The Scarecrow's Formula

Using movie excerpts is an excellent strategy for hooking students and getting them focused on a particular lesson. I plan to use a movie excerpt to introduce the Pythagorean Theorem to my Geometry classes. We all know that the Scarecrow went to see the wizard to ask him for some brains in the MGM's 1939 version of The Wizard of Oz. After having made the long and perilous journey, the great and powerful OZ bestowed upon the scarecrow a diploma with an honorary degree of Th.D., i.e. Doctor of Thinkology. Once the scarecrow received his "brains" he immediately tried to impress his friends by reciting the mathmatical equation, "The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side". The sounds very familiar to the Pythagorean Theorem in mathmatics. However, the Scarecrow's Formula is incorrect. Showing the movie clip to the students would lead into a discovery lesson on "The Validity of the Scarecrow's Formula" versus "The Validity of the Pythagorean Theorem". This is still a work in progress. I will keep you posted on how it turns out.