Where....

During 2nd Period, we create a "Generic" outline for a program:

• Setup Commands
• Set Variables with initial values
• Loop X times
• Draw Pictures
• Update variables
• End the loop

We then tried to add animation to the program. It was discussed that we should add delays and clrdraw commands to the program.

The following was suggested:

• Setup Commands
• Set Variables with initial values
• Loop X times
• Draw Pictures
• Update variables
• delay
• clrdraw
• End the loop

Sarai, then suggested that we move the delay command as follows:

• Setup Commands
• Set Variables with initial values
• Loop X times
• Draw Pictures
• delay
• Update variables
• clrdraw
• End the loop
  

Let's just examine the delay command.

QUESTION: Does it matter where we put the delay command? If so, then where should it go and why? If not, then why not? Please leave a comment.

Quiz Friday

What should be on the quiz? If I don't get any responses, then I will assume everything we have covered so far is fair game.

http://www.bgo.netfirms.com/

Setup program

What should we include in our setup program?

How can you get a program to "call" another program?

HW5...Delays, Variables, and Setups

Today, we talked about HW5. There were some important concepts that students had questions about --- variables, delays, and setups.

How did the S variable work in HW5?
How did we store a value for T? U?
Everytime through the loop, did the value of S change? Value of T change? U?

On the topic of delays -- how did we accomplish that?
If I wanted a LONG delay, what would I do?
What advice do you have for the END commands?
Can I choose any letter for the delay variable?

Lastly, we were supposed to talk about the Setup.
What should be included in a Setup section?
Will the Setup section be the same for all programs?
Can we have our program call another program -- like loops within loops?

Please share your answers to these questions, ask some more questions, and leave any comments.

TI Programming Guides

In order to complete our unit problem, we may need to use supplemental resources.

I found the following guide that maybe helpful.
http://www.unsw.adfa.edu.au/pems/news/high_school/83programming.pdf

I am sure many more exist. Add a comment to share any guides you find.

Also, add any questions you may have so that your peers could answer them.

loops

Today we discussed how to incorporate LOOPs in our programming code. We specifically talked about FOR loops. Can someone explain how to use the FOR loop? What other loop commands are there?

Stick Figure

Would anyone like to share their stick figure program?

As the Cube Turns

As the Cube Turns

This unit opens with an overhead display, generated by a program on a graphing calculator. The two-dimensional display depicts the rotation of a cube in three-dimensional space. The students' central task in the unit is to learn how to write such a program.

Though the task is defined in terms of writing a program, the real focus of the unit is the mathematics behind the program. The unit takes students into several areas of mathematics. They study the fundamental geometric transformations—translations, rotations, and reflections—in both two and three dimensions, and express them in terms of coordinates. The analysis of rotations builds on the experience they have just had in High Dive with trigonometric functions and polar coordinates, and leads them to see the need for and to develop formulas for the sine and cosine of the sum of two angles. Working with these transformations also provides a new setting in which students can work with matrices, which they previously studied in connection with systems of linear equations.

Another complex component of their work is analyzing the way to represent a three-dimensional object on a two-dimensional screen. They have an opportunity to see how projection onto a plane is affected by both the choice of the plane and the choice of a viewpoint or center of projection.

The unit closes with two major projects, which students work on in pairs: They write a program to make the cube turn, and they program an animated graphic display of their own design.

HW 24: Up, Down, Splat!

Melissa's science class is having a contest. The contest is to see who can build a container that will keep an egg from breaking when dropped from the school window.

Melissa is quite confident about her contraption. She leans out the window, which is 25 feet off the ground, and hurls her egg container straight up in the air with an initial velocity of 35 feet per second. (Consider velocity upward to be positive.)

Assume that the egg container's velocity is affected by gravity in the usual way. That is, the velocity decreases by 32 feet per second for each second the egg container travels.

1. How long does it take for the egg container to hit the ground?

2. At what speed does the egg container hit the ground?

Velocity is Speed with Direction

In class we have looked at several scenarios dealing with acceleration and velocity. We have used the following formulas:

h = -10t^2 - 30t + 200 from Look Out Below
h = -16t^2 - 7.85t + 65 from HW22: Big Push
h = -16t^2 + 50t + 90 from HW23: Problem 2c

What is the significance of the sign of the velocity term? - 30? - 7.85? + 50?

