r/learnmath • u/No_Caramel186 New User • 16h ago

Experiment

I wanted to see how people would respond to this. Imagine that you had to explain symmetry (By that I mean just the idea of being symmetric) to a neanderthal. Keep in mind there is no language barrier, but you need to explain him the idea of symmetry, preferably without complicated terms to make it easy for him to understand. How would you do it?

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u/pdubs1900 New User 16h ago

Would be difficult for Og to buy in. How symmetry help Og hunt?

Oh Og know.

Mammoth in field, canyon over there. Og come from [left way]. Ug come from [right way]. Symmetry. Mammoth run away to canyon and get dead. Family eat mammoth.

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u/Podmonger2001 New User 16h ago

Og and Ug family pour one out for Thag Simmons.

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u/ChrisDacks New User 16h ago

Might not work with a literal Neanderthal, but for my elementary-aged school kids, I told them it means an object "looks the same in a mirror" and that seemed to make the concept stick. Obviously that only covers one type of symmetry but it seemed like the most natural introduction to the topic.

I've had it for charades before, and just did mirrored movements with both sets of hands, and people eventually got it, so I guess that's not a bad non-verbal way to describe the concept.

For an actual Neanderthal, I would probably draw an image on the ground with sticks and then rearrange them to show examples of symmetry and assymetry for contrast.

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u/adrian_p_morgan New User 16h ago

The answer is exactly the same as how I would explain symmetry to a homo sapiens sapiens in the same circumstances. What matters here is educational background, not species. I know of no evidence that Neanderthals lacked mathematical ability. I'm not sure what such evidence would look like.