Final report
------- The mathematics behind Prague’s Horologe
Hu Mengge, Wang Miaomiao, Wang Linfan, Shi Wanting
As a group, we discussed the topic and the four parts we were going to speak together. Then,
we drew lots to decide which part each person should present. And this report is done by four
individuals, each one only talks about his or her own presentation.
1.Introduction (Hu Mengge)
My first all-English class has been finished, during a five-day class, although it was a short
time, I could also benefit from it. because of this class, I get a chance to give an English
presentation with the help of PPT. In this time, my presentation is not about analyse but
introduction. so I prepare an presentation paper to sum the knowledge I need to introduce, I
thought it’s well prepared.
When I was having a presentation, I thought my voice is louder than before, maybe it’s
because I have spent too much on it. after all ,I made a progress .and I thought my tone was
clearer and my speaking was more fluently. every one would be nervous when he or she was
having a presentation, and I was one of them ,so when I was nervous ,I would almost forget the
things in my mind, so I should learn how to get it over so that I could have a awaken brain to give
a presentation.
In the future ,I trust myself that I could do better. this presentation, I thought ,has one point
that didn’t satisfied me, that’s the time of the presentation is not long, maybe that’s the limitation
of my ability. so, I will improve my ability later and could have a presentation longer.
2. What mathematics is hidden behind Prague’s old clock? (Wang Miaomiao)
The time was really tight for me to prepare, I’m not a good speaker, every time when I was
going to make a speech, I need at least three days to write and recite the essay. This time, I spent
the whole afternoon of Thursday to understand what mathematics is hidden behind the
astronomical clock, and I fell into sleep. What’s more, it took me more than three hours to write
the content I was going to say and make the PPT. The biggest problem for me was that the
organization of materials, I didn’t know how can I make it clear to the audience, even myself
couldn’t understand them thoroughly. I read all the materials and recorded them, the time was
more than 7 minutes, I thought I have to control my time in 5 minutes, so I cut some three or four
times. And I knew I cannot explain the reason why the small gear is the essential part of this clock,
I intended to just mention that without deep explanation. But when Hu (the first speaker) was
giving the introduction, Wang(the third speaker) told me that he was afraid that we didn’t have
enough time. So when I spoke, I cut all the unnecessary part, and only talked about the clock
sequence. This speech was really a failure for me, but I am OK, because I have gone through
many failures. Standing on the stage was a challenge for me, I really hope I could prepared well
and improve a little every time, but I think I just lost a good chance. As always, I relied on my
scripts, had little eye contact and interactions with the audience, also, the speed was too fast, my
so-so oral English might sound more uncomfortable.
3. Connections with triangular numbers and periodic sequences (Wang Linfan)
In this summer international course, I learned a lot from Professor Li—the analysis of
Amidakuji, the principle of paradox and so on. I benefit a lot from this course, not only the
mathematics knowledge, but the exercise of showing myself from the group topic.
In class, the teacher gave us some interesting ideas and some of them is really early, but there
exists a lot of mathematics cogitation.
In the presentation, with 3 good teammate, we choose the topic—The mathematics behind
Prague Horologe. We take it from 4 parts:1.Introduction, 2.Mathematics behind the astronomical
clock of Prague, 3.Connections with triangular numbers and periodic sequences, 4.Further
mathematical and scientific sights. I am responsible for the third part .Other three teammates all
prepared well and they have a good presentation. When it comes to my turn, I became nervous and
can’t have a very good presentation. I didn’t express well and I assumed that I was sorry to my
teammate. But from this failure, I harvest lessons and I think it’s an opportunity to improving
myself. Maybe next time, I can show myself very well.
In one word, I benefit a lot and exercise myself, if there’re the next chance, I will choose it
without any hesitation.
4 .Mathematics behind some other famous sights (Shi Wantintg)
a.Contents
Prague is very popular among visitors and is celebrated as one of the most
an+1beautiful
= an-1 +andan
romantic cities in central Europe due to its varied styles of architecture such as Romanesque,
Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and etc .The impressive Prague Castle ,Charles Bridge with its
many artists and Baroque statues ,and the Gothic Katedrala sv. Vita.
As the clock sequence is mentioned before when studying the Prague’s Horologe,we can find
that sequence is widely used in architecture. One of the famous sequence called the fibonacci
sequence can’t be ignored.
Fibonacci sequence are the numbers of the following integer sequence:
1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,144,...
The first two numbers can be 1,1 or 0,1,depending on the chosen starting point of the sequence,
and each subsequent number is the sum of the previous two.
Divide an by an+1,we will get the following sequence:
1/2 ,2/3 , 3/5 ,5/8 ,8/13 ,13/21 ,21/34 ,...
Each element of the sequence tends to 0.618 which is named as golden ratio.
Parthenon Temple is one of the masterpiece that well linked the mathematics with
architecture,which involves more than seven golden rectangles.Another example could be
Notre-Dame de Paris,the Gothic style church in Paris.Golden ratio is utilized in
music,architechture,painting,design and nature.
Another example in modern city which linked mathematics and architecture is the Bank of
China Tower in Hongkong designed by leoh Ming Pei.The Bank of China is desigend as a
bamboo.There are four parts in all and the bottom is a cuboid.From the bottom to the top,every
part removed a isosceles right triangular prism.(see picture 1).Seeing from the top,it forms a
square.The simple structure turned out to be wind and earthquake resistant,and won many
construction awards locally and globally.
(1)
b.Reflection
Reflecting on my presentation,the materials may be too isolated to my partners,and the link
between mathematics and famous sights is not clear enough.In addition,the sequences are not
explained enough and what I have done is just to introduce a sequence.The cooperation of our
team need improvement.
I will communicate with my partners more when choosing a topic and try to add some
interaction to attract the audience’s attention such as games or more questions.