Math
The projects goal was to have us learn about measuring different parts of shapes. We started out with 2d shapes but quickly moved onto 3d shapes, finally we applied the skills to the real world to find the volume of anything we wanted to.
Starting off the projects we did a series of worksheets focussed around finding area and volume of 2d and 3d shapes. We started at the bare bones, the Pythagorean Theorem (a^2 + b^2 = c^2). After making ourself familiar with this we moved onto the distance formula (d = √[ (x' - x)² + (y' - y)² ]) . This is used to find the distance between 2 points in space. We connected both formulas to each other. From there we conned another equation into the mix (x^2 +y^2 = r^2). This equation related the radios to a circle centered at the origin. This brought us into the unit circle and special right triangles:
Starting off the projects we did a series of worksheets focussed around finding area and volume of 2d and 3d shapes. We started at the bare bones, the Pythagorean Theorem (a^2 + b^2 = c^2). After making ourself familiar with this we moved onto the distance formula (d = √[ (x' - x)² + (y' - y)² ]) . This is used to find the distance between 2 points in space. We connected both formulas to each other. From there we conned another equation into the mix (x^2 +y^2 = r^2). This equation related the radios to a circle centered at the origin. This brought us into the unit circle and special right triangles:
After learning about the unit circle we brought or know age to trigonometry. We learned all about Sin, CoSin, And Tangent. From learning all about 2d shapes we jumped into 3d shapes. We leaned all about how to find the volume of cylinders, cubes, pyramids, spheres, ect. We constantly used my 2 favorite habitats of a Mathematician, Take Apart and Put Back Together, and Start Small.
Design Your Own Project
For this part of the project we were asked to measure something we were interested in. I also wanted to be challenged and I am proud member in pace club and the starts aligned so my group wanted to measure something in space! At first we wanted to use parallax. Parallax is a form of measurement to find the angles that starts have moved over a 6 mouths period. Using this information you can find how far away some stars are ect.
Soon after trying to attempt this method we realized that we did not have the tools or the time frame to use parallax. This was disappointing. We moved on to something a little closer, the Moon! After thinking about how we could measure the moon for a fair mount of time it hit me. A few weeks ago I took a photo of the moon, and I knew the angle of what that photo was taken with (FOV). If we know this distance to the moon we can figure all sorts of things about it just with this information.
Once we got our answers and checked them with the real info we were only about 30 miles off! This made us very excited because it used our own method.
- Take picture of moon
- Find the FOV
- Make triangles and solve!
- Find what % of image is taken up by the moon
- Use proportions to compare image size to moon size
- Done!
Reflection
In conclusion I found this project very meaningful, especially the Design Your Own Project part. I learned so much just from DYOP and it opened my eyes on what you can measure with so little information. Our group had its ups and downs but we worked through them in order to get a great final product that we are all proud of. At first I was not challenged but as soon as we stated connecting everything we learned it was challenging but enjoyable.