Geogebra Dynamic Conics for PreCalc
November 2, 2011, 12:00 amFor Precalc H, I created a series of dynamic Geogebra files, where the teacher or student uses sliders to control the center and the a (and b) values of the conic. The file calculates and graphs the appropriate conic, foci, directrices, etc.
All the files can be downloaded here.
Sample:
Or yo...
Cartalk Puzzler – Stone Temple Farmers
October 24, 2011, 12:00 amFrom Cartalk.
Stone Temple Farmers
RAY: A farmer had a 40-pound stone that he could use to weight 40 pounds of feed, hay, or whatever else he wanted to sell from his farm. He had a balance scale, and he put the stone on one side and piled the other side with feed or hay, and when it balanced,...
Domino Spiral
October 19, 2011, 12:00 amFound by Timon Piccini:
Any questions?
Well of course there are. He sets up the 3-act #wcydwt structure here. Check it out. Great stuff.
Obfusticated Mandelbrot Set
October 11, 2011, 12:00 amCoolest thing I’ve seen in a while: High Resolution Mandelbrot code in Python.
The following Python script, on the other hand, begins as ASCII art:
It renders the Mandelbrot set as a full-color, anti-aliased, 1500×1000 image.
Fantastic. Notice that the code also looks likes the mandelbrot...
Little Gauss and the Dividing Time Puzzler
October 5, 2011, 12:00 amI gave this problem to the Precalc Honors class, right before their lunch (the block is split into two parts). A couple of them came back with the solution, but most had chosen to eat and socialize (how dare they!). An epiphany hit me when I saw how a student had started to solve the problem. He...
Cartalk Puzzler – Dividing Time
October 2, 2011, 12:00 amFrom Cartalk.
Dividing Time
RAY: Draw a clock face on a piece of paper. Using Arabic numerals put the appropriate numbers at 12, 1, 2, 3 and so on.Now, somewhere on the clock face, draft two lines. In doing so, you’re going to divide the clock face into segments, which contain numbers.
...
Twitter Graph Story #anyqs
September 29, 2011, 12:00 am
To no one surprise, [removed] was lowest on Monday afternoons and through Tuesday, the beginning of the work week, and rose later in the week, peaking on Saturday and Sunday. The pattern on weekend days was shifted about two hours later — the morning peak closer to 9 a.m. and the evening one p...
Cartalk Puzzler: An Interesting Series of Numbers
September 17, 2011, 12:00 amWhen my kids were in school, they, like all the other kids I guess, had to learn their numbers. So each day for homework, they would bring home a list of numbers on a piece of paper, and they were asked to write out the letters that spelled that number, right next to...
Drag Race #wcydwt
September 14, 2011, 12:00 amAct 1
What questions do you have?
Act 2
- Talk about why the highest horsepower might not be that fast (10,000 horsepower vehicle that you could beat with a Toyota Prius).
- Ask what other things are important for going fast. Is the lightest vehicle alwa...
1st Day for Intro to Programming: Lightbot
September 9, 2011, 12:00 amI forget who introduced the Light-bot game to me, but thank you.
I got the link from Hélène Martin. Much thanks!
First day went excellent in Introduction to Programming class. “We get to play a game?”
Introduction to loops, functions (methods), and debugging all on the first day, wit...