Astrid's Desmos Reflection!
Alright, so for my desmos project I went with a clipart drawing of a spaceship. I knew I wanted to do a spaceship from the beginning just from it being my go-to doodle and passion. I was drawn immediately to the specific image because of its clean lines and clear image. It was easily recognizable and had a certain professional look.
In the beginning, I started out getting the curves of the shape by cutting up circles, but after getting the main body of the ship I realised that that wasn’t the most efficient route of action. I still ended up using the circle method for the top of the wings, the window, and the bolt like decorations on the body. For the rest of the piece I used point slope form.
I had been fearing using lines to get the clean look that I wanted and to get them to line up exactly where they were supposed to. I came into the project with y-intercept form as my default, go-to bestfriend, but I knew that it wouldn’t cut it for this job. So, I learnt the point slope form which really really helped. In the end I came out proficient in both circles, point slope form, and the old go-to y-intercept.
As for the clean look, I only added the restrictions on the lines until I had finished a section of 10 or so lines, this allowed me to have the lines go exactly to their intersect with the other and no further. This, I would say, is what I'm proudest of in the art piece.
If I were to give advice to next-year’s students I would say to choose a piece with clean, defined lines and room for detail. This way you can go full 150+ lines like me, or cut it down to the minimum. A great way to do that is to choose a piece with curves. Try the intersect restriction thing I mentioned, it makes the piece just that much better. I’d also like to see a connect the dots piece :/ that’d be cool.
https://www.desmos.com/calculator/oenujibqqf
In the beginning, I started out getting the curves of the shape by cutting up circles, but after getting the main body of the ship I realised that that wasn’t the most efficient route of action. I still ended up using the circle method for the top of the wings, the window, and the bolt like decorations on the body. For the rest of the piece I used point slope form.
I had been fearing using lines to get the clean look that I wanted and to get them to line up exactly where they were supposed to. I came into the project with y-intercept form as my default, go-to bestfriend, but I knew that it wouldn’t cut it for this job. So, I learnt the point slope form which really really helped. In the end I came out proficient in both circles, point slope form, and the old go-to y-intercept.
As for the clean look, I only added the restrictions on the lines until I had finished a section of 10 or so lines, this allowed me to have the lines go exactly to their intersect with the other and no further. This, I would say, is what I'm proudest of in the art piece.
If I were to give advice to next-year’s students I would say to choose a piece with clean, defined lines and room for detail. This way you can go full 150+ lines like me, or cut it down to the minimum. A great way to do that is to choose a piece with curves. Try the intersect restriction thing I mentioned, it makes the piece just that much better. I’d also like to see a connect the dots piece :/ that’d be cool.
https://www.desmos.com/calculator/oenujibqqf
Math Contest Reflection ;)
I chose the math contest option for my project because I thought it would be easier and thus faster. For that option, I had to complete three practice contests, as well as do a mock test. The contests were the Waterloo Cayley ones (grade ten level). In theory, I was supposed to work through the equations with other people, but that didn't work out because 1) no one else chose this option (smart) and 2) y'all know me + working with people in math = disaster. At the time I made my decision, I didn’t know that you only had to complete 75 equations of the Desmos art… oh well. I had never done a math contest before. There were three sections. The first was ridiculously easy. The second was doable with some thought, which was fine. The third, C section was a struggle. Some questions were fine. For others, their answer key was three pages long – literally. I found all the word problem questions (so most of the ones near the end) were interesting, because you could solve some really unique questions using basic math. I feel like there was so much I had to do that I didn’t get as much out of it as I could have. Each question I understood by the end, although I’m not sure I really learned anything… whatever. I’m still glad I chose that option (I think).
Also there was literally no need for the ;) at the beginning so yay go me.
Peace out (forever im never doing this again)
Alex
Also there was literally no need for the ;) at the beginning so yay go me.
Peace out (forever im never doing this again)
Alex
Reflection on my Desmos art project!
Hey there! A few weeks ago I finished my Desmos art project but have continued to work on it, so here's my reflection! I chose a geometric turtle drawing I found online as the subject for my project because initially I had a lot of trouble finding an image that a) I liked b) I didn’t feel the need to put endless amounts of detail into and c) didn’t have many (or any) curved lines. Initially I was going to outline a picture of a building or a map of Canada, but I didn't like either of those ideas once I tried working on them.
Initially I tried writing all my lines in slope-intercept form as that was my favourite algebraically, but learning about point-slope form totally changed the way that I see writing in Desmos (thank you Sofia!). Instantly writing lines went from tedious guess work to something fun I could do while watching YouTube. I found that my understanding of point-slope equations definitely improved during my work on this project, probably because now I've written around 175 of them.
At first, filling in spaces with colour didn’t make sense to me, but now I feel like I really understand how to and I’m proud of the eye being filled in on the turtle (once again, thank you Sofia!), even though when you zoom all the way out it doesn’t properly load.
