Task of the Week: The Stone Pillar

Jeniffer Sylaj Baptista is studying to be a teacher at the University of Luxembourg. In the interview, she tells us about her task “The Stone Pillar”, which she created in Sandweiler near the city of Luxembourg.

How did you get in contct with the MathCityMap project? How do you use MCM and why?

I use the MCM project for university. I am studying “sciences de l’éducation” (teaching) at the University of Luxembourg. For the homework in the subject Didactics of Mathematics under the supervision of Yves Kreis, we have to create a Mathtrail with different tasks.

The MCM project is a great way to get students to see the mathematics in their environment and to solve mathematical problems in an exploratory way.

Describe your task. How can it be solved?

The task is: “How many stone faces does the stone column have in total?” Stone columns are built up into different stone tiers and these are then the same on each side. So all you really have to do is count the stone faces on one side and then multiply by the number of facets of the stone column, which in this example is 4.

What other tasks could be set on this interesting object?

For example, the volume of the entire stone column could be calculated in another task. Measuring the stone column could also be a small task.