Imagine the strokes of a bamboo basket that are beautifully weaved together in a pattern consisting of parallel and perpendicular lines. Also, the two-way highways run parallel to each other and connect to different parts of the city through roads running perpendicular to them. It is evident from these simple examples that how mathematical concepts surround us in unimaginable ways.
Transitioning from straight, curved, and slanting lines to parallel and perpendicular lines, we all grew up. Besides knowing the theoretical significance of the subject matter, understanding its practical relevance can simplify the learning process for students, enabling them to fully comprehend the concept and excel.
Given that, in this blog post, you’ll find a compilation of examples of how parallel and perpendicular lines are manifested in the real world around us, connecting textbook knowledge to practical applications.
Examples of how parallel and perpendicular lines shape our surroundings
1. Railway Tracks
Embark on a mental journey along a railway track, where parallel lines stretch into the distance as far as the eye can see. These tracks never converge, remaining equidistant from each other throughout their course.
2. Window Frames
Take a closer look at the windows of a building or your own home. Notice the elegant pattern formed by the vertical and horizontal lines of the window frames. These lines create a grid-like structure, with the vertical lines parallel to each other and the horizontal lines perpendicular to them.
3. Pedestrian Crosswalks
Picture yourself at a bustling intersection, where safety and order are maintained by the bold lines painted on the ground. The parallel lines of the crosswalk extend ahead, providing a safe path for pedestrians. Meanwhile, the shorter perpendicular lines intersect them, ensuring pedestrians can traverse the road safely.
4. Skyscrapers and Streets
Imagine standing in the heart of a metropolis, surrounded by towering skyscrapers and bustling streets. Take note of how these structures align themselves harmoniously. The towering buildings stand tall and parallel to each other, while the streets intersect at right angles, forming perpendicular lines.
5. Soccer and Basketball Courts
Transport yourself to the vibrant world of sports fields. On a soccer field, the sidelines run parallel to each other, guiding players in their thrilling pursuits. In a basketball court, the baseline and sideline create a perfect right angle, forming perpendicular lines that frame the court.
6. Bookshelves
Visit a library or explore your own book collection. Notice how the shelves are constructed with parallel horizontal lines, providing a neat and organized display for books. The vertical dividers between the shelves form perpendicular lines, ensuring stability and efficient storage.
7. Fences
Next time you encounter a fence, pay attention to its construction. The pickets or slats running horizontally between the vertical posts create parallel lines. Additionally, the posts themselves are aligned in a row, forming perpendicular lines that provide structural support.
8. Zebras
Observe the striking patterns on a zebra’s coat. The distinctive black and white stripes create a stunning visual display of parallel lines running along the zebra’s body. These parallel lines not only serve as a remarkable camouflage in the wild but also offer a unique visual identity.
9. Stairs
When you look at a set of stairs, you’ll notice that the steps are parallel to each other. If you imagine drawing a line along the edge of each step, these lines would be parallel. Additionally, the vertical risers connecting one step to another are perpendicular to the horizontal treads, forming right angles.
10. Legs of a chair or a table
The legs of a chair or a table are designed to provide stability and support. Typically, the legs are positioned in such a way that they form parallel lines. If you observe the legs from the top, you’ll see that they run parallel to each other, creating a rectangular or square base.
11. Bricks laid while construction
When bricks are laid to build a wall, the horizontal mortar lines between them form parallel lines. These mortar lines are perfectly horizontal, creating a sense of alignment. Additionally, when a second layer of bricks is placed on top, the vertical mortar lines between the bricks are perpendicular to the horizontal ones, forming right angles.
12. Tiles on the floor
Floor tiles are often arranged in a grid-like pattern, with rows and columns of tiles. The horizontal rows of tiles are parallel to each other, as are the vertical columns of tiles. If you follow any row or column, you’ll notice that the edges of the tiles remain equidistant from each other, forming parallel lines. Floor times are also the efficient real-life example of a rhombus.
13. Wires for drying clothes
When clotheslines or wires are stretched out for hanging clothes to dry, they often form parallel lines. Each wire is parallel to the adjacent ones, creating a uniform and organized arrangement for hanging garments.
14. Guitar strings and frets
Guitar strings are stretched parallel to each other from the bridge to the nut of the guitar. They run in a straight line and maintain the same distance between them. Additionally, the frets on the guitar neck are perpendicular to the strings. Frets are raised metal bars positioned at right angles to the strings, allowing guitarists to produce different notes and chords. Also, notice how the curved part of the body of the guitar makes it a real-life example of a hyperbola.
15. Woven bamboo basket
In a woven bamboo basket, the weaving pattern creates parallel lines running horizontally and vertically throughout the structure. These lines are formed by the intersecting bamboo strips, which are woven together in a specific pattern to create a sturdy and visually appealing basket.
16. Baby cot
The sides of a baby cot are often constructed with vertical bars or slats. These bars run parallel to each other, providing a safe and secure enclosure for the baby. The parallel bars allow caregivers to easily monitor the child while ensuring proper ventilation and visibility.
17. Bamboo curtain chicks for windows
Bamboo curtain chicks, often used as window coverings, consist of multiple bamboo slats or strings that hang vertically. These slats are parallel to each other, creating a uniform appearance and facilitating easy opening and closing of the curtains.
18. Kid math notebook
In a kid’s math notebook, the pages are often lined with ruled lines to guide handwriting. These ruled lines run horizontally across the page and are parallel to each other, providing a framework for neat and organized writing.
Features of parallel and perpendicular lines responsible for their effective utilization
Discussed below are certain strong features of parallel and perpendicular lines due to which these are abundantly employed in fields like engineering, architecture, and construction.
- Stability and Balance: Both parallel and perpendicular lines distribute the weight ensuring strength, stability, and balance. This is why these are preferred in architectural structures like buildings, bridges, door frames, windows, etc.
- Management: Parallel and perpendicular lines find their great significance in transportation. Railway lines, airport runways, and roads run parallel to each other which ensures simultaneous operations and improves overall efficiency. Similarly, perpendicular lines ensure smooth traffic flow at intersections which enables safe and efficient vehicle movements preventing accidents.
- Precision: Being a real-life example of a coordinate plane, in navigation and mapping, with the help of a grid system, parallel & perpendicular lines are used to locate a specific point on the maps ensuring precision. In maps, perpendicular lines work on determining the four main directions as well.
- Symmetry: Both parallel and perpendicular lines are used in design compositions as they evoke a sense of harmony, order, stability, and pleasing proportions. These lines balance the overall design giving it an aesthetically appealing look.
- Uniform Separation: In architecture and engineering, both these lines ensure effective space utilization by uniformly dividing the place and maximizing the available space. These are also used as a reference for accurate positioning and alignment.
Conclusion
Geometry has several real-world applications and so do parallel and perpendicular lines. With their unique characteristics, these lines add structure, harmony, and intrigue to our surroundings. By exploring these mathematical wonders in real-life examples, we’ve uncovered the hidden beauty and quirkiness that lies within the world of geometry. As by now you’ve got an idea of how parallel and perpendicular lines are all around us, next time you take a trip by train or try your hands on a guitar, do not forget to embrace the application of this crucial mathematical concept.
An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’,