Flatland Assignment

Go to http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/~banchoff/Flatland/ for the text of the book.

Start at the top; you will be reading through---.
1. What is the real name of the author?
2. What does the author call himself in this book? How (from his real name) might he come up
with this name?
Look at the cover page picture and see the worlds you will read about. The quotes come from
Shakespeare. Read this online introduction by Sandy Stuart. Some of the questions come from
Stuart as well.
Flatland is a story about two-dimensional creatureslines, triangles, squares, circles,
and other polygonsthat live on a plane. The protagonist and narrator of the story, A.
Square, visits a one-dimensional land known as Lineland and is visited by a Sphere
from Spaceland. After the Sphere takes A. Square on a tour of Spaceland and then
returns him to Flatland, Square decides to share the Gospel of Three Dimensions with
other Flatlanders. As a result, Square is imprisoned for life for his belief in three
dimensions.
Written in 1884, Flatland is a biting satire of English Victorian Society with its rigid
hierarchies that limit opportunities of the common man and relegate all women to
subservient, inferior roles. Abbott, the most famous schoolmaster for the City of London
School was especially interested in the education of women, which was remarkably
limited in Victorian England. Clearly, Abbott hoped to challenge Victorian views through
his satirical portrayal of Flatlanders.
But Flatland is also a novella about mathematics, particularly geometry. It cleverly
encourages readers to consider the idea of a fourth dimension by using the analogy of a
two-dimensional being who is introduced to a three-dimensional world. Victorians were
intrigued by the idea of a fourth dimension and conversations on the subject were
frequent in the late 1800s.
**You may skip the Preface. Read the chapters though. Take time to reflect on and visualize
what it says so you will better understand it as you go.
Chapter 1
3. Since Flatland is a plane, all the shapes must appear as what?
4. How many dimensions does Flatland have?
5. Draw and mark the shape a Tradesman has.
Chapter 2
6. How do Flatlanders determine direction?
7. What shape are most of the houses?
8. Use the
( 2) 180 n
n

formula to determine the measure of each angle of these houses.

9. Why is it dangerous for houses to have fewer sides?
Chapter 3
10. How long were most of the Flatlanders?
11. Describe the women.
12. Fill in the chart with diagrams of the various classes.
Working Class/Soldiers Middle Class Gentlemen Nobility




13. How do male children differ from their fathers? Why is this significant?

Chapter 4
14. How do women have to behave differently from the men?

15. What inferiorities does Abbott describe of the women? Was he trying to belittle human
women?

Chapters 5 and 6
16. Describe the ways Flatlanders recognize each other.
17. What happens in the schools?
Chapter 7
18. Give an example of a polygon with unequal sides but equal angles.
Give an example of a polygon with unequal angles but equal sides.

19. What does it mean for a polygon to be regular?
20. What problems can exist with irregular figures? What have Flatlanders done with these
types?


Chapters 8 and 9
21. What were the advantages and disadvantages of painting?


22. How does Chapter 9 seemingly contradict some of the earlier descriptions of the women?

Chapter 11
23. Describe the geometry of the priests. Are they really what they say they are; why or why
not?



Part 2: O brave new worlds
Chapters 13 and 14
24. In Lineland, what shape are the king and men? What about the women?
25. Why would Abbott carry A. Square to a simpler world?
26. Name at least two reactions the King of Lineland has to A. Square.

27. How does the King determine length and what does he call it?

Chapters 15 and 16 (Please notice that when it says 32, it means 3
2
. It is a typographical
problem.)
28. What does A. Square teach his grandson? How does the child extend this reasoning and
confound his grandfather?

29. What shape does the visitor appear as? How is this different from those in Flatland?

30. What is the 3
rd
dimension the visitor tries to explain?
31. How does the visitor describe the makeup/construction of a sphere?

32. What physical movement does the visitor do that is similar to what A. Square did with the
King of Lineland?
Chapter 18
33. Have Flatlanders experienced visitors before? When? What is the Councils proposed
solution?
Chapter 19
34. How does A. Square try to extend the analogy and what is the Spheres reaction?
Chapter 21 and 22
35. What finally happens to A. Square?