GeoGebra Archives - Page 4 of 10 - Math and Multimedia

Guest Post: GeoGebra Investigation of the Equiangular Spiral in the Flight of an Insect

December 7, 2011 GB College Mathematics, Math in Real Life

If you are near an outside lamp after dark you will notice some insects spiraling around it. Are they simply attracted to the light?

If an insect positions its body in a certain direction and keeps a constant angle with the light rays coming from the Sun or the Moon (which are parallel), it will follow a straight line trajectory. However, people brought to the night sky electric lights emitting radial rays. The insects, continuing to follow the same way of orientation will keep a constant angle with the light rays, but this time they will not fly on a straight line. The trajectory will be an equiangular spiral.

Here are two GeoGebra applets modeling this phenomenon.

http://lima.osu.edu/people/iboyadzhiev/GeoGebra/FlightOfInsect.html

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Irina Boyadzhiev (author) is a lecturer in mathematics at the Ohio State University at Lima. Her GeoGebra applets are available at:

http://lima.osu.edu/people/iboyadzhiev/MyGeogebra.htm

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Statistics in GeoGebra 4.0

November 25, 2011 GB GeoGebra, Software Tutorials

This is probably GeoGebra Week since I have written a lot about GeoGebra. Anyways, here’s another one.

This is a very helpful tutorial on how to create histogram and boxplot using GeoGebra. Statistics is one of the greatest improvements in GeoGebra 4.0.

To know more about GeoGebra 4.0, read the GeoGebra Sneak Peek Series.

One comment GeoGebra, GeoGebra 4.0, geogebra boxplot, GeoGebra Histogram, GeoGebra Tutorial

GeoGebra Extra: Properties of Mathematical Objects

November 23, 2011 GB GeoGebra, Software Tutorials

Each mathematical object in GeoGebra has its own properties. Some of the properties of a line, for example, are its equation, color, and thickness; while a slider has maximum, minimum, increment, and animation properties.

The properties of mathematical objects in GeoGebra can be modified using the Object Properties window. The Object Properties window can be shown by right-clicking a particular object and choosing Object Properties from pop-up menu as shown in the first figure.

It is important to note that some properties are unique to a particular object, and some are common to many. For instance, most mathematical objects have the color property, while decoration properties are only available to lines and angles. » Read more

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