Drawing Accurate Diagrams

Aarav Navani
Sep 4, 2018 · 3 min read

When I was in 7th grade, I learned geometry. Throughout my entire year of studying geometry, the biggest challenge I overcame was making poorly-drawn diagrams. My diagrams were always lopsided, and as the days passed, I became more and more frustrated. All my endless attempts to draw diagrams ended up in the recycle bin. Because my diagrams were not accurate, I wasn’t able to get the correct answer. I made false assumptions, and this led to incorrect answers. My inaccurate diagrams were affecting my accuracy on geometry problems. I wasn’t sure what to do next.

I asked my brother, who was in high school, since he had much more experience than me with geometry. He suggested that I use a compass and ruler. I followed his advice and I could immediately see the improvement in my diagrams. The compass allowed me to draw precise circles and the ruler helped me draw my diagrams to scale. These tools made constructing accurate diagrams much easier. Also, I think what helped me the most was switching from blank paper to graph paper. Graph paper helped me draw my diagrams even more to scale, especially for coordinate problems. With the one unit lines on the paper, I was able to draw my diagrams exactly how the problem wanted it.

Another thing that helped me was an online graphing tool called GeoGebra. When the coordinates got messy, Geogebra always made it easier to visualize the graph online. I could see the different graphs very clearly online, which I could not have done on paper. Using different colors to represent different segments allowed me to compare them easily.

My challenges didn’t end there. As my geometry class progressed, the problems got harder and harder. The diagrams became more complex, and I was not able to comprehend these advanced details.

I decided to seek help from my geometry teacher. He suggested that I use a language called Asymptote to construct diagrams. I immediately tried this, and it worked. From being able to label equal angles to make different types of lines helped me see the diagram clearer than I had before.

However, learning to use this online drawing tool was not so easy. Having to learn a completely different language was very challenging and time consuming. I spent hours trying to figure out how to draw specific shapes. But it turns out that all I needed to get a hang of it was some simple practice. I mostly did this by answering peoples geometry questions on an online community. The more I practiced, the better I got.

Another thing I did was I started a math blog. There, I posted geometry problems, with their solutions as well the diagrams. I was fortunate enough to be able to draw my diagrams, with the same online code that I had learned before. When I didn’t know how to draw a specific aspect of my diagram, I was forced to look it up, which made me better at constructing complex diagrams. practiced making the diagrams that accompanied the solution using the online drawing code, which made me better.

When I first started my geometry class, my diagrams were not accurate, but I overcame many challenges to improve my diagrams.

Aarav Navani

Aarav's blog

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