Sie sind auf Seite 1von 76

Teaching Mathematics with

The Geometer’s Sketchpad

Limited Reproduction Permission


© 2002 Key Curriculum Press. All rights reserved. Key Curriculum Press grants the teacher who purchases
Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad the right to reproduce activities and example sketches for use
with his or her own students. Unauthorized copying of Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad is a
violation of federal law.

The Geometer’s Sketchpad, Dynamic Geometry, and Key Curriculum Press are registered trademarks of
Key Curriculum Press. Sketchpad is a trademark of Key Curriculum Press. All other brand names and product
names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Key Curriculum Press Spectrum Educational Supplies Limited


1150 65th Street 125 Mary Street
Emeryville, California 94608 Aurora, Ontario L4G 1G3
USA 1-800-668-0600
510-595-7000 customerservice@spectrumed.com
http://www.keypress.com/ http://www.spectrumed.com/index.html
Contents
Teaching Notes ............................................................................................................1
The Geometer’s Sketchpad and Changes in Mathematics Teaching.................................................. 1
Where Sketchpad Came From.................................................................................................................. 2
Using Sketchpad in the Classroom.......................................................................................................... 2
Using Sketchpad in Different Classroom Settings ................................................................................ 7
Using Sketchpad as a Presentation Tool................................................................................................. 8
Using Sketchpad as a Productivity Tool................................................................................................. 9
The Geometer’s Sketchpad and Your Textbook .................................................................................... 9
Sample Activities ......................................................................................................11
Angles ........................................................................................................................................................ 12
Constructing a Sketchpad Kaleidoscope .............................................................................................. 13
Properties of Reflection ........................................................................................................................... 16
Tessellations Using Only Translations.................................................................................................. 18
The Euler Segment ................................................................................................................................... 20
Napoleon’s Theorem ............................................................................................................................... 22
Constructing Rhombuses........................................................................................................................ 23
Midpoint Quadrilaterals ......................................................................................................................... 24
A Rectangle with Maximum Area ......................................................................................................... 25
Visual Demonstration of the Pythagorean Theorem .......................................................................... 27
The Golden Rectangle ............................................................................................................................. 28
A Sine Wave Tracer ................................................................................................................................. 30
Adding Integers........................................................................................................................................ 32
Points “Lining Up” in the Plane............................................................................................................. 35
Parabolas in Vertex Form........................................................................................................................ 38
Reflection in Geometry and Algebra..................................................................................................... 41
Walking Rex: An Introduction to Vectors ............................................................................................ 44
Leonardo da Vinci’s Proof ...................................................................................................................... 46
The Folded Circle Construction ............................................................................................................. 48
The Expanding Circle Construction ...................................................................................................... 52
Distances in an Equilateral Triangle...................................................................................................... 55
Varignon Area .......................................................................................................................................... 59
Visualizing Change: Velocity ................................................................................................................. 63
Going Off on a Tangent........................................................................................................................... 67
Accumulating Area.................................................................................................................................. 70
Also Available from Spectrum ...............................................................................74

© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • ii
Teaching Notes
If you’ve read the Learning Guide, you’ve learned 1+Φ = 1/Φ
how to use The Geometer’s Sketchpad and you’ve
probably discovered that the range of things you can
do with the software is greater than you first
imagined. For all its potential uses though,
Sketchpad was designed primarily as a teaching and
learning tool. In this section, we establish a context
for Sketchpad in geometry teaching and offer
suggestions for using Sketchpad in different ways in
different classroom settings. More than 20 sample
activities—touching on a range of school
mathematics topics—follow these teaching notes. By Although it remains a matter of dispute, some architects and
mathematicians believe the Parthenon was designed to utilize the
exploring the sample documents that are installed Golden Mean. This sketch shows how the Parthenon roughly fits into
with the software, you’ll find even more ideas. Try a Golden Rectangle.
them with your students for a sense of how
Sketchpad can serve your classroom best.

