Dayna Seiffert

Kiker
Algebra 2 per. 1
5/4/15

Analytical Report
Hula hoops, bicycle wheels, tires, Ferris wheels, all of these things are made of a conic
called a circle. Circles are a very important in everyday life because we use them so much with a
lot of things we do. Without circles a lot of activities and events wouldnt be able to take place.
For our conic model that we constructed for the project, my team and I chose to make a
miniature Ferris wheel. We successfully got the model to work and mimic that of a real Ferris
wheel, in that it moves too. Some difficulties were trying to find a small enough bicycle wheel to
use for it, without it being so big and having to increase our measurements from the blueprint we
made. For materials we had a bicycle wheel, two pieces of plywood, paint, some screws, and an
electric drill. The bicycle acts as the main part of our conic in which it represents the circle of a
Ferris wheel and we decided to use that because my team and I felt that that would be a good
object to use since it wasnt too big or too small. We chose to use two pieces of plywood to act as
the models base so that we could spin it without it wobbling or tipping over, and to hold the tire
in its place we used the mechanical drill to drill the screws in place with the wheel so that it
stayed secure while spinning on the base. Finally we used to paint as a sense of decoration to the
model since we are trying to make it resemble a real Ferris wheel, which are normally painted
multiple colors and full of lights, so adding the paint would try and make it look more realistic
when presenting it to the class. I am pleased with how the model turned out however I was a
little worried as to how we were going to cope when finding a wheel was getting difficult, but in
the end we found and constructed it well, even getting it to spin like that of a real Ferris wheel.

Circles have been said to be dated back before time had even been recorded, making it
the basis and start of all other inventions (circlesonly.wordpress.com). Since the creation of
circles it led to the spread of ideas with developing the concepts of spheres, curves, and even
arches, a highly important accomplishment since the Neolithic Age (circlesonly.wordpress.com).
The effect of circles in everyday life is what led to the advancement and progression of many
sciences and health related things, soon after also helping lots of other things such as the
improvement of transportation ability. Circles in mathematics plays a very important role in
which tons of puzzles have been made from and to the Greeks the circle the circle was a symbol
of divine symmetry since the lines of symmetry of a circle are far greater than any other conic
(nrich.maths.org). An example of using circles in everyday life today would be with the use of
compasses since when using a compass, people use a tool that holds a pen or pencil in place that
they can twist around to create circles that are used to represent distances when navigating.
For example say someone was working on building a Ferris wheel for an amusement park
and they tell him/her that the center of the ride is going to be based around the fact that the center
is going to be at (0,0) and has to have a big enough radius to fit 5 equal sections with 10 meters
apart from each one, around the circumference so that they can place the carts that hold people
there. Therefore the constructor has to come up with a formula that would best fit that criterion.
The answer would then be (x)^2 + (y)^2 = 64, because with the original formula (x-h)^2 + (yk)^2 = r^2 and the center is at (0,0) meaning all thats left for the radius to be is 8, because 8
squared is 64, and when they substitute 8 into the formula for circumference which is 2(pi)r^2
the answer equals out to about 50, and if you divide that by 10 to separate out the different
sections, theyll see that there will be a total of 5 sections that are going to be able to fit on the
ride.

Since the record of time, circles have been one of mankinds greatest inventions since it
led to so many other innovations being created. Without the use and knowledge of circles I find it
hard to imagine and think about how the world as we know it today would function.

Works Cited

"Circles Only's Blog." Circles Onlys Blog. Wordpress, 24 May 2009. Web. 05 May 2015.

Howard, Jill. "Circles, Circles Everywhere." : Nrich.maths.org. NRICH, Feb. 2011. Web. 05
May 2015.