[Note: When I typed this post originally I forgot that Internet Explorer stinks. Everyone should be using Firefox - it is superior to IE in every way. If you insist on using IE then there are two files you need to install. One is Adobe's SVG Viewer (which will no longer be supported after 1/1/08, and the other is Design Science's MathPlayer. Even with those files installed, I still can't get IE to display correctly. Download Firefox!

[Yet another note: Even though I had the most current version of Firefox (2.0.0.7) I still needed to install some fonts to get all of the notation to show up correctly. It is quick and easy to do and you can get them here.]

`f(x)=(x-2)(x-1)x(x+1)(x+2)/2`

agraph
width=300; height=200; xmin=-5; xmax=5; xscl=1;
plot((x-2)*(x-1)*x*(x+1)*(x+2)/2,-1.5,2);
endagraph

Typing in this function and creating its graph are extremely easy thanks to ASCIIMath. Double click on the graph and study the code you see. Do you see the simple, intuitive commands that were used to plot the function? Do you see how to restrict the domain? Play around with it and just refresh the page to start over.

To include mathematical notation in your post, just type it in like you “think” you should – but surround it with left-quotes. On my keyboard the left quote is with the tilde (~). So if I wanted to type in the quadratic formula normally it would look terrible: (-b +- sqrt(b^2-4ac))/(2a).
But use the left quotes around it and get: `(-b+-sqrt(b^2-4ac))/(2a)`.

Beautiful.

Mr. B wants me to experiment with some HTML code today, so enjoy the text effects!!

Today in class, we started off with a nice relaxing pause (with a shocking lack of music) while Mr B. figured out who would do the presentations for 1-3. I was personally preparing the problems I submitted to present, as I saw many others doing. We were then reminded that we should be keeping track of how many we’ve claimed. Emily led off our claims with problem #5,followed by Amy with problem #12, Grant with problem #14, and Jessica with problem #19.

~~Emily (#5)

Emily demonstrated that the way to put the equation we were given in terms of x is g(x)=1+sq(9-(x/2)². She then explained that the g(x)graph is an x dilation of 2 and a y-translation of 1 compared to the preimage and finished up with showing us her graph.

~~Amy (#12)

Amy spent a bit of time setting her problem up, drawing the graph to make her explanation easier. She explained that the image of her graph was translated down by 4 and dilated on the x-axis by 3 from the preimage. She then correctly gave us her equation of the image, g(x)=f(1/3x)-4, explaining that 1/3 resulted in a dilation of 3 because of the “backwards world” properties of parentheses. The class was confused as to what in the world she was talking about, but applauded regardless.

~~Grant (#14)

Having an amazing worldly presentation to follow, grant made sure that everything was as aesthetically pleasing as possible, down to the orange color of his cyber calculator, and the dottedness of his lines. Grant seemed a bit unsure of his problem, but proceeded this mimentary slip with a very nice presentation. His first equation on his graphing calculator was Y₁=4sq(1-x/3)+2.25(x-1)-4, explaining about the fabled opposite world we’ve all grown to know and love. His graphs had slight problems getting just the way he wanted them, but with the help of the class he got through. With the addition of the boolean variables his graphs were complete, and they correctly resembled
those in problem #12. His presentation was thusly concluded.

~~Jessica (#19)

With the last presentation to go, and many tough acts to follow, Jessica set up. Her graphs were constructed, both image and preimage. Her equation for the image was g(x)=5f(1/9x), because the y-dilation is 5 and the x-dilation is 9 (backwards world… Surprise, right?). Her presentation was short and to the point, but accurate nontheless.

And so the presentations concluded. Mr. B passed out a sheet on lesson 1-4, and challenged us to think of an equation that relates median age to the percent of that group that has a fear of flying. Kari had the idea of forming a “stat plot” on her calculator. We proceeded to do so on all of our calculators, and after a minute or two of plastic clicking noises, we were done. We concluded that there is clearly a relationship, but not a linear one. Someone suggested that we make it linear by squaring the independent variables, citing a physics lesson for the idea, and lo and behold, it worked!!! To end our lesson, Mr. B challenged us to come up with a way besides the one we used in class to make the graph linear. As the bell rang, we all trooped out, amazed that we actually used something from one class in another. Who’d have known this stuff was useful??

I hope you liked my post today, and the changes that HTML code can bring. With Mr. B’s permission, tomorrow I’ll post a short tutorial that outlines the main ways to change and edit text using HTML. It’s not hard. And sorry if some of the stuff on here either doesn’t work or looks weird, I was experimenting and I’m not sure how much code this site will accept, and I copy-pasted this from a notepad document, not using any of the shortcuts on the blog site. If anyone would like to see what my source code looks like, just ask me in class. And tell me what you liked and didn’t like with comments!

Tomorrow’s scribe will be Shelby. Have a good day, and happy commenting!!!

~~~~~~~~ANDY~~~~~~~~