1. The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County is a tall tale by Mark Twain about a
frog that can jump farther than any other frog in the county, though it looks
just like any other frog. It’s owner teaches it to jump up and out and land
multiple yards away. Feeling plucky, the owner makes a bet that his frog can
out jump any other. His bet is obliged, and many townspeople enter frogs. It
turns out his competitor put lead pieces in his frogs mouth. When the frogs
jump, his does not budge and he loses greatly.
2. This story illustrates parabolas. As the frogs jump, their path resembles
a parabola, or arc. The spot at which they land relates to the X intercept.
Their maximum height is the Y value for the vertex of the parabola, as these
are downward facing parabolas. If all the frogs start at 0 on X, the lead
mouthed frog will have a smaller rate of change and will only have a little
parabola and will thus land sooner. If they were graphed they would have an X^2
factor.
3. This story is good for illustrating a parabola since they are a slightly
confusing concept to grasp at first. They draw the path of a parabola in a very
understandable and colorful way. It helps relate the fact that they will land
about the same distance from the vertex as they started, and helps convey the
effect of gravity on the frog.
Very insightful. I felt like I have a better understanding of parabolas after reading this post. By using the frog as an example, I now picture a frog jumping across the graph instead of just simple pencil lines on a piece of paper. This frog makes the concept of parabolas, which is often difficult to understand in mathematical terms, more visual and relatable.
ReplyDeletemicheal,
ReplyDeletereally creative example. nice job!
professor little