John's geometry teacher gave his class a scavenger hunt assignment. Their mission was to find as many special quadrilaterals as possible. Whoever found the most quadrilaterals first (and posted the pictures on the class web site) would get 10 points extra credit added to the next exam. John really needed the extra points, so he pulled out his smartphone and began searching eagerly for examples of special quadrilaterals.
|
First, John saved a screen shot of the home screen on his phone. He could see right away that the screen was a special quadrilateral—a rectangle.
John walked by a neighborhood park and saw a child flying a special quadrilateral—a kite. John snapped a picture and posted it to his class's "Quad Quest" web site.
John entered the park and noticed two older gentlemen playing checkers. The checker board was filled with special quadrilaterals, of course—squares.
After leaving the park, John strolled down the sidewalk of his neighborhood. He looked up and noticed that some of the roof tops were shaped like a special quadrilateral—the trapezoid.
When John reached the library a few blocks from his house, he was beginning to wonder where he would find more special quadrilaterals. He wandered into the library, hoping to see something that would qualify. There were books everywhere, as in any library. They were rectangular in shape, but he already had a picture of a rectangle.
Then John remembered that some special quadrilaterals could also be rectangles. He snapped a picture of a book and quickly posted it. What label did John give the book in his picture? What special quadrilateral does it represent? A parallelogram—a quadrilateral with opposite sides that are parallel. |
 |
The next morning, John found out that his knowledge and focus led him to win the Quad Quest by one example. (He posted the highest number of special quadrilaterals in the shortest period of time.)
Question
What knowledge about quadrilaterals helped John win the quest?
He recalled that a parallelogram is a special quadrilateral with opposite sides that are parallel—and that some parallelograms are also rectangles.