I'm really happy I did this project because graphing in Desmos is a blast and reminded me that I’d really like to learn more programming-type skills like it. I'm fascinated by actually figuring out how graphing curved lines and circles and things like that works because I still haven’t bothered to figure that out.
Overall, I found that Desmos was a good tool for me to express my mildly artistic side because even though I didn’t create the initial image it felt like I was adding my own work and abilities to an already cool picture.
Good luck y'all!
Ava Kasianchuk
PS some advice I have for people wanting to do the Desmos art project is make sure you’ve picked an image you actually want to do or else on top of being frustrated with your lines you’ll be frustrated with not liking the image in general.
PPS write your lines in point-slope form!! It's so much easier!!!
Initially I tried writing all my lines in slope-intercept form as that was my favourite algebraically, but learning about point-slope form totally changed the way that I see writing in Desmos (thank you Sofia!). Instantly writing lines went from tedious guess work to something fun I could do while watching YouTube. I found that my understanding of point-slope equations definitely improved during my work on this project, probably because now I've written around 175 of them.
At first, filling in spaces with colour didn’t make sense to me, but now I feel like I really understand how to and I’m proud of the eye being filled in on the turtle (once again, thank you Sofia!), even though when you zoom all the way out it doesn’t properly load.
I'm really happy I did this project because graphing in Desmos is a blast and reminded me that I’d really like to learn more programming-type skills like it. I'm fascinated by actually figuring out how graphing curved lines and circles and things like that works because I still haven’t bothered to figure that out.
Overall, I found that Desmos was a good tool for me to express my mildly artistic side because even though I didn’t create the initial image it felt like I was adding my own work and abilities to an already cool picture.
Good luck y'all!
Ava Kasianchuk
PS some advice I have for people wanting to do the Desmos art project is make sure you’ve picked an image you actually want to do or else on top of being frustrated with your lines you’ll be frustrated with not liking the image in general.
PPS write your lines in point-slope form!! It's so much easier!!!
Reverse Polish Notation Calculator Reflection
I chose to program a reverse polish notation calculator as my choice for a mathematically focused independent study. The first time it crossed my mind that I wanted to create something like this was when Mr. Ferguson showed me a digital one he had on his phone. The first thing that I did was think about the method that I would use to solve an equation in real life and how I could reinterpret it that into Python. Like most problems in programming, the first thing I did was simplify a more complex problem into a simpler base problem (15 7 1 1 + - / 3 × 2 1 1 + + - turned into 15 7 +). I find this is really helpful when dealing with more difficult problems, not just when programming, as a simpler problem allows you to think through it and get your bearings before tackling the more difficult one. In this case though, I found it more difficult than expected to adapt my function to handle larger equations. However, I was able to solve it by writing a second function that complemented the first one. The second one would splice the larger equation into the smaller one that the original could handle. It took me a couple of failed rewrites before I thought of this solution. I think that next time, instead of immediately trying to solve a problem by going at it, I should spend some time to think the problem through and consider some different ways to solve it before I begin to type. When I started this project, I had originally wanted to include operators like square root, sine, tangent, etc. However, I found out that the method I chose to use wouldn't allow me to do this with out spending a lot more time working on this calculator. Though, I would really enjoy implementing these functions in the summer when I have more spare time. Something I was really proud of about this project was that when I showed my code to my mom (whose a software engineer), she said that it had the right thought process behind its algorithm and except for a couple optimizations, she couldn't find anything wrong with it.
- Felix
I chose to program a reverse polish notation calculator as my choice for a mathematically focused independent study. The first time it crossed my mind that I wanted to create something like this was when Mr. Ferguson showed me a digital one he had on his phone. The first thing that I did was think about the method that I would use to solve an equation in real life and how I could reinterpret it that into Python. Like most problems in programming, the first thing I did was simplify a more complex problem into a simpler base problem (15 7 1 1 + - / 3 × 2 1 1 + + - turned into 15 7 +). I find this is really helpful when dealing with more difficult problems, not just when programming, as a simpler problem allows you to think through it and get your bearings before tackling the more difficult one. In this case though, I found it more difficult than expected to adapt my function to handle larger equations. However, I was able to solve it by writing a second function that complemented the first one. The second one would splice the larger equation into the smaller one that the original could handle. It took me a couple of failed rewrites before I thought of this solution. I think that next time, instead of immediately trying to solve a problem by going at it, I should spend some time to think the problem through and consider some different ways to solve it before I begin to type. When I started this project, I had originally wanted to include operators like square root, sine, tangent, etc. However, I found out that the method I chose to use wouldn't allow me to do this with out spending a lot more time working on this calculator. Though, I would really enjoy implementing these functions in the summer when I have more spare time. Something I was really proud of about this project was that when I showed my code to my mom (whose a software engineer), she said that it had the right thought process behind its algorithm and except for a couple optimizations, she couldn't find anything wrong with it.
- Felix
Photo used under Creative Commons from Rosmarie Voegtli