Pythagoras and the Juice Seller

Pythagoras and the Juice Seller
English Voice-over

Instructors

Ghada Sulaiman Abdullah Marmash
Math teacher
King Abdullah II Schools for Excellence
Irbid, Jordan

Lesson Feedback

Introduction

This video lesson presents a real world problem that can be solved by using the Pythagorean theorem. The problem faces a juice seller daily. He has equilateral barrels with equal heights and he always tries to empty the juice of two barrels into a third barrel that has a volume equal to the sum of the volumes of the two barrels. This juice seller wants to find a simple way to help him select the right barrel without wasting time, and without any calculations - since he is ignorant of mathematics. The prerequisite for this lesson includes knowledge of the following: the Pythagorean theorem; calculation of a triangle’s area knowing the angle between its two sides; cosine rule; calculation of a circle’s area; and calculation of the areas and volumes of solids with regular bases. Materials necessary include: equilateral containers of equal heights; sand; and measuring devices. Examples of in-class activities for the breaks between video segments include class discussions, individual calculations and small group problem solving.

Instructor Biography

Ghada Sulaiman Abdullah Marmash is a Math teacher at the King Abdullah II Schools for Excellence in Irbid, Jordan.

Additional Online Resources

This site, provided by the Math Forum at Drexel University, provides information and valuable resources on the Pythagorean Theorem.
http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.pythagorean.html