One of my goals, as a geometry teacher, is for my students to develop a deep and flexible understanding of the written definition of a geometric object and the corresponding prototypical diagram. Providing students with opportunities to explore analogous problems is an ideal way to help foster this understanding. Two ways to do this is either to change the surface from a plane to a sphere or change the metric from Pythagorean distance to taxicab distance (where distance is defined as the sum of the horizontal and vertical components between two points). Using a different surface or metric can have dramatic effects on the appearance of geometric objects. For example, in spherical geometry, triangles that are impossible in plane geometry (such as triangles with three right or three obtuse angles) are now possible. In taxicab geometry, a circle now looks like a Euclidean square that has been rotated 45 degrees.
Ways secondary mathematics teachers apply definitions in Taxicab geometry for a real-life situation: Midset
