(What’s The Story) Triangle Glory?

Triangles. Lovely shapes whose angles measure a total of 180º degrees. They appear in seemingly tedious admission tests, Math books, religious icons, fashion, extravagant dishes, outlandish furniture, cars, lamp posts, stairs, wings, windows... In other words, they’re everywhere. Why are they so important? How come there is even a whole branch of Mathematics devoted to a special category of them (Trigonometry)? Why do we need to analyze them?
The answer is simple. Again, they’re everywhere. Since they are geometric shapes based on a particular angular arrangement, it would be quite impossible to imagine some of our daily actions without them. The movement of our fingers, the way we walk, the incidence of sun rays and the way Earth receives them to provide life; are all events related to triangles. Now, thanks to computers, triangles are the foundation of some of the coolest special effects or videogames. The word polygon comes to mind. A polygon is any geometrical shape with more than one angle. Get your Greek together: poly= many gon= angle. A collection of polygons may be calculated inside a computer to produce masterpieces such as… Toy Story, Avatar, The Matrix. Or whole scenes such as the stampede from the Lion King, the flying scenes of How To Train your Dragon or the expressions on Boo’s face. In terms of videogames, making a ball bounce, performing a shot, making a wall break, or moving a character is based on directions and angles. On the other hand, triangles have been closely related to concepts such as the feminine and the divine. The shape of a triangle may refer to a waistline, fertility, fragility or sensuality. In any fashion show or marketing campaign related to beauty, you will surely find the reference to an angle. Divinely, triangles represent Providence, the Holy Trinity or the Star of David (Israel’s symbol made of two intersected and opposite triangles). There is also a very interesting fractal known as Serpinsky’s Triangle.
So… do not hate triangles just because you need to study them to get a grade. Take a look at the world around you and see how many triangles you may find. It is just like finding Hidden Mickeys in a Disney Theme Park.

Triangles Everywhere: