Name:___________________________________ Date:_________________________ Band:________ Precalculus | Packer Collegiate Institute

FAMILIES OF CurveS
Art and mathematics actually are related from the study of ratios when drawing in perspective, to modern conceptualizations of infinities. This week, youll be creating your own mathematical art. While in the process, youll be introduced to the idea of a parameter and further your understanding of function transformations. But most importantly, youre going to be flexing your creative muscles by tinkering and exploring. By the end of today, youll be creating things like:

Lets start by reviewing some things on geogebra. Section 1: Sequences: You can use Geogebra to write down sequences. For example, if you have {an n 2 } for n 3 to 8 , you can have geogebra generate the sequence an 9, 4,1, 0,1, 4,9,16, 25,36, 49, 64 by typing

Youre telling geogebra the following: Create a sequence with the rule n 2 (first argument), where the variable is n (second argument), starting with n 3 (third argument) and ending with n 8 (fourth argument), where you increase n each time by 1 (fifth argument). If you look on the left hand of your screen, you should see:

Let me show you one of the powers of Geogebra. Lets type almost the same thing, but not quite lets mess with the last number

Now look at the output:

What it did was substitute -3, -2.5, -2, -1.5, , 7, 7.5, and 8 into the rule. Check yoself before you wreck yoself: Without actually using Geogebra, what will the output from Geogebra be if you entered: ? Answer: _____________________________________________________________ (now check yourself on Geogebra were you right?)

Section 2: Graphing Check to see if you remember how to resize axes and turn on the grid. Set your window to be about [-10,10]x[-10,10] with a reasonable grid. In your input bar, type: . Then type 2x , 3x , 4x , and 5x . Okay, youre seeing some stuff being graphed. Not too exciting. Now type 0x , 1x , 2x , 3x , 4x , and 5x .

Okay, this isnt so exciting. I know, I know. But what youve been doing is plotting a bunch of lines where the yintercept is 0 and the slopes are changing. Delete all your lines. Like all of them. Now. NOW!

Now type:

and see what happens.

Question: If you really understand what just happened, without typing it in, describe what your graph will look like if you typed: Answer:

Now delete all the lines you have graphed, type in the command, and see whatcha get! How many lines were graphed? _________________ Thinking about function transformations, how does the k affect the base function?

In mathematics, we call the collection of all functions y kx for all values of k a family of functions and we call k a parameter. Of course its not possible to graph all values of k so we tend to view families of functions by plotting some of the functions. (Itd take too long to graph all infinity functions, even for our friend Geogebra!) One last thing. Double click on the left on the list of all the functions. A box should appear:

Change the 0.25 to 0.1 and see what happens. Change the -5 and 5 to -10 and 10 and see what happens. Play!
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Section 3: Extension If I had the family of functions f ( x) kx 2 k , lets think about what the various values of k would make the function look like.
k a super large positive number (try 10)

The function is y 10 x 2 10 What does the coefficient in front of the x 2 do to the parabola?

What does the +10 at the end do to the parabola?

k a small positive number (try 0.5)

The function is y 0.5 x 2 0.5 What does the coefficient in front of the x 2 do to the parabola?

What does the +0.5 at the end do to the parabola?

k 0 The function is y 0 What does the function look like?

k a small negative number (try -0.5)

The function is y 0.5 x 2 0.5 What does the coefficient in front of the x 2 do to the parabola?

What does the -0.5 at the end do to the parabola?

k a super large negative number (try -10)

The function is y 10 x 2 10 What does the coefficient in front of the x 2 do to the parabola?

What does the +10 at the end do to the parabola?

Now lets see what this family of curves looks like!

Did that match what you thought? Try fiddling around with the axes to get a pretty picture.

Now play around with the sequence by changing what transformations are occurring Edit the sequence so it graphs the family of curves: (a) f ( x) kx 2 k 2 (b) g ( x) kx k (c) h( x) kx k 2 Notice for each of these family of curves, you have two transformations happening simultaneously. For example, in h( x) kx k 2 , you can say this family of curves is the set of lines where the steeper the slope (the more positive or more negative the k is), the higher up the lines are moved. Try the following other family of curves:
(a) Sequence[1/k*sin(k*x),k,-10,10,0.2] (b) Sequence[k sec(x)+(1/k)*x,k,-10,10,0.25]

Right click on the graph and change the color of your graph!

Section 4: Your Task Make art. Youll be making three art pieces. The goal: make the prettiest three art pieces. The process: Play around. Graph a family of functions. Mess around with the equation. Mess around with the values that the parameter can take on. Zoom in and zoom out. Get something gorgeous.

Section 5: The Details You will be creating three different pieces of artwork. All three will require you to have at least two function transformations. So y kx will not be okay, but 1 y kx k or y k sin( x) k 2 are be okay. k At least one of the three pieces of artwork must use one of the six trigonometric functions we worked with this year.

Once I get your art pieces, I will be copying them onto cardstock (it wont be in color sorry!) and we will be displaying them. There will be a contest for the prettiest piece of artwork. And if I can swing it, the winner will get their artwork created in a fancy poster. _____ you titled your three geogebra files Shah, Family of Curves 1 Shah, Family of Curves 2 and Shah Family of Curves 3 and dropbox them in our course conference [obviously, with your last name] _____ you created a Word file with your three artworks in it titled Shah, Artwork in Word making sure your page is in landscape mode and your artwork is centered and as large as possible on the page _____ the artwork in the Word file have the gridlines and axes hidden so the only thing visible will be the family of curves _____ all three pieces of artwork have at least two function transformations _____ at least one of the three pieces of artwork uses one of the six trigonometric functions

For each piece of artwork, you will be creating a little booklet to accompany the artwork. In each booklet, you will make sure the booklet looks professional and clear, while being creative. Im leaving what the booklet looks like up to you. However, each booklet must include the following: _____ a clever title for your artwork _____ the equation used generate the family of curves _____ the Geogebra command for the family of curves you generated _____ the window used to generate the image you chose _____ a bit about why you like your piece why did you choose it among all the pieces you played around with and generated? What about it strikes you? _____ things you notice about your family of curves (e.g. they all go through the point (0,0)) _____ things you wonder about your family of curves (e.g. why does it look 3-dimensional?)

_____ a mention of the parent function used to generate the family of curves, and a short outline the transformations that the parent function underwent to generate the family of curves _____ most importantly, include small individual graphs of five different curves in your family of curves _____ a super positive k value _____ a positive k value close to 0 _____ the k value equal to 0 _____ a negative k value close to 0 _____ a super negative k value The booklets should encapsulate both the artistic side and the mathematical side of what youve done.