Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics
3 Lines, angles and shapes
Overview
This is quite a long chapter and it may be a good idea to break it up, especially as questions that
involve drawing diagrams always take students some time to complete. A natural break comes
after sections 3.1 to 3.3; the second half of the chapter also offers a chance to review some of the
measuring techniques acquired in the first half.
Getting started
Lines, angles and shapes are the building blocks of geometry. The word geometry means ‘earth
measurement’. You can introduce this topic by asking the class some questions about lines, angles and
shapes. Some useful starting questions are:
1 Who needs to use knowledge of lines, angles and shapes in their work/daily life?
2 What sort of problems could arise from making mistakes related to lines, angles and shapes?
1 Possible answers to question 1 could include:
• Pilots and navigators need lines on maps and bearings to find their way.
• Construction relies on geometry. Engineers, surveyors and planners need to use geometry to
make sure structures are stable, tunnels meet, surfaces are level and railroad tracks are parallel.
• Artists use lines, angles and shapes to reproduce images and give depth and perspective to
their work. Architects use lines and shapes for functional and aesthetic purposes.
• We even use knowledge of geometry to play games such as Tetris or Angry Birds and, of course,
the people who design online and arcade games couldn’t do them without using polygons to
develop the worlds and characters.
• Even movies rely on geometry to create three-dimensional effects and virtual worlds.
• Similarly, air traffic controllers need to judge the angle between planes, and pilots need to
accurately calculate their landing angles to prevent accidents.
2 There are many examples.
• The most obvious are that constructions could fail, bridges could be too short, and accidents
would happen if roads and railways were not accurately built.
• Simpler, obvious examples relate to using the wrong shape for everyday objects – round nuts
would be difficult to unscrew from bolts as there would be no surface to grip with a pair of
pliers (most nuts are square or hexagonal); soccer balls would not be completely round if the
panels didn’t fit together; bicycle frames would not be strong and stable without triangular
shapes in their construction.
Examples by chapter
The following worked examples are available as PowerPoint slides with step-by-step solutions to
introduce concepts and demonstrate working:
• Angle properties of triangles
• Polygons
Issues to think about
Angles – emphasise that correct names must be learnt for ‘corresponding’, ‘alternate’ and ‘co-interior’
angles; the descriptions F, Z and C are useful and intuitive but are not acceptable in an exam.
Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics
Isosceles – means ‘equal legs’ in its original Greek; challenge your students to spell it correctly!
Construction – give your students advanced warning that this topic is coming so they can make sure
they have the proper equipment. Emphasise that construction lines and arcs need to be seen as evidence
that a student has not just drawn an angle using a protractor.
E
Extended – Irregular polygons: question 5 in Exercise 3.7 of the Coursebook extends the work
with angles in polygons to angles within irregular polygons.
Lines, angles and shapes in real life contexts
The discussion in the introduction to this topic will have raised several real life contexts in which lines,
angles and shapes are used. As you work through the activities in the chapter, encourage the students to
relate them to real life examples.
For example, when you deal with construction, consider how builders and engineers translate
geometrical diagrams into real life buildings. Even a simple task such as marking the lines on a sports
field requires some knowledge of geometry.
It is also valuable to point out that many people who work with angles and shapes have excellent
estimation skills, even if they don’t know formal mathematics. For example, builders will often be able to
look at a floor and say how many tiles of a certain shape and/or size will be needed to tile it. Bricklayers
work with straight and parallel lines and right angles using their instincts and often without measuring.
They also often make their own simple instruments for measuring.
Extending the topic
Optical illusions rely on angles and your visual perception to confuse you. Have students explore simple
optical illusions and let them try to explain how and why they work. You can extend this idea further by
exploring how artists such as M. C. Escher have used geometry to produce works of art that are based on
optical illusions and situations that are impossible to reproduce in real life.
Angry Birds is a very popular computer game. It involves launching birds onto a geometrical structure to
try and collapse it. Have students explore how the use of angles can improve their results in a game like
this. (Other games that use angles include snooker, soccer – and any other game where the ball bounces –
archery and many others.)
Surfers, skateboarders and snowboarders talk about angles when they describe some of the moves. Let
the students explore what the following terms mean: 90° ollie, a 360° flip, a frontside 180° or 540° and a
backside 180° or 720°.
As a project, you could get the students to investigate the shapes used in architecture and design in
different cultures. For example, many African cultures use cylindrical shapes for buildings; Islamic
cultures often use a pattern made by rotating a square (the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
are a good example of this) and Aboriginal people in Australia use patterns of organic shapes and colour
with particular meanings in their artwork and designs.
