Aesthetics in a Mathematics for Liberal Arts Project

Abstract

SynopsisWe present and assess a project and its rubric developed and assigned in Mathematics for Liberal Arts, a general education course for non-science and nonbusiness majors, to incorporate different skills including aesthetic design, written and oral communication, and mathematical analysis to tackle a common optimization problem with an aesthetic slant: construct a beverage can (i.e., right circular cylinder) of a given volume while taking into account the cost of materials (i.e., surface area) and aesthetic qualities (e.g., the golden ratio).