Is the sign of the velocity term for our Ferris wheel problem always negative (- 7.85) as seen from HW22?

HW22

Today we applied OUR physics equation for distance travel to our Ferris wheel problem.
We calculated the fall time including the initial velocity (speed) of the Ferris wheel. We then calculated the fall time with NO initial velocity. What did we observe? Why?

Does it matter whether or not the Ferris wheel is moving?

Look Out Below Revisited

Today in class we discovered the following equation:
height of pillow = -10t^2 - 30t + 200
Can anyone explain where the numbers came from?

And how does this relate to HW22?

Comments, ideas, suggestions?

What is the path of the diver's fall from 3 o'clock???

Today, we had some very good discussions about the path of the diver if he fell at the 3 o'clock position. We recently learned that the circular motion of the ferris wheel is applying a "force" or as Ms. Kovacs said, a velocity. This velocity is in the direction of the tangent to the circle. Here is a link to see the tangent as the ferris wheel makes revolutions.

http://www.phy.ntnu.edu.tw/ntnujava/index.php?topic=148

The red arrow is the velocity (tangent to the circle). Does anyone know what the yellow and blue arrows represent?

Does this clarify the path of the diver if he is let got exactly at the 3 o'clock position?

Jena6 POW

Our Jena 6 POW is due Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2007.

Please use the comments to discuss the POW. What have people tried? What seems to work? What type of math is important to solve this problem?

Notice that the write up is slightly different than the previous POWs.

Here are some links to websites about Jena 6.
http://www.freethejena6.org/
http://www.democracynow.org/print.pl?sid=07/07/10/1413220
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=3030458

As you may have experienced before, there are two sided to every story. We have to try to understand the bias in things we read.

Here are some more links about Jena6 that are trying to provide the "truth".
http://www.thejenatimes.net/Chronological_Order_of-Events.pdf
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1024/p09s01-coop.html
http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/9/23/17283/0387
http://friendsofjustice.wordpress.com/2007/07/02/ineffective-assistance-of-counsel-what-blane-williams-should-have-known/

What do you think really happened?

Here is a link to the POW.
http://www.jonescollegeprep.org/ourpages/auto/2007/11/8/1194539748772/Jena%20POW.doc?rn=6573408

Look Out Below!

In class we were trying to work on this problem.

Maxine sees a pillow falling from her window. She know the pillow is falling at an acceleration of 20 ft / sec^2. She also knows that the pillow is traveling at an instantaneous speed of 30 ft/sec when Maxine saw it.

1. What is the instantaneous speed of the pillow 1 second AFTER Maxine saw it? 2 seconds after Maxine saw it?

2. What is the average speed of the pillow for the first 2 seconds AFTER Maxine saw it?

3. How far did the pillow fall during the first 2 seconds after Maxine saw it?

Maxine knows the sidewalk is 200 feet below her window.

4. How long did it take for the pillow to reach the ground from the time Maxine saw it?

5. Find a general expressions for the height of the pillow t seconds after Maxine saw it.

Please post your answers, questions, suggestions in the comments.

HW20: Initial Motion from the Ferris Wheel

For today's warmup, we looked at problem #1 with the skateboarder and the merry-go-round. The skater actually moves in a straight line, which happens to also be the tangent line to the circle at that point.

We defined the tangent line to be a line that crosses the circle at one point, and the tangent is perpendicular to the radius at that point.

To test this at home, you can tie an object (remote control, stuffed animal, a balled up sheet of paper, etc.) with string. Swing the string and object around yourself in a circle. Then let go of the string, and watch the object fly. You should notice that the object continues in a straight line (except that it sinks to the ground). This straight line is tangent to the circle.

Problem #2 asked us to apply this to our Ferris wheel problem. The diagram illustrates the path the diver takes after being released from the 4 o'clock position. Notice the initial path is the tangent to the circle, but then gravity causes the diver to fall.

