Geometry Uses in Driving
If you're like most high school geometry students, it's a significant time for you. You're preparing to or beginning to drive!
Like most high school geometry students, you'd probably much rather think about driving than geometry. As it turns out, you can do both!
Here are some sample questions you may want to work through with your teacher or simply think about on your own to improve your conceptual understanding of geometry. As you contemplate these scenarios, you will probably think of even more ways you can relate geometry to driving!
Other People Are Reading
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Street Signs
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Street signs with different shapes mean different things. Hopefully you learned the names of your shapes about 10 years ago, but you can still practice geometry with these signs.
Look up the dimensions of a stop sign online, and find its area, perimeter, and interior angles.
If a non-square shaped sign rests on a sign that is a square (or a rectangle), imagine what would happen if the top sign were lowered a few inches over the bottom rectangular sign. What are the vertical angles? (See the diagram for one possible solution.)
Try to break down signs of complicated shapes into smaller, more straightforward shapes. Calculate the total area by adding together the areas of the smaller shapes.
The Road
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For more practical driving geometry, consider the road itself.
When approaching a traffic circle, try to estimate its circumference. Does the arclength you will travel around the circle depend on how wide the traffic circle is (what is this measure called?), its square, or its cube? In other words, if you doubled the length across the circle (again, what is this called?), would the distance you travel around the circle double, quadruple, or increase by a factor of eight?
If you're stuck in traffic on one road, should you try to find a less crowded parallel or perpendicular road on which to travel? How much area will you cover unnecessarily?
What is the midpoint on your journey home from school? If you could drive as the crow flies, what would be the midpoint?
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Construction
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Construction is a constant of city driving, and learning to deal with and navigate around it involves geometry.
If you see two fallen orange cones on the right side of your lane, where is the center of the circle you drive to navigate around it? At the right, left, or center of your lane? At the first cone, the second, or between them? (See the diagram.)
Is the expansion (elongation) of a road best represented by a line, a line segment, or a ray? What does your answer tell you about what you can reasonably expect from the result of such construction?
In your opinion, should temporary exits to the same street on different sides of the freeway be congruent? Can you find permanent examples of some that are and some that aren't? What pros and cons does each option offer?
Logical and Illogical Advice
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You'll get a lot of advice when you first start driving, and the logic you learn in a geometry course can help you determine what (and who) to listen to. Construct truth tables to determine whether the following statements are true or false for you at this time.
If you listen to loud music, you will get into a car accident.
If a traffic camera is on a red light and you run that red light, you will get a ticket.
If your friends offer you a ride, you are studying geometry.
Cars
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Finally, the use of geometry is important to understanding and operating your vehicle.
If the steering wheel fits perfectly in your closed hand, what would its thickness be? Approximate the steering wheel as a hollow cylinder. What would be the volume of a steering wheel that fits perfectly in your hand?
Why is it dangerous to approximate your car's shape as a square or rectangle when pulling into a parking space?
Add a bit of physics: Force is directly proportional to the area upon which pressure is exerted. If your gas pedal were a triangle with the same base and height as your current rectangular one and you pressed down on it with the same pressure you always use, would you go faster, slower, or the same speed? (Keep this result in mind when driving other people's cars if the areas of the gas pedals are different!)
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