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Mathematics, Education and History pp 323–340Cite as

The Pantograph: A Historical Drawing Device for Math Teaching

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Part of the book series: ICME-13 Monographs ((ICME13Mo))

Abstract

Invented more than 400 years ago, the Pantograph—also called “Stork’s beak”—is still known in modern times. Although it has lost its practical importance, it still invites users to play with geometry. This and the fact that the mathematical background to its working has strong links to modern curriculum suggest studying the Pantograph in class may be beneficial. Furthermore, the history of the Pantograph is described in historical sources and tells a lot about the history of mathematics. But can the history of the Pantograph be used in class to teach mathematics, Latin, history, or handicraft? We investigate this question in an interdisciplinary school project using the classical text by Christoph Scheiner of 1631 for studying the Pantograph with students of grades 8–11.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mathematisches Institut, Universität Leipzig, PF 10 09 20, 04009, Leipzig, Germany

    Silvia Schöneburg-Lehnert

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  1. Silvia Schöneburg-Lehnert
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Correspondence to Silvia Schöneburg-Lehnert .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Teacher Education, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA

    Kathleen M. Clark

  2. Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Tinne Hoff Kjeldsen

  3. Institut Didaktik der Mathematik, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Giessen, Hessen, Germany

    Sebastian Schorcht

  4. Department of Education, University of Crete, Rethymnon, Greece

    Constantinos Tzanakis

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Schöneburg-Lehnert, S. (2018). The Pantograph: A Historical Drawing Device for Math Teaching. In: Clark, K., Kjeldsen, T., Schorcht, S., Tzanakis, C. (eds) Mathematics, Education and History . ICME-13 Monographs. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73924-3_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73924-3_16

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-73923-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-73924-3

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