In Geometry class last week, I shared a TED ED video with students titled "Pixar: The Math Behind the Movies". In the video, Pixar Research Lead Tony DeRose talks to a room full of students about some of the mathematics happening behind the scenes at Pixar.
One piece of the mathematics Tony talks about is something Pixar created in 1997 called "subdivision". Without giving away too much of the video, under the surface "subdividing" uses a bit of coordinate geometry and the concept of midpoints. On the surface, "subdividing" helps Pixar smooth the edges of their digital characters and makes the characters look a lot more life-like.
What I found interesting that is that this concept of "subdividing" was invented until 1997. I graduated HS in 1998, which means my high school geometry instruction dates back to somewhere between 1995-97. If I would have asked my high school math teacher at the time "When will I ever need to find the midpoint of a line segment?", he would not have been able to mention the concept of subdivision as an application for finding midpoints.
Likewise, it's safe to say that in five years, by the time my students are halfway done their undergraduate degrees, there will be math being used in the world that hasn't yet been invented. Whether it be an advanced statistical metric used to inform sports teams, some fancy new device that makes a iPhone X seem like an antique, or a parallel to Pixar's "subdivision", new math is being discovered and applied each year.
As math teachers, it's not a bad idea to have a list of occupations and examples that highlight some of the usefulness and application of mathematics. However, math teachers should also help students realize that we don't fully know how certain mathematical topics will be used in the future.
The video is under 8 minutes long; I invite you to watch it. It's really quite good.
No comments:
Post a Comment