First thing that comes to mind is the diminished illumination to to a point source of light. The light received by a small area decreases by the square of the distance to the source. (At least, that's true theoretically; actual relationship might depend on the shape of the actual source.)
Second, what is the geometry that makes it harder to keep the image of a distant image as sharp as the image of a nearby object?
And third, would involve the production of an image of a box -- i.e. learning about perspective. In that regard you should look at that great drawing by Durher in which he explains(!) how to draw a perspective image of a lute as seen by the eye. He touches a point on the lute with a pointer that is attached to a string; the other end of the string is at a fixed point (representing the location of the eye) at some distance from where the drawing would be. He measures where the string passes through a frame which represents the paper onto which the lute will be drawn. He transfers those measurements to a piece of paper and places a dot that corresponds to the crossing point of the string through the frame, which in turn represents the point on the lute that he touched. He has already placed several points on the paper so you see the image of lute already in development.
(The whole drawing of all of this happening is a masterpiece of drawing (which is, of course, in perspective already!). Now, THAT's a teacher.)
Also, it is possible to learn about vanishing points on a horizon, explain why they are called "vanishing" and then learn how to draw in pespective.
It's math, but not the one+one kind.
Lastly, to forestall the complaint that much of the above is not strictly photography, I'll just say that I beg to differ.
-yoram
-------------- Original message from jonathan turner <home@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>: --------------
Hi,
I've been asked to do some work in a school that involves using photography to help with learning maths. I'm fairly hopeless at maths so am very unsure of how to proceed.
The project is centred around the construction of a new library building, which we are going to take pictures of, but have to find some sort of mathematical aspect to the photography to help with their learning.
I was thinking of something to do with symmetry/geometry etc but other than that have really no clue as to how to bring mathematical concepts into it. Obviously mathematics and photography are two quite different disciplines, I'm sure there must be plenty of crossover points but I'm really struggling to see them.
Has anyone got any suggestions as to how I might do this? All suggestions gratefully received.
Cheers,
Jonathan.
--
Jonathan Turner
Photographer
e: pictures@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
t: 0113 217 1275
m:07796 470573
7 Scott Hall Walk, Leeds, LS7 3JQ
http://www.jonathan-turner.com