The Geometer’s Sketchpad and Changes in Mathematics Teaching


The way we teach mathematics—geometry in particular—has changed, thanks to a few important
developments in recent years. Alternatives to a strictly deductive approach are available after more than a
century of failing to reach a majority of students. (The National Assessment of Educational Progress found in
1982 that doing proofs was the least liked mathematics topic of 17-year-olds, and less then 50% of them rated
the topic as important.) First, in 1985, Judah Schwartz and Michal Yerushalmy of the Education Development
Center developed a landmark piece of instructional software that enabled teachers and students to use
computers as teaching and learning tools rather than just as drillmasters. The Geometric Supposers, for Apple
II computers, encouraged students to invent their own mathematics by making it easy to create simple
geometric figures and make conjectures about their properties. Learning geometry could become a series of
open-ended explorations of relationships in geometric figures—a process of discovery that motivates proof,
rather than a rehashing of proofs of theorems that students take for granted or don’t understand.
In 1989, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) published Curriculum and Evaluation
Standards for School Mathematics (the Standards) which called for significant changes in the way mathematics is
taught. In the teaching of geometry, the Standards called for decreased emphasis on the presentation of
geometry as a complete deductive system and a decreased emphasis on two-column proofs. Across the
curriculum, the Standards called for an increase in open exploration and conjecturing and increased attention
to topics in transformational geometry. In their call for change, the Standards recognized the impact that
technology tools have on the way mathematics is taught, by freeing students from time-consuming, mundane
tasks and giving them the means to see and explore interesting relationships.
By publishing the first edition of Michael Serra’s Discovering Geometry: An Inductive Approach in 1989, Key
Curriculum Press joined the forces of change. Discovering Geometry, a high school geometry textbook, takes
much the same approach that the creators of The Geometric Supposers espoused: Students should create their
own geometric constructions and themselves formulate the mathematics to describe relationships they
discover. With Discovering Geometry, students working in cooperative groups do investigations using tools of
geometry to discover properties. Students look for patterns and use inductive reasoning to make conjectures.
They aren’t expected to prove their discoveries until after they’ve mastered geometry concepts and can
appreciate the significance of proof. Now in its second edition, Discovering Geometry lets students take
advantage of a broader range of tools, including patty papers and The Geometer’s Sketchpad.
This approach is consistent with research done by the Dutch mathematics educators Pierre van Hiele and
Dina van Hiele-Geldof. From classroom observations, the van Hieles learned that students pass through a
series of levels of geometric thinking: Visualization, Analysis, Informal Deduction, Formal Deduction, and
Rigor. Standard geometry texts expect students to employ formal deduction from the beginning. Little is
done to enable students to visualize or to encourage them to make conjectures. A main goal of The Supposers,
Discovering Geometry, and, now, The Geometer’s Sketchpad is to bring students through the first three levels,

© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 1
encouraging a process of discovery that more closely reflects how mathematics is usually invented: A
mathematician first visualizes and analyzes a problem, making conjectures before attempting a proof.
The Geometer’s Sketchpad established the current generation of educational software that has accelerated the
change begun by The Geometric Supposers and that was spurred on by publications like Discovering Geometry
and the NCTM Standards. Sketchpad’s unique Dynamic Geometry enables students to explore relationships
interactively so that they can see change in mathematical diagrams as they manipulate them. With this
breakthrough, along with the completeness of its construction, transformation, analytic, and algebraic
capabilities—as well as the unbounded extensibility offered by its custom tools—Sketchpad broadens the
scope of what it’s possible to do with mathematics software to an extent never seen before. In the ten years of
its existence, teachers have taken Sketchpad outside the geometry classroom and into algebra, calculus,
trigonometry, and middle-school mathematics courses; and ongoing development of the software has refined
it for these wider uses. The Dynamic Geometry paradigm pioneered by Sketchpad has been so widely
embraced—by mathematics and educational researchers, by teachers across the curriculum, and by millions
of students—that the 2000 edition of the Standards now call for Dynamic Geometry by name. Concurrent
development of Macintosh, Windows, Java, and handheld versions of Sketchpad in a number of different
languages ensures the most powerful and up-to-date geometry tool is always available to a wide variety of
school computing environments throughout the world.

Where Sketchpad Came From


The Geometer’s Sketchpad was developed as part of the Visual Geometry Project, a National Science
Foundation–funded project under the direction of Dr. Eugene Klotz at Swarthmore College and Dr. Doris
Schattschneider at Moravian College in Pennsylvania. In addition to Sketchpad, the Visual Geometry Project
(VGP) has produced The Stella Octangula and The Platonic Solids: videos, activity books, and manipulative
materials also published by Key Curriculum Press. Sketchpad creator and programmer Nicholas Jackiw
joined the VGP in the summer of 1987. He began serious programming work a year later. Sketchpad for
Macintosh was developed in an open, academic environment in which many teachers and other users
experimented with early versions of the program and provided input to its design. Nicholas came to work for
Key Curriculum Press in 1990 to produce the “beta” version of the software tested in classrooms. A core of 30
schools soon grew to a group of more than 50 sites as word spread and more people heard of Sketchpad or
saw it demonstrated at conferences. The openness with which Sketchpad was developed generated an
incredible tide of feedback and enthusiasm for the program. By the time of its release in the spring of 1991, it
had been used by hundreds of teachers, students, and other geometry lovers and was already the most talked
about and awaited piece of school mathematics software in recent memory.
In Sketchpad’s first year, Key Curriculum Press began to study how the program was being used effectively
in schools. Funded in part by a grant for small businesses from the National Science Foundation, this research
is reflected in these teaching notes, in curriculum materials, and in new versions of Sketchpad. Version 2 of
the program, released in April 1992, introduced improved transformation and presentation capabilities and
brought tools for the graphical exploration of recursion and iteration into the hands of Sketchpad users.
Version 3 for Macintosh and Windows, a major upgrade released in April 1995, expanded the program’s
analytic and graphing capabilities. By 1999, the Teaching, Learning, and Computing national teacher survey
conducted by the University of California, Irvine, found that the nation’s mathematics teachers rated
Sketchpad the “most valuable software for students” by a large margin. Version 4 of the software, introduced
in the fall of 2001, dramatically expands the program’s usefulness in algebra, pre-calculus, and calculus
classes, while increasing both the ease of use in earlier grades and the software’s curriculum development
authoring tools. Classroom research continues to form the basis for further development of the software and
accompanying materials.

