Yes, You Will Need Geometry Later in Life

My darling daughter was failing Geometry last semester.  She managed to pass it but obviously there was a problem.  I blamed her laziness and unwillingness to do her work; Bill pointed out that she might not understand it.  Turns out, it was a combination of both.

And here's the best part - I sucked  it up and said I would help her with her homework.  Actually my words were "Dern it, I'm going to have to do geometry, aren't I?" 

So Rachel hauled her homework out.  Similar triangles.  Not too scary, right?  Wrong.

**The artwork below is a recreation of the actual problem.  No criticisms, please.  Rachel doesn't get her artsy genes from me.  So stop laughing.

Homework problem #33 - "Identify the similiar triangles in the example above and explain why."

Rachel:  "Okay, Mom, which ones are the similar triangles?"
Me: "ABC and AEC.  Duh."
Rachel:  "Now tell me why."
Me: "They look similar.  Duh."
Rachel:  "Mom, Mr. Math Teacher isn't going to accept that as an answer.  WHY are they similar?  How can you prove it?"
Me:  "Oh, okay.  Well, let's see."

Long pause.

Me:  "Those little circle-y lines in the corners..."
Rachel:  "Triangles don't have corners.  They have angles."
Me:  "Yeah, okay, so those circle-y things in the ANGLES mean that the ANGLES are, like, the same degree or whatnot, right?"
Rachel:  "Yes."
Me: "So, um, it must have to do with that."
Rachel:  "You're not helping."

So we turned back to the first of the chapter and I dutifully looked through the explanatory problems and while angles were mentioned, I really didn't HAVE A CLUE what they were talking about. 

About 10 minutes later, after staring at the problem, I came to the conclusion that while I was certain that the angles were important, there was a bigger reason for why those two were similar.

Me:  "See how both ABC and AEC share a line?"
Rachel:  "They share a line?"
Me:  "Yeah, see, they both have the line from A to C.  So we know that at least one of the sides is similar, and then if those angles up there are similar degrees, then they HAVE to be similar triangles!"

I pumped my fists into the air.  I was triumphant.  I had won.  I had beat the geometry trolls.  Rachel wasn't really all that convinced, so she looked up the answer in the back of the book.  Sure enough,  I was right.  Of course, the back of the book didn't explain why I was right, and she still shook her head at me.

Rachel: "I still don't understand."

Sigh.  And then I broke down and told her the truth.  I haven't done geometry in 20 years, not since I was a sophomore in high school.  And when I say I've not done geometry in 20 years, I mean I haven't even given a triangle a second glance, much less that ol' Pythagorean Theorem.  And while I'm sure there really are people out there, other than math teachers who do use geometry in real life, I couldn't name one person. 

I suppose if she was going to bake triangle cookies of different sizes and needed to order specialty boxes that would allow for packing room inside, she might need geometry to get the boxes similarly sized. 

Or she could just stick with normal cookies and normal boxes.  Geometry trolls be derned; just pass the class.