• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.161-180
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to delve into how elementary mathematics textbooks deal with the areas of triangles and quadrilaterals from a viewpoint of the Didactic Transposition Theory. The following conclusion was derived about the teaching of the area concept: The area concept started to be taught perfectly in the 7th curricular textbook, and the focus of area teaching was placed on the area concept, since learners were gradually given opportunities to compare and measure areas. As to the area formulae of triangles and quadrilaterals, the following conclusions were made: First, the 1st curricular, the 2nd curricular and the 3rd curricular textbooks placed emphasis on transposition by textbooks, and the 4th curricular, the 5th curricular and the 6th curricular textbooks accentuated transposition by teachers. The 7th curricular textbooks put stress on knowledge construction by learners; Second, the focus of teaching shifted from a measurement of area to inducing learners to make area formula. Namely, the utilization of area formula itself was accentuated, while algorithm was emphasized in the past; Third, the way to encourage learners to produce area formula changed according to the curricula and in light of learners' level, but a wide range of teaching devices related to the area formulae were removed, which resulted in offering less learning chances to students; Fourth, what to teach about the areas of triangles and quadrilaterals was gradually polished up, and the 7th curricular textbooks removed one of the overlapped area formula of triangle.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.383-397
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• 2014

This study aims to explore secondary students' thinking while doing proof in geometry. Two secondary students were interviewed and the interview data were analyzed. The results of the analysis suggest that the two students similarly showed as follows: a) tendencies to use the rules of congruent and similar triangles to solve a given problem, b) being confused about the rules of similar and congruent triangles, and c) being confused about the definitions, partition and hierarchical classification of quadrilaterals. Also, the results revealed that a relatively low achieving student has tendency to rely on intuitive information such as visual representations.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.155-165
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• 2020

Pythagorean theorem is a proposition on the relationship between the lengths of three sides of a right triangle. It is well known that Pythagorean theorem for Euclidean geometry deforms into an interesting form in non-Euclidean geometry. In this paper, we investigate a new perspective that replaces right triangles with 'proper triangles' so that Pythagorean theorem extends to non-Euclidean geometries without any modification. This is seen from the perspective that a rectangle is an equiangular quadrilateral, and a right triangle is a half of a rectangle. Surprisingly, a proper triangle (defined by Paolo Maraner), which is a half of an equiangular quadrilateral, satisfies Pythagorean theorem in many geometries, including hyperbolic geometry and spherical geometry.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.103-128
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• 2014

This paper presents the Global van Hiele (GVH) questionnaire as a tool for mapping knowledge and understanding of plane and solid geometry. The questionnaire facilitates identification of the respondents' mastery of the first three levels of thinking according to van Hiele theory with regard to key geometrical topics. Teacher-educators can apply this questionnaire for checking preliminary knowledge of mathematics teaching candidates or pre-service teachers. Moreover, it can be used when planning a course or granting exemption from studying in basic geometry courses. The questionnaire can also serve high school mathematics teachers who are interested in exposing their students to multiple-choice questions in geometry.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.261-270
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• 2024

This paper proposes an effective method for optimizing the structure of functionally graded isotropic and incompressible linear elastic materials. The main emphasis is on utilizing a specialized polytopal composite finite element (PCE) technique capable of handling a broad range of materials, addressing common volumetric locking issues found in nearly incompressible substances. Additionally, it employs a continuum model for bi-directional functionally graded (BFG) material properties, amalgamating these aspects into a unified property function. This study thus provides an innovative approach that tackles diverse material challenges, accommodating various elemental shapes like triangles, quadrilaterals, and polygons across compressible and nearly incompressible material properties. The paper thoroughly details the mathematical formulations for optimizing the topology of BFG structures with various materials. Finally, it showcases the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method through numerous numerical examples.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.249-260
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• 2008

In this work we propose a mixed finite volume method for the Signorini problem which are based on the idea of Keller's finite volume box method. The triangulation may consist of both triangles and quadrilaterals. We choose the first-order nonconforming space for the scalar approximation and the lowest-order Raviart-Thomas vector space for the vector approximation. It will be shown that our mixed finite volume method is equivalent to the standard nonconforming finite element method for the scalar variable with a slightly modified right-hand side, which are crucially used in a priori error analysis.

• International Journal of CAD/CAM
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.11-21
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• 2002

This paper presents a triangular-to-quadrilateral mesh conversion method that can control the directionality of the output quadrilateral mesh according to a user-specified vector field. Given a triangular mesh and a vector field, the method first scores all possible quadrilaterals that can be formed by pairs of adjacent triangles, according to their shape and directionality. It then converts the pairs into quadrilateral elements in order of the scores to form a quadrilateral mesh. Engineering analyses with finite element methods occasionally require a quadrilateral mesh well aligned along the boundary geometry or the directionality of some physical phenomena, such as in the directions of a streamline, shock boundary, or force propagation vectors. The mesh conversion method can control the mesh directionality according to any desired vector fields, and the method can be used with any existing triangular mesh generators.