Using Sketchpad in the Classroom


The Geometer’s Sketchpad was designed initially primarily for use in high school geometry classes. Testing
has shown, though, that its ease of use makes it possible for younger students to use Sketchpad successfully,
and the power of its features has made it attractive to instructors of college-level mathematics and teacher
pre-service and inservice courses. College instructors are drawn particularly to Sketchpad’s powerful
transformation capabilities and to custom tools allowing students to explore non-Euclidean geometries. Even
artists and mechanical drawing professionals have been enthralled by Sketchpad’s power and elegance. It’s a

2 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
testament to the versatility of the software that the same tool can be used by six-year-olds and college
professors to explore new mathematical concepts. (Be sure to browse the sample documents that come
installed with Sketchpad for additional tools that help particularize the program to your classroom needs.
You’ll find tools for constructing regular polygons, defining mathematical symbols, exploring non-Euclidean
geometries, composing and combining functions, and much more.) In this section, we’ll concentrate on ways
Sketchpad might be used in a high school geometry class.
As a high school geometry teacher, you may want to guide your students toward discovering a specific
property or small set of properties, or you may want to pose an open-ended question or problem and ask
students to try to discover as much as they can about it. Alternatively, you may want to prepare for students
an interactive demonstration that models a particular concept. In any case, you’ll want students to collaborate
and communicate their findings. Sketchpad’s annotation features encourage students to articulate
mathematical ideas. Whatever approach you take to using Sketchpad, it can serve as a springboard for
discussion and communication. We’ll look at examples of three approaches to using Sketchpad in the
classroom: a guided investigation, an open-ended exploration, and a demonstration. These three examples
come from Exploring Geometry with The Geometer’s Sketchpad, © 1999 by Key Curriculum Press. (This
publication is available in Canada from Spectrum Educational Supplies.)

© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 3
A Guided Investigation: Napoleon’s Theorem
The purpose of this investigation is to guide students to some specific conjectures. They are given instructions
to construct a figure with certain specifically defined relationships: in this case, a triangle with equilateral
triangles constructed on its sides. Students manipulate their construction to see what relationships they find
that can be generalized for all triangles. After this experimentation, students are asked to write conjectures.
An important aspect of this—
and, in fact, any—Sketchpad
investigation is that by
manipulating a single figure Napoleon’s Theorem Name(s):
French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte fancied himself as something of an
a student can potentially see amateur geometer and liked to hang out with mathematicians. The
every possible case of that theorem you’ll investigate in this activity is attributed to him.

figure. Here they have visual Sketch and Investigate


proof that the Napoleon 1. Construct an equilateral triangle. You can use a pre-made custom tool
or construct the triangle from scratch.
triangle of an arbitrary triangle One way to
construct the center
2. Construct the center of the triangle.
is always equilateral, even as
is to construct two
medians and their
point of intersection.
3. Hide anything extra you may have constructed to
the original triangle changes construct the triangle and its center so that you’re
from acute to right to obtuse, left with a figure like the one shown at right.

from scalene to isosceles to


Select the entire
figure; then choose
4. Make a custom tool for this construction.
Create New Tool
Next, you’ll use your custom tool to construct equilateral triangles on the
equilateral. from the Custom
Tools menu
in the Toolbox
sides of an arbitrary triangle.
(the bottom tool).
Suggestions are made for 5. Open a new sketch.

further, open-ended investi- 6. Construct ∆ABC. B

gation for students who finish


Be sure to attach
each equilateral 7. Use the custom tool to construct
triangle to a pair of equilateral triangles on each side
first. In this Explore More triangle ABC’s
vertices. If your of ∆ABC.
equilateral triangle
suggestion, students can goes the wrong way
(overlaps the interior
8. Drag to make sure each equilateral
A C

of ∆ABC) or is not triangle is stuck to a side.


