Was just looking at these:
Posted on 12/14/2007 2:03:12 PM PST by murphE
My 9th grader needs to write a 10 page term paper for her 10th grade honors math class. (Which I find strange). Anyway she is having a difficult time choosing a topic - it cannot be a biography. She was thinking about writing about math used in computer graphics, but she is having a difficult time finding sources that are written anywhere near her level. She needs at least one text as a source - it cannot all be from the internet.
Any of you math teachers, general brainiacs, computer geniuses etc. out there who could offer suggestions on a topic and or sources we'd both be extremely grateful.
Please post any questions or responses to malokitty (that's my girl)
Much thanks in advance,
murph
Lots of ideas on some of these sites:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=math+%2B+%22term+paper%22
Good post.
I thought I was having flashbacks from 2005, Korea.
Was just looking at these:
I worked with a student with a student using the book....The Story of Numbers....How Mathematics has shaped Civilization...seemed to be a book that was at about the right level ...by John McLeish...
She really enjoyed it,....we did puzzle how the babylons taught their children to do fractions in a base 60 number system....
Link to Amazon:
The Story of Numbers: How Mathematics Has Shaped Civilization (Paperback)
Abbott and Costello" Give Me My Money
Unknown movie: 5 in to 25 goes 14 times!
-PJ
Check out the Trachtenberg system. Interesting story behind it, too.
The math can get a little complicated at times, but the book does show how math is useful in creating popular movies like "Ratatouille".
Didn't the government drop that, or is it still causing Phil Zimmerman problems, all these years later?
Mark
I don’t know, but it’s still a good joke.
Thanks for all of your help and suggestions - you've given my daughter plenty of information to get her started. I think I pinged everyone who responded, but if I missed anyone I apologize.
You’re both very welcome. Tell your daughter the pressure is on ... we want a notarized photo of her report card otherwise we’ll be forced to organize a FReep at her school. ;)
Didn't the government drop that, or is it still causing Phil Zimmerman problems, all these years later?
I don’t know, but it’s still a good joke.
For anyone who doesn't know (and might be interested), Phi Zimmerman is the guy who developed PGP. The problem is what "The_Reader_David" said... As open source software, PGP was released publicly, but as soon as it hit the Internet, the State Dept decided that PZ was in violation of munitions export laws, and he was hounded by the government for a number of years.
Mark
I’ll forward this to my 18 year old grandson who just aced math on his ACTs.
Mark
For the mathematics behind another very practical application, you could look at tiling also.
Require imaginary numbers? Not really. But describing AC current (or for that matter electromagnetism) succinctly requires either the use of complex numbers (sums of real numbers and imaginary numbers*) or something with the same algebraic structure.
You can dodge actually using them, if you really don’t like complex numbers, by using square matrices of real numbers whose diagonal entries are equal, and whose off-diaganal entries are negatives of each other. (Of course, under matrix addition and multiplication, these are just a copy of the complex numbers under their usual addition and multiplication.)
*I know *you* know this, but other readers of the thread might not.
I often wondered if there was some way to respond to everyone who responded to a topic — I guess not — you have to sift through and find every name.
Here’s an idea — it’s a wild conjecture on my part. Take a look at “Geodesy for the Layman.”
http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/PUBS_LIB/Geodesy4Layman/TR80003A.HTM#ZZ4
Note that Newton and Huygens (both from Protestant countries) thought there was an equatorial bulge, while Picard and Cassini (both from Catholic countries) believed in a polar bulge. I often wondered if this was the inspiration for “Gulliver’s Travels.” The novel came out in 1726, and the dispute wasn’t settled until 1735. I’m not sure whether Swift had an interest in geodesy though.
If you need a reference, there is a textbook called “Computer Graphics with OpenGL” by Hearn Baker. I used it when I was in college. As you can tell from the title, it’s mostly OpenGL, which I rabidly hated when we learned it, but it was still a decent textbook. Since it’s for a good cause, if you really have need of it, I’d be willing to part with it.
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