Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Thinking About Equations
When you equate one thing to another, you usually proceed such that you
examine two things in succession and then conclude they represent the same
thing. When you look at a picture of a bird in flight and think about being free to
sing, dance, or write a poem, you deal with an analogical form of equality. As
Figure 5.1 illustrates, you can analogically equate an oval and a circle. The two
forms are rounded, for example, or of the same shade. To the idea of analogy, you
can also add that of balance. You can balance a single block on a scale with three
smaller blocks if the combined weights of the three smaller blocks equal that of
the larger block. With both analogy and balance, you establish equality by using a
given quality or attribute to relate two or more items to each other.
When you equate two things to each other, you can do so because they possess a
quality or qualities in common. Mathematicians assert generally that everything
in the universe can be related to everything else using numbers. Numbers provide
a universal medium of relation.
When you study math, it sometimes becomes easy to forget that numbers are
abstractions of things. For example, you see an expression along the following
lines:
7
¼
2
þ
4
þ
1
Figure 5.1
Analogy and balance provide two ways to examine equality.
