A matemática no cotidiano: a braça como a forma de efetuar a medida de terras em uma comunidade da zona rural do município de São Raimundo Nonato - PI

Abstract

This study investigates how farmers in the Lagoa da Caraíba community, located in the rural area of São Raimundo Nonato, Piauí, use mathematics empirically in their daily practices, with emphasis on the use of fathoms as a traditional unit of land measurement. The research was conducted in three stages: a literature review, field research with semi-structured interviews with ten farmers, and qualitative and quantitative-descriptive analysis of the data. The results show that 90% of the interviewees use fathoms to measure land, and 70% perform financial calculations manually, demonstrating their own strategies for agricultural management. Although they do not always recognize these practices as formal mathematical knowledge, farmers apply concepts such as proportion, estimates, and area division in a practical and efficient way. The study concludes that traditional mathematical knowledge is fundamental for the organization of rural work and advocates the valorization of ethnomathematics in formal education, aiming to promote more contextualized, meaningful learning that is connected to the reality of the countryside.