In geometry one day near the end of the pilot schedule this year we were learning about parallelograms quadrilaterals, and other shapes commonly used in geometry. Mr. Ahearn was asking the class why a triangle was called a triangle and why a square was called a square, he said the Latin students would know. I quickly raised my hand and said tri is three in Latin, and quad is four. This was the first instance that I could connect Latin to geometry and I have seen plenty of more examples such as concave, meaning with the angle, subdivision meaning lower or smaller shapes inside one shape, polygon poly meaning many, and lots of other instances. All it takes for me to connect something back to latin is usually just the word itself and then I can usually spot a derivative that I have learned over the years. Making these connections brings a small sense of excitement to whatever I am doing, it makes reading books and listening to geometry lectures a little more fun.
-Alec
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