Egyptians. I think that proportions were well liked by mathematicians and were adopted by many because you can use proportions to solve so many things.

D. History: How did people’s conception of proportions change over time?

From the beginning, people have used proportions. Early humans used proportions to see if one tribe was twice as large as another or if one leather strap is only half as long as another (Math Forum). It is obvious that the idea solving proportions hasn’t really changed that much, but what we can use proportions to solve has changed. In 2000 B.C. Babylonians used proportions to evolve place value notation by allowing arbitrarily large numbers and fractions to be represented (An Overview of Egyptian Mathematics). Around 1600 B.C. in Egypt, proportions were used to calculate the fraction and superficial measure of farmland (Mathematics History). Egyptians then used proportions to find volumes of cylinders and areas of triangles.

Vitruvius thought of proportions in terms of unit fractions for their architecture calculations (Proportion (architecture)). Also, scribes used “unit fractions” for their calculations in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Egyptians based proportions on parts of their body and their symmetrical relation to each other; like fingers, palms, hands, etc. Multiples of body proportions would be found in the arrangement of fields and buildings people lived in (Proportion (architecture)) and from here, proportions evolved. In 600 B.C., the idea of using proportions evolved and was then used for geometry (Mathematics History). Proportions are still used in geometry, like in architecture and land, like it was 3000 years ago. When you think about it, proportions have evolved, but the use of proportions has evolved even greater. There are so many topics we can now solve using proportions!

Works Cited

“Math Forum – Ask Dr. Math.” The Math Forum @ Drexel University. 7 Mar. 2012. <http://www.mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/64539.html&gt;.

“Mathematics History.” ThinkQuest : Library. 7 Mar. 2012. <http://library.thinkquest.org/22584/&gt;.

“Proportion (architecture).” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 7 Mar. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportion_%28architecture%29&gt;.

“Review of Proportions.” Self Instructional Mathematics Tutorials. 7 Mar. 2012. <http://www.cstl.syr.edu/fipse/decunit/ratios/revprop.htm&gt;.

“An Overview of Egyptian Mathematics.”  7 Mar. 2012. < http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Egyptian_mathematics.html >

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