From: Alice (for Teacher2Teacher Service)
Date: Feb 09, 2003 at 15:12:03
Subject: Re: Proportions and ratios

Hi Danielle,

First, when I typed "history of proportions and ratios" into the google search
engine [http://www.google.com], I got topics such as 
* managing your business successfully by means of proportions,  
* proportions used in chemistry,
* scale models (pages of these sites), from doll houses to architectural 
design and landscape architecture,
* Mendel used proportions in biology, 
* artists use proportions, and
* Greek ideal human proportions.

I even found a religious reference about deities using proportions to create 
the universe.

In addition, I usually introduce proportions in my classes like this:
There is a West Wing TV episode about "proportional response" where our
leaders are discussing how to respond to an attack of terrorism.

As far as history of proportions in math, the following site should prove
helpful:

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Search/historysearch.cgi

It contains a wealth of leads in whatever direction you want to go with
proportions.

In my classes, we make scale models in two sizes and figure out the ratios
of sides, areas and volumes.

Hope this helps.

 -Alice, for the T2T service


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