Teaching Algebra With The Hourglass

What does a picture of an hourglass gotta do with mathematics? Not much if its just you and I. Perhaps you see the curve, perhaps you see the flow.

But the guys at The Ideal Vacuum sees it as a visual metaphor for something not-so visual, algebra. The hourglass, for example, is a metaphor for the invertible function - a function for which if f(x) = y, f^-1(y) = x.

You can check out their explanation here. They’re actually a cool bunch of people. Their objective is to set out to tutor algebra to people, using different methods, and I find that refreshing, though a little puzzling at first. LOL. I’m not a person that grabs metaphors quite quickly, so it took me some time to understand the site when my friend showed it to me.

But now, I see it as brilliantly genius, the use of everyday objects for teaching algebra. I suppose if you engage your students in these, they’ll learn better. Suddenly, something mundane becomes math-art!