How Do We Use Geometry in Our Daily Lives?

We use geometry in our lives in many ways, such as the shape of our toys, the relationship between our roads, and the artwork that decorates our house.

When we are driving to new places we use maps and reading a map includes a lot of geometry. The place where you are going is a point on the map and the roads may be lines, line segment, or rays depending on where they continue or end. The whole map itself is a plane because it’s a flat surface that extends forever in all directions. On the way to the place you are going, you may notice that all the roads are parallel to each other to prevent crashes and all the crossroads are perpendicular. Roads may also be skew lines if they are going in different directions. Angles are sometimes used in playing sports, such as if you are playing basketball your elbow would have to be at a right angle so you can shoot for maximum velocity.

Then the ball would have to travel in an acute angle to reach the basket and not a obtuse angle because then it would go backward. The wings of a toy airplane are acute triangles, so it can cut through the wind and fly farther. Lego blocks are all polygons and quaderilaterals because those are the shapes needed to build a house. The bricks used to build the house are squares and rectangles and the roof pieces are trapezoids.

If you play chess the chess pieces are constantly going under transformation. The bishop translates to the other side and the rook is reflecting itself as it goes across the board. The whole chess board itself is a tesselation because the squares are constantly repeating themselves.