“The classic instrument to measure drawn angles and to draw angles of a given measure is the protractor — essentially half a circular ring, subdivided by ray segments into 180 degrees. For reasons I was unable to find out, this instrument has recently been superseded by an isosceles right triangle — called geo-triangle, solid, transparant, made of plastic — with an angular division radiating from the midpoint of the hypotenuse to the other sides. Well, inside the triangle half a circle with the midpoint of the hypotenuse as its centre is indicated, and from the position of the degree numbers it becomes clear that it is the semicircle that really matters. One is inclined to say "an outrageously misleading instrument"…”

— Hans Freudenthal

Source: Mathematics as an Educational Task (1973), p. 363

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Hans Freudenthal 27

Dutch mathematician 1905–1990

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Hans Freudenthal 27

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