dr. wiggins' pythagorean challenge

     In February 2013, Dr. Wiggins challenged the Algebra 1 students of East Tipp Middle School to determine if the Pythagorean Theorem could be generalized to shapes other than squares built on the sides of a right triangle.

     After some time to think, Zach broke the ice with his semicircle proof below. Soon afterward, however, so many kids were weighing in that they began to become a bit territorial. To make sure we knew who got dibs on what, we started an ownership board.

     (You can click the photo to make it bigger, but don't read too closely ... not all of our wishes came true.) The board not only reserved shapes for specific kids, but it also helped to accelerate a sort of arms race between the more competitive of the group.

     And speaking of competitive, two of the kids who took Algebra 1 last year as seventh graders have been getting pretty jealous of this year's class as the kids worked their way through 42b and the Rock Problem. So if you see new faces below, it's because the class finally took pity on Ben and Carl.

     Without further ado, here are the findings ...

     There will be one more investigation uploaded, but not until the kids at East Tipp determine which two of the photos above are telling a slightly different story than the other eight. It's not necessarily a search for those that look the coolest or scariest (meaning the diagrams ... not the kids). When they come up with the answer to that, we'll be ready for our last upload.

     Thanks again for all the fun, Dr. Wiggins!