Description
This photograph of a serving plate from Brittany in France suggests explorations of fractional relationships relative to a circle.
Activities
- What is this plate most likely to be used for? Illustrate your response with an example.
- Where do you think this plate came from? What clues does the plate provide?
(a) What is the function of the '0' marking?
(b) Why do the digits 3, 6 and 9 sometimes appear at the same place on the plate, and at other time, apart?
(c) Why do you think that the digits 2, 4 and 8 are missing from the markings?
(d) What is the purpose of the edge indentations? Artistic design, or a functional purpose?
- From the plate's centre find (by measure and calculation) the angle between two successive 3s marked on the plate's perimeter. Develop a table of angles, in relation to each of the digits on the plate, by identifying patterns connecting angles and digits.
- Using geometrical tools and your knowledge of angles, recreate a pattern for a potter to use to make a copy of the plate, maintaining its function. The central design is not part of the functional pattern for the plate. Remember to include the location of the edge indentations.
- Describe the kind of symmetry the marking in the centre of the plate has.
- Suppose you also wanted the capacity to cut a tart on this plate into 12 equal pieces. How many extra markings on the plate would really be needed? What if you wanted to share with a group of 13? To what numerical properties can you attribute the difference?
- The central design is quite intricate. When it was originally drawn it was done without the aid of technology. Construct the design without technology, identifying key elements of the design, and document your process so that another designer or artist could reproduce the drawing.
