Math in the Middle Institute Partnership
Date of this Version
7-2006
Abstract
Taxicab geometry was founded by a gentleman named Hermann Minkowski. Mr. Minkowski was one of the developers in “non-Euclidean” geometry, which led into Einstein’s theory of relativity. Minkowski and Einstein worked together a lot on this idea Mr. Minkowski wanted people to know that the side angle side axiom does not always hold true for all geometries. He wanted to prove this in the case that you can not always use the hypotenuse to find the shortest way from one spot to another. The best way to think of his idea is to think of a taxicab going from one place to another, thus the name taxicab geometry.
Comments
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts in Teaching with a Specialization in the Teaching of Middle Level Mathematics in the Department of Mathematics. David Fowler, Advisor July 2006