6 geometric and unusual walks

7 Places Where Your Kids Can Play With Geometric Shapes

Your children can't understand right or isosceles triangles? They are flabbergasted by the Pythagorean theorem? Making a circle with a compass is an ordeal?

So this weekend Topla invites you to see geometry in a new light! Because geometry is everywhere, here are 6 geometric walks!

The Geode in Paris:

You probably know the Geode. So no, you are probably not going to explain to your children that the geode is a “non-regular convex polyhedron”, because yes, the geode before being a cinema at the Cité des Sciences and a geometric shape!
But you can walk outside and point out to your little geniuses the size of this enormous sphere made of triangles (equilateral ones at that!).
We can then have fun estimating how many triangles make up this facade (little hint: there are a lot) (answer: there are exactly 6,433)

And then, you can go with your family to explore all the beauty of the spherical world by going to see a film inside the Geode! And, it's quite impressive ;)

Vasarely Foundation in Aix en Provence

It's an accordion of square facades, made up of perfect circles! Basically: shapes, within shapes, within shapes! And you can even see some facades made up of dozens of rectangles. So who will be able to name all the shapes present in this rather unusual museum?

The MUCEM in Marseille

But what shape is hidden behind this rather special lace? It's a rectangular parallelepiped! This giant cube measures 15,000 square meters and is impressive from the inside and the outside! So what exactly does the MUCEM look like? A house? A big box? What else could this enormous cube remind you of?
A great opportunity for children to understand 3-dimensional geometry!

The Louvre Pyramid in Paris

Because Egypt for the weekend is a bit far! So to better understand the wonderful world of triangles and volumes, nothing better than the Louvre pyramid.
We then realize that a pyramid is composed of 4 triangles and... a square base. And in your opinion, how big is this pyramid?
So a few figures just for you (to get your children to guess): the pyramid is 21.64 metres high and 35 metres on each side.
If you look closely, you can point out to your children that the facades are made up of several geometric shapes (603 diamonds and 70 triangles).

The Part-Dieu Tower in Lyon

This rather unusual tower that looks like a pencil - hence its nickname: the pencil tower - is one of the symbols of the city of Lyon! So what geometric shapes does the Tower consist of? It is a cylinder of red ochre and the summit is topped by a pyramid designed by Pei (the same architect as the Louvre pyramid! :O)

Buren's columns in Paris

A stone's throw from the Palais Royal, there are 260 truncated columns, each with a single width: 8.7 centimeters. For children, as for you, it's quite impressive. What's interesting is that the height varies from 8.7 to 62 cm. Ideal for understanding cylinders. What could these columns look like? Tree trunks? Car wheels? Or candles? Great for exploring the world of cylinders!

The citadel of Lille

Impressive, the pentagon-shaped square of the citadel of Lille will entertain your little geniuses! The bastion is also surrounded by mini diamond-shaped squares! A nice and original architecture where the whole family can play with geometric shapes.

Maybe these little escapades will have given your children the desire to become an architect, or an engineer... In any case, we hope that it will have made them want to do maths ;)