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Shongo Networks
from the GEMS Guide Math Around the World
Fascinating Facts
A
Belgian visitor to the Congo Basin saw some children playing a
game in the sand. Expressing interest, he was invited to join the
group of children and was asked to reproduce some figures the children
had drawn. To their great joy, the visitor was completely stumped!
Not only were the Shongo children good at tracing networks because
they used them in their games, but people from the Shongo tribe
would also draw networks as they told stories, as a representation
of the story.
| Get a pencil and paper and try
to draw this simple pattern without re-tracing and without
lifting your pencil. Start at A and end at B. |
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| Now, take a look at this demo to see one solution. Was your
solution the same? How many solutions can you find? |
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Where's the Math in this Activity?
Determining whether networks are traceable and, if so, whether there
are multiple ways to trace them, is an important part of network
or graph theory. A Swiss mathematician named Leonhard Euler (1701-1783)
looked for ways to predict whether a network could be traced and
discovered an interesting relationship between the number of even
and odd vertices (points where lines cross). As you find traceable
networks, what can you discover about the number of even and odd
vertices? Can you discover any other ways to predict whether a
network is traceable?
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