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The Neglected Importance of Geometry

Last updated on July 9th, 2020 at 02:56 pm

When ‘Geometry’ was first introduced to me in my 5th grade, I really disliked it a lot. But, being a Fine Arts student as well, I learned how each and every piece of art begins and comprises of basis shapes only.

Today, in this fast-changing world of science and technology, geometry is playing an important role in a very hideous way that we even fail to notice it sometimes. It is surely no more confined only to mathematics. To be more precise, it has applications in our daily lives since centuries.

What is Geometry?

Geometry is a branch of mathematics concerned with questions of shape, size, relative position of figures, and the properties of space. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is called a geometer.

While geometry has evolved significantly throughout the years, there are some general concepts that are more or less fundamental to geometry. These include the concepts of points, lines, planes, surfaces, angles, and curves, as well as the more advanced notions of manifolds and topology or metric.

Geometry is all around us-

Geometry briefly is used in various daily life applications such as surveying, astronomy, navigation and building and much more. Some of such applications of Geometry in daily life in different fields are described below-

Art

Image Courtesy: graphicine.com

Mathematics and art are related in a variety of ways. For instance, the theory of perspective (a graphical representation of a real 3D image on a flat surface of an image as seen by eyes) showed that there is more to geometry than just the metric properties of figures: and this perspective is the basis of the origin of projective geometry.

Technicals

The concept of geometry is also applied in the fields of robotics, computer, and video games. Geometry provides handy concepts both for computer and video game programmers. The way & the design of the characters that move through their virtual worlds requires geometric computations to create paths around the obstacles concentrating around the virtual world. Video game engines typically put to use raycasting, which is a technique that simulates a 3-D world using a 2-D map. Using this form of geometry helps speed up processing because calculations are only done for the vertical lines on the screen.

Architecture

Image

Image Courtesy: toeyyboonchit.wordpress.com

Just like other forms of arts, architects use mathematics for several reasons. Apart from the mathematics needed when engineering buildings, architects use geometry: to define the spatial form of a building i.e. to create the design of the building its shape, height, structure basically the construction blueprint.

Also, one of the best examples of the application of geometry in daily life will be the stairs which are built in homes in consideration to angles of geometry constructed at 90 degrees.

Geometry concepts are also applied in CAD (Computer Aided Design) where it helps the software to render visual images on the screen.

Astronomy & Physics

Here, geometry is used in the field of astronomy, helping to map the positions of stars and planets on the celestial sphere and describing the relationship between movements of celestial bodies.

In the field of Physics, there is a deep link between pseudo-Riemannian geometry and general relativity

Geographic Information Systems

Geometry concepts are used in satellites in GPS systems, it calculates the position of the satellite and location of GPS gauged by the latitudes and longitudes.

Geometry in Video Game Graphics

Video game graphics is all about geometry. Geometric shapes and interactions between geometric shapes is the basic foundation of all videos games. Video games rely on the extensive use of circles, squares, ovals, rectangles, trapezoids, and many other geometric shapes to form shapes you see on your computer or TV screen as you play video games.

When video game programmers first begin developing figures and scenes, they start with a basic geometric shape of the objects. Then the video programmers start inserting additional lines, circles, squares, and other shapes into these original lines at places to given the video graphics depth – three dimensional look. 

Another use of geometry used in video games is using geometric shapes which are congruent with other shapes. Also they use geometric shapes by rotating, reflecting, and the use of similarities in making the video graphics move around the screen during action sequences.

The process of building a human-like head in a video game starts with simple shapes, as shown in this image created by Ryan Bown. More shapes are added as the modeling process continues. This builds up the resolution of an image, adding greater detail to games.

With the development of adding three dimensional views to video games, the entire video game industry was revolutionized. Video game programmers can now integrate any geometric shape they want and get it to accomplish pretty much anything what it to do.

If you want to become a video game programmer one day, you need to develop a deep understanding of all geometry concepts. The best video game programmers will all tell you that one subject they have to be strong in is geometry.

Video Courtesy – ” Katniss 13000

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Akshat Mishra holds a Masters in Physics from DAE - Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences, Mumbai. He feels the need to explore the depths of the not-so-dark universe while at the same time watch the quanta in action. Electronic Music is what puts him in the thinking zone.

Akshat Mishrahttps://www.scilynk.in/akshat-mishra
Akshat Mishra holds a Masters in Physics from DAE - Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences, Mumbai. He feels the need to explore the depths of the not-so-dark universe while at the same time watch the quanta in action. Electronic Music is what puts him in the thinking zone.

2 COMMENTS

  1. We always need contributions from everyone to build a new era and would appreciate if people like you engage in blogging and even blog reviews.

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