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The Geometer's Sketchpad is a commercial interactive geometry software program for exploring
Euclidean geometry Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematics, Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry, ''Euclid's Elements, Elements''. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set ...
,
algebra Algebra is a branch of mathematics that deals with abstract systems, known as algebraic structures, and the manipulation of expressions within those systems. It is a generalization of arithmetic that introduces variables and algebraic ope ...
,
calculus Calculus is the mathematics, mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizations of arithmetic operations. Originally called infinitesimal calculus or "the ...
, and other areas of
mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
. It was created as part of the NSF-funded Visual Geometry Project led by Eugene Klotz and Doris Schattschneider from 1986 to 1991 at
Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the e ...
. Nicholas Jackiw, a student at the time, was the original designer and programmer of the software, and inventor of its trademarked " Dynamic Geometry" approach; he later moved to Key Curriculum Press, KCP Technologies, and McGraw-Hill Education to continue ongoing design and implementation of the software over multiple major releases and hardware platforms. Present versions run
Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
and MacOS Ventura. It also runs on
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
under
Wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...
with a few bugs. There was also a version developed for the TI-89 and TI-92 series of Calculators. In June 2019, McGraw-Hill announced that it would no longer sell new licenses. Nonetheless,
license-free 64-bit version of Mac Sketchpad
that is compatible with the latest Apple silicon chips is available.
license-free Windows version
of the software is also available. The Sketchpad Repository contains over 200 videos, with Sketchpad and Web Sketchpad tutorials as well as an archive of Sketchpad webinars that were offered by Key Curriculum Press.


Features

The Geometer's Sketchpad includes the traditional Euclidean tools of classical geometric constructions. It also can perform transformations (translations, rotations, reflections, dilations) of geometric figures drawn or constructed on screen. It is far more than a construction or transformation tool, however. It can manipulate constructed objects "dynamically" by stretching or dragging while maintaining all constraints of the construction so that a seemingly infinite number of cases of a constructed figure can be viewed. Thus it is a natural tool for making or testing conjectures about geometric figures. Its accurate drawings of geometric figures make it a useful tool for illustrating mathematical articles for publication. If a figure (such as the
pentadecagon In geometry, a pentadecagon or pentakaidecagon or 15-gon is a fifteen-sided polygon. Regular pentadecagon A '' regular pentadecagon'' is represented by Schläfli symbol . A regular pentadecagon has interior angles of 156 °, and with a side ...
) can be constructed with the compass and straightedge method, it can also be constructed in the program. The program allows "cheat" transformations to create figures impossible to construct under the compass and straightedge rules (such as the regular
nonagon In geometry, a nonagon () or enneagon () is a nine-sided polygon or 9-gon. The name ''nonagon'' is a prefix Hybrid word, hybrid formation, from Latin (''nonus'', "ninth" + ''gonon''), used equivalently, attested already in the 16th century in Fre ...
). Objects can be animated. The program allows the creation of numerous objects which can be measured, and potentially used to solve hard math problems. The program allows the determination of the
midpoint In geometry, the midpoint is the middle point of a line segment. It is equidistant from both endpoints, and it is the centroid both of the segment and of the endpoints. It bisects the segment. Formula The midpoint of a segment in ''n''-dim ...
s and midsegments of objects. The Geometer's Sketchpad can measure lengths of segments, measures of
angle In Euclidean geometry, an angle can refer to a number of concepts relating to the intersection of two straight Line (geometry), lines at a Point (geometry), point. Formally, an angle is a figure lying in a Euclidean plane, plane formed by two R ...
s,
area Area is the measure of a region's size on a surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an open surface or the boundary of a three-di ...
,
perimeter A perimeter is the length of a closed boundary that encompasses, surrounds, or outlines either a two-dimensional shape or a one-dimensional line. The perimeter of a circle or an ellipse is called its circumference. Calculating the perimet ...
, etc. Some of the tools include a construct function, which allows the user to create objects in relation to selected objects. The transform function allows the user to create points in relation to objects, which include distance, angle, ratio, and others.Geometry Turned On: ''Dynamic Software in Learning, Teaching, and Research'', James King and Doris Schatschneider, eds., Mathematical Association of America, 1997.


Web Sketchpad

Built on the foundation of The Geometer's Sketchpad
Web Sketchpad
(WSP) began as part of the NSF DRK-12 funde
Dynamic Number project
WSP removes distracting interfaces—it has no menus, displays no dialog boxes, and does not require users to “select” objects to apply commands to them. Three noteworthy characteristics of Web Sketchpad's tools are the following: Ease of Use: Every WSP tool operates the same way: The student taps a tool and the complete product appears immediately (providing the student with a graphic description of the result of the tool) with one of the product’s mathematical elements glowing (prompting the student either to place that glowing element or to match it to some part of an existing construction). No objects need to be selected in advance, and no prompts are needed to tell the student how to use the tool. For instance, tapping the Segment tool displays a segment with one endpoint glowing, and the student can tap or drag to place that endpoint in empty space, on an existing point, or on some other existing object (such as a segment, ray, line, circle, polygon, or graph). At the same time as the student taps the tool, additional scaffolding appears immediately, in the Help Bar beneath the sketch. This scaffolding includes a short text description of the construction and two video buttons, one displaying a short silent hint video of less than 30 seconds and the other displaying a more detailed video that shows several ways to use the tool. Both videos display captions, and the second also has narration, initially muted to avoid unwanted sound in a classroom setting. Targeted Tools: Activities include only those tools necessary for the task at hand, reducing software complexity. A focused set of tools also the activity designer to create instrumented fields of promoted action where the presence of particular tools encourages teachers and students to adopt these tools as frames of action and reference, channeling them to think about problems in ways they otherwise might not. Customizable Tools: The set of WSP tools is theoretically unlimited. A teacher can craft new tools based on the mathematical and pedagogical needs of a lesson without the traditional limits of a fixed set of generic tools.


See also

*
List of interactive geometry software Interactive geometry software (IGS) or dynamic geometry environments (DGEs) are computer programs which allow one to create and then manipulate Geometry, geometric constructions, primarily in Euclidean plane geometry, plane geometry. In most IGS, o ...
*
Lénárt sphere A Lénárt sphere is an educational manipulative and writing surface for exploring spherical geometry, invented by Hungarian István Lénárt as a modern replacement for a spherical blackboard. It can be used for visualizing the geometry of poi ...


References


Further reading

*Kimberling, Clark. ''Geometry in Action: A Discovery Approach Using The Geometer's Sketchpad.'' Key College Publishing, Emeryville, California, (2003), . *


External links

*
Sketchpad Repository

Web SketchpadSine of the Times
{{DEFAULTSORT:Geometer's Sketchpad Interactive geometry software