Looking at HPM through an Old Chestnut: Sum of the Angles of a Triangle

Some teachers do not regard the computation of the sum of the angles of a triangle by using a cut-and-paste or paper-folding method as providing a proof that the sum of the angles of a triangle is equal to two right angles. Some even think that this way of working is not mathematics but more like an experiment in physics. Some see the method as no better than measurement of the angles by a protractor. The author will examine this issue in the teaching and learning of school geometry and more generally as a specific example from the perspective of HPM (History and Pedagogy of Mathematics).