The Analytical Rakim...I Know You Got Sine

Its been a long time, I shouldn't have left you
without a math POW to get you
think of how many math problems you slept through
times up, I'm sorry I kept you
thinking of this, you keep repeating you missed
concepts and formulas from the wheel of ferris
And you sit with your calculator, hands on the buttons soon
As you hear it, pump up the volume
Hurting your brain, until you hear it blow
Then plug in "y equals", cause here it goes
Its a 4 letter word when its heard it reminds
trigonometric functions (you got it) sine
Nine degrees a second like angular speed
height to the center, thats what we need
when the wheel is moving, you can't get stuck with
the diver's position, so you can come up with
a time to fall, past the 3 o'clock, the wheel will go
Plus knowing that the cart left a long time ago
It can be done, but only you can do it
For those that understand, then clap you hands to it
You start to think, and then you sink
onto the platform and in a blink
You're calculating, looking at the intersect lines
You tell the diver to jump at the right time...
You got sine

You got it (4x)
I know you got sine...

Picture a graph, the points are empty
A grid like this might tempt me
To pose, show my skills and my phat TI
grab a clock like I needed PI
but i'll wait, cause i mastered this
let the others go first so that the groups dont miss

............sorry......i just had to get that off of my chest......

First Quarter Assessment

What do you think the important concepts/topics were for the First Quarter?
In what form are you going to present your topics?

Leave a comment.

same height...

Today we found another trig identity.
This time dealing with sine.
Would anyone like to share what we learned?

pythagorean trigonometry

What was the important part of today's class?

Polar Coordinates

What are polar coordinates? How do polar coordinates compare to rectangular (xy) coordinates?

Please share what you learned in class today.

What's W?

How did we find the exact time for W?

We talked about using guess and check. That method will work. You will eventually get the final answer. However, it will take a while.

Are there other more efficient ways to find W?

Please share your thoughts....

How do you put that in the calculator?

How do you enter this equation in the calculator correctly?

To know if you did it correctly, for W = 9.5 seconds, you should end up with a fall time of 2.58 seconds.

Moving Carts, Turning Ferris Wheel

Today we talked about HW14. If W=25 seconds, what will the x-coordinate of the diver be? Where should the cart start out so that the diver will fall into the tub of water on the cart?

Using the HW14, we again attempted to find the value of W for our Unit Problem. What did people do to try to find W? Did you find a range of possible answers for W? Did you find a value for W?

HW14: Cart Before the Ferris Wheel

In this assignment, the diver is released exactly 25 seconds after the Ferris wheel began turning from its 3 o'clock position.

1. What is his x-coordinate as he falls?

2. Where should the cart start out so that the diver will fall into the tub of water on the cart?

Suggestions? Questions? Hints?

HW 13: Planning for Formulas

Does anyone know the formula for.....

• The diver's height at the moment he is released?
• The diver's x-coordinate at the moment he is released?
• The amount of time the diver is falling?
• The cart's x-coordinate when the diver reachers the water level?

HW12 Where's the Cart

In class today, we discussed HW12. The book said the cart begins 240 feet to the left of the base of the Ferris wheel and moves to the right at a speed of 15 ft/sec.

Where is the cart after 14 seconds?

Where is the cart after 23 seconds?

What formula did we develop in class that tells us the x-coordinate of the cart in terms of time?

First Quadrant Platform

In class today, the equation to find the horizontal position for the first quadrant was brought up.

• x(t) = 50 cos (9t)

How does this equation work?
Does it work for every value of t? Or does it only work for first quadrant values?

Quiz 3

How did the quizzes go?

Any tips or pointers to help your classmates avoid making mistakes on our next quiz this Friday?

I have one. Make sure your calculator is in Degree Mode and not in Radian Mode.

POW2: Paving Patterns

What have people tried?

The POW recommends starting with shorter paths...and looking for patterns.

What tools could help us see patterns?

Mr. Marti

We Don't Do Shot Outs...

Jones IMP4 students,

Check in by leaving a comment...

Welcome to Jones IMP4

Good morning....on this day we become legendary....

I would like to use this blog as a way to discuss issues and problems from class.  
I hope that through this blog we can exchange ideas, comments, and questions.  
I will use this blog as an additional tool to assess your class participation.