Traditional Houses and Projective Geometry: Building Numbers and Projective Coordinates

Wen-Haw Chen,Ja’faruddin Ja’Faruddin,Md Sazzad Hossien Chowdhury

doi:10.1155/2021/9928900

Abstract

The natural mathematical abilities of humans have advanced civilizations. These abilities have been demonstrated in cultural heritage, especially traditional houses, which display evidence of an intuitive mathematics ability. Tribes around the world have built traditional houses with unique styles. The present study involved the collection of data from documentation, observation, and interview. The observations of several traditional buildings in Indonesia were based on camera images, aerial camera images, and documentation techniques. We first analyzed the images of some sample of the traditional houses in Indonesia using projective geometry and simple house theory and then formulated the definitions of building numbers and projective coordinates. The sample of the traditional houses is divided into two categories which are stilt houses and nonstilt house. The present article presents 7 types of simple houses, 21 building numbers, and 9 projective coordinates.

Highlights

Mathematics has played an essential role in human life for thousands of years
The building numbers and projective coordinates were based on the Indonesian traditional house structure
The traditional houses are presented in the form of house diagrams from an ethnomathematical perspective and with different projections and vanishing points

Summary

Introduction

Notable figures in many civilizations used mathematics to solve daily life problems. Some river civilizations, such as those in ancient Egypt and India, made exceptional achievements in mathematics. These achievements in mathematics were expressed in their buildings and recorded in writing [1]. Some of these civilizations, such as those in ancient Maya [2, 3] and ancient Egypt, have disappeared, their buildings remain and can be studied by scientists (Figure 1). An ancient Egyptian papyrus (dated 1850 BC), called the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus (Figure 1(a)), revealed the geometrical knowledge of the Egyptians [4]

Methods

Results

Conclusion