by With its bright colors, easy-to-learn rules and familiar music, the video game Tetris has lived on as a pop culture icon for the past 40 years. Many people, like me, have been playing the game for years, and it has evolved to adapt to new technologies such as game systems, phones and tablets. But until January 2024, no one has ever been able to beat him.
A teen from Oklahoma has the Tetris title after crashing the game on Level 157 and beating the game. If hit, the player moved the tiles too quickly for the game to keep up with the score, causing the game to drop out. Artificial intelligence can suggest strategies that allow players to control the game tiles more efficiently and place them faster – these strategies helped crown the game’s first winner.
But Tetris is about much more than the inevitable promise of victory. As a mathematician and math educator, I recognize that the game is based on a fundamental aspect of geometry, called dynamic spatial reasoning. The player uses these geometric skills to manipulate the game pieces, and play can test and improve the player’s dynamic spatial reasoning.
Playing the game
Tetris was invented by a Russian computer scientist named Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. The game itself is very simple: The Tetris screen consists of a rectangular game board with rectangular geometric figures. These figures are called tetrominoes, made up of four squares joined on their sides in seven different configurations.
The game pieces fall from the top, one at a time, stacked up from the bottom. The player can manipulate each one as it falls by turning or sliding it and then dropping it to the bottom. When a row fills up completely, it disappears and the player earns points.
As the game progresses, the pieces at the top appear faster, and the game ends when the stack reaches the top of the board.
Dynamic spatial reasoning
By manipulating the game pieces the player is given practice in dynamic spatial reasoning. Spatial reasoning is the ability to imagine geometric figures and how they will move in space. Thus, dynamic spatial reasoning is the ability to visualize actively moving figures.
The Tetris player must quickly decide where the currently falling game piece would best fit and then move it there. This movement involves translating, or moving a shape left and right, and rotating, or tilting the shape in 90 degree increments on its axis.
Spatial visualization is a basic ability, but a partially learned expertise. Some researchers recognize that spatial skill is essential for successful problem solving, and is often used alongside mathematical and verbal skills.
Spatial visualization is a key part of a mathematical discipline called transformational geometry, which is usually first taught in middle school. In a typical transformative geometry exercise, students might be asked to represent a figure by its x and y coordinates on a coordinate graph and then identify the transformations, such as translation and rotation, necessary to move it from one place to another while moving the piece. keep at the. same shape and size.
Reflection and dilation are the other two basic mathematical transformations, although they are not used in Tetris. Reflection shifts the image across any line while keeping the same size and shape, while dilation changes the size of the shape, producing a similar figure.
For many students, these exercises are boring, as they involve plotting many points on graphs to move real position. But games like Tetris can help students understand these concepts in a dynamic and engaging way.
Geometry transforms beyond Tetris
Although it looks simple, transformational geometry is the basis for some advanced topics in mathematics. Architects and engineers alike use transformations to draft blueprints, which represent real life in scale drawings.
Animators and computer graphic designers also use the concepts of transformations. Animation involves representing real coordinates in a matrix array and then creating a sequence to change their position, which moves it across the screen. Although animators today use computer programs that automatically move figures around, they are all based on translation.
Calculus and differential geometry also use transformations. The concept of optimization is about representing a situation as a function and then finding the maximum or minimum value of that function. Optimization problems often involve graphical representations where the student uses transformations to manipulate one or more variables.
Many real-world applications use optimization – for example, businesses may want to find the minimum cost of distributing a product. Another example is the size of the theoretical box which is the largest possible figure.
All of these advanced materials use the same concepts as simple Tetris moves.
Tetris is an engaging and entertaining video game, and players with transformative geometry skills may succeed in playing it. Research has found that manipulation of rotation and translation within the game can provide a strong conceptual basis for advanced mathematics in many scientific fields.
Playing tetris could lead students to major in business analytics, engineering or computer science in the future – and it’s fun. As a math educator, I encourage students and friends to play on.
This article is republished from The Conversation, a non-profit, independent news organization that brings you reliable facts and analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. Written by: Leah McCoy, Wake Forest University
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Leah McCoy does not work for, consult with, share in, or be funded by any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and discloses no affiliations relevant after her academic appointment.
