'MATHEMATICAL' GEOMETRY VERSUS 'ENGINEERING' GEOMETRY

摘要

The different aims in teaching "pure" or "applied" mathematics should imply different didactical approaches to basic concepts in mathematics/geometry courses for mathematics students on one hand and engineering students on the other. Neglecting the "why" of a certain topic consequently is followed by a neglect of "how" concepts are presented. There occur misleading concepts, which make deeper understanding unnecessarily difficult, and there are violations of visualization logic, partly because of unreflected traditional teaching habits, partly because of ignorance of the students future needs. To basic needs of an engineer still belong: (a) well developed spatial representation skills, (b) visualization (and image interpretation) skills, (c) ability to recognize the abstract essence of a problem. These skills are trained effectively by classical Geometry courses. So the article is a plea for keeping classical Geometry in syllabuses of mathematics and engineering studies.