Niagara Falls Is a Parabola:
Geometry DOES Relate to Daily Life!
By Sandy Ruconich
Junior High Resource Teacher
Utah School for the Blind
One of my roommates at this summer’s AER conference in Toronto was Susan Osterhaus, the well-respected math teacher from the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired who is kind enough to share her knowledge with our field in so many ways, including DVIQ articles! Because I’ll be teaching technology as well as Nemeth code to my University of Utah personnel prep students this year, I was excited to be able to “pick Susan’s brain,” as it were, about math technology issues and devices!
One of the things she showed me was the Accessible Graphing Calculator, an innovative piece of computer software from ViewPlus Technologies ( which can translate the shape of graphs into regular print, large print, tactile, or audible representations. I was instantly fascinated—not only because of my need to know about it for the university class, but also because my perfect pitch and my music degree draw me irresistibly to technology which incorporates music! Audibly, a parabola, which I could never remember the tactile shape of, suddenly became instantly memorable as a high tone, descending to a low tone, ascending to the high tone at which it had first started. At Susan’s suggestion I even drew it as I heard it, so that it became an even more memorable multi-sensory experience!
On the last evening of the conference I joined about 60 other attendees to visit Niagara Falls—something I’ve wanted to do since I heard my mother describe its awesomeness years ago! Not wanting to miss any aspect of a second multi-sensory experience, I excitedly donned a raincoat (my dog guide was far less excited about donning her raincoat) and stood at the rail throughout the boat ride on “The Maid of the Mist!” I enjoyed the spray in my face and the sound of the Falls but was disappointed that for safety reasons we couldn’t get any closer. Their shape—and to some extent even their sound--was hard to perceive as we moved.
My roommates had been on other adventures that night, and they were kind enough to wait up for me (the trip is about an hour and a half each way and I got home after midnight) so we could all debrief. As we compared notes, I expressed my disappointment at having to experience the Falls so remotely!
But then, in one of those “aha!” moments we all hope for but rarely enjoy, I had a flash of insight: NIAGARA FALLS IS A PARABOLA! I still wished I could have gotten closer, but suddenly I understood more about the Falls than I had when they had been described to me as a print U or a horseshoe. I was elated, and so were my roommates! Could it be that even for me, a right-brained person who memorized her way through math and wondered why such advanced classes as geometry and calculus were really necessary, geometry has real-world relevance? What a frightening, mind-altering idea!
And why am I writing this article now? Because my other roommate was Q editor Sheila Amato, whose pen or Palm Pilot is always eager to record article ideas! Thanks, Sheila (now that this is written), for the opportunity to relive one of the neatest parts of my Toronto visit!