Brian Blais schrieb:
On Sep 27, 2009, at 19:38 , Charles Cossé wrote:
Hi, this has probably been discussed to death already, but maybe not:
The point at which fancy graphing calculators become "necessary" (ie
as in one's student career) is the point at which the calculator
should be abandoned and Python employed. Just a thought ... delete
at will !
Just a month ago, a friend of mine who homeschools her children was
asking me about graphing calculators. Apparently the math curriculum
she uses has a number of graphic calculator exercises. My advice was
to buy a nice solar-powered scientific calculator (for $15 at Target),
but to ignore the graphing calculator entirely. Her kids should do
the exercises by hand, on graph paper instead. Anything that is hard
enough for you to use a graphic calculator can be done much more
easily with a computer.
After giving her this advice (which I still stand by), I was thinking
about my own experience. I was going through high school when the
first graphic calculators came out, and I had one Junior and Senior
year and through college. I loved to program it, and I loved the big
screen where I could see and edit expressions. However, as I think
about it, I can not think of a single problem where I *needed* the
graphic calculator, or where it gave me more insight than I could do
by hand.
Hi Brian,
I think I have a counterexample.
Run the script, that you can find here:
http://svn.python.org/view/*checkout*/python/branches/release26-maint/Demo/turtle/tdemo_chaos.py?revision=73559&content-type=text%2Fplain
(or below.) Runs with Python 2.6 or later.
It certainly could be mimicked on
a (programmable) graphics calculator.
What do you think?
Regards,
Gregor
# File: tdemo_chaos.py
# Author: Gregor Lingl
# Date: 2009-06-24
# A demonstration of chaos
from turtle import *
N = 80
def f(x):
return 3.9*x*(1-x)
def g(x):
return 3.9*(x-x**2)
def h(x):
return 3.9*x-3.9*x*x
def jumpto(x, y):
penup(); goto(x,y)
def line(x1, y1, x2, y2):
jumpto(x1, y1)
pendown()
goto(x2, y2)
def coosys():
line(-1, 0, N+1, 0)
line(0, -0.1, 0, 1.1)
def plot(fun, start, colour):
pencolor(colour)
x = start
jumpto(0, x)
pendown()
dot(5)
for i in range(N):
x=fun(x)
goto(i+1,x)
dot(5)
def main():
reset()
setworldcoordinates(-1.0,-0.1, N+1, 1.1)
speed(0)
hideturtle()
coosys()
plot(f, 0.35, "blue")
plot(g, 0.35, "green")
plot(h, 0.35, "red")
# Now zoom in:
for s in range(100):
setworldcoordinates(0.5*s,-0.1, N+1, 1.1)
return "Done!"
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
mainloop()
It was a fun toy, but not the best tool.
bb
--
Brian Blais
bbl...@bryant.edu <mailto:bbl...@bryant.edu>
http://web.bryant.edu/~bblais <http://web.bryant.edu/%7Ebblais>
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