This is an extremely interesting question, and one that many big brains have spent a lot of time trying to answer. You are certainly right that it was an invention: an ah ha experience of someone thinking and finding out something interesting about nature or abstract forms.
It probably happened many, many years ago. Maybe the terms for angle, triangle, etc. weren't invented until only several thousand years ago when Euclid, in the West, formalized geometry, but the ideas had to have been invented much earlier. Certainly the ancient Egyptians were using geometrical shapes and calculations when building their pyramids, for example.
So, lets go back, back, way...way back in time, maybe 50,000 years ago, maybe 500,000 years ago, maybe more. Our ancestors had a lot of time on their hands, particularly at night, when they could look at the skies and on cloudless nights, the stars. Notice how they arrange themselves? See those three that seem to be together, one at the top and two below it, sort of spread apart? Notice those four? So, maybe someone started noticing some invaiants in the skies.
Or maybe it was the early discoverers of fire. Sitting around the campfire, shooting the bull. Notice how if we put the logs right next to each other on the ground they don't burn so well? Notice that if we put one log on top of another one, one this way and one that way, see how it makes a "cross" and burns better? Hmmm. Look at that, will you. Notice how when you put one log this way and another log that way you get four "spaces", and if we move the log on top this way and that, notice how we get two "equal" big spaces and two little spaces? Hmmm. Well, now, what should we call the spaces? Hmmm. Well, we got big spaces and little spaces, or four equal spaces...What do they have in common? Hmmm...Hmmm...Hey, let's call those thingies "angles"--Hey, we have four angles. Yeah, but when we have two big and two little angles, we still have angles, and see, if we draw an imaginary line from the ends, we have the same shape, but in different sizes. Hmmm. Hmmm. Eureka! Let's call them triangles, you know, three angles. Wow. We can have small triangles and big triangles...And so "triangles" were invented...Then if we move the two logs and use four logs instead, we make a much better fire, and hey, it looks like we turned the original triangles inside out, and hey, look, if you put two triangles next to each other, with the little end here next to the big end, hey, we have a...Hmmm. Yeah, let's call it a rectangle, and hey, if the sides are parallel, we have a square, whereas if they are at an angle, sort of leaning, we have a non-square rectangle...Hey, we're inventing geometry...I wonder who our children and grandchildren will think invented this stuff? Hey, maybe someone on Yahoo Answers will ask that question...What's Yahoo answers? Oh, it's something I foresee, a prophecy, that one day beyond the seas, in a time we can only imagine, they'll invent this tool where people can ask and answer questions, you know, something like sitting around the campfire, only it'll be made out of invisible talk, like you know some form of writing (but what is writing? well it hasn't been invented yet).
2006-08-30 02:47:29
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answer #1
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answered by Pandak 5
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