discover that the segments in attached properly,
undo and try 9. Construct segments connecting the
question are congruent, are attaching it again.
centers of the equilateral triangles.
concurrent, and intersect to 10. Drag the vertices of the original triangle
form 60° angles. and observe the triangle formed by the
centers of the equilateral triangles. This
triangle is called the outer Napoleon triangle of ∆ABC.
After students have discussed
Q1 State what you think Napoleon’s theorem might be.
their findings in pairs or
small groups, it’s important
to discuss them as a large
group. Ask students to share Explore More

any special cases they’ve 1. Construct segments connecting each vertex of your original triangle
with the most remote vertex of the equilateral triangle on the opposite
discovered, and use your side. What can you say about these three segments?
questions to emphasize
which relationships can be
generalized for all triangles: “Was the Napoleon triangle
always equilateral even as
you changed your original triangle from being acute to being obtuse? Were the three segments you
constructed in Explore More congruent and concurrent no matter what shape triangle you had?” In this
wrap-up you can introduce vocabulary or special names for properties students discover (for example, the
point of concurrency they discover in Explore More is called the Fermat point) and agree as a class on
wording for students’ conjectures as a way of checking for understanding.

4 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
An Open-Ended Exploration: Constructing Rhombuses
In an open-ended exploration there is not a specific set of properties that students are expected to discover as
outcomes of the lesson. A question or problem is posed with a few suggestions about how to use Sketchpad
to explore the problem. Different students will discover or use different relationships in their constructions
and write their findings in their own words.
In this example, students
are asked to come up with
as many ways as they can
Constructing Rhombuses Name(s):
to construct a rhombus. How many ways can you come up with to D
construct a rhombus? Try methods that use
Again, various construction the Construct menu, the Transform menu, or
B

methods should be discussed combinations of both. Consider how you might


use diagonals. Write a brief description of each
in small groups, then with construction method along with the properties
C

of rhombuses that make that method work.


the whole class. To bring
A

closure to the lesson you Method 1:

might want to compile on


the chalkboard a list of all
the properties your students Properties:
used. Offering students an
open-ended construction
problem also gives you the Method 2:

opportunity to emphasize
the important distinction
between a drawing and a Properties:
construction. For example,
if students have actually
used defining properties Method 3:

of a rhombus in their
constructions, it should be
possible to manipulate their Properties:
figure into any size or shape
rhombus and it should be
impossible to distort the Method 4:

figure into anything that’s


not a rhombus.
Properties:

© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 5
A Demonstration: A Visual Demonstration of the Pythagorean Theorem
A teacher (or for that matter, a student) can use Sketchpad to prepare a demonstration for others to use.
Sometimes a complex construction can nicely show a property, but it might be impractical to have all
students do the construction themselves. In that case, teachers might use a demonstration sketch
accompanied by an activity sheet.
Before using this demonstration,
students can actually discover
the Pythagorean theorem
themselves in a guided investi- Visual Demonstration of the
gation. The purpose of this Pythagorean Theorem Name(s):

lesson, though, is as a demon- In this activity, you’ll do a visual demonstration of the Pythagorean
theorem based on Euclid’s proof. By shearing the squares on the sides of a
stration of a visual “proof” of All sketches
referred to in this
right triangle, you’ll create congruent shapes without changing the areas
of your original squares.
the theorem. The sketch used booklet
can be found in
Sketchpad |
in the lesson is a pre-made Samples | Teach-
ing Mathematics
Sketch and Investigate
1. Open the sketch Shear Pythagoras.gsp.
sketch of some complexity. (Sketchpad is
the folder that
contains the You’ll see a right triangle with squares C
Students aren’t expected to application itself.)
on the sides.
create this construction Click on a polygon
interior to select it. 2. Measure the areas of the squares.
Then, in the
themselves to discover the Measure menu,
choose Area.
3. Drag point A onto the line that’s a c
perpendicular to the hypotenuse.
Pythagorean theorem, but Note that as the square becomes a A
b

they have a chance with this parallelogram its area doesn’t change.

demonstration to look at it in 4. Drag point B onto the line. It should


overlap point A so that the two B
a new and interesting way. To confirm that this
shape is congruent,
parallelograms form a single
you can copy and irregular shape.
This demonstration might be paste it. Drag the
pasted copy onto
5. Drag point C so that the large square deforms to fill in the triangle.
the shape on the
done most efficiently as a legs to see that
it fits perfectly.
The area of this shape doesn’t change either. It should appear
congruent to the shape you made with the two smaller
whole-class demonstration parallelograms.
with you or a student working
at an overhead projector. C C

Alternatively, you could C

reproduce the activity master


for students to use on their
a c a c a c
b b b

own time or at the end of a lab


period in which they’ve been
A A
doing other investigations
A
B
B B

related to the Pythagorean Step 3 Step 4 Step 5

theorem. To confirm that this


works for any right Q1 How do these congruent shapes demonstrate the Pythagorean
triangle, change
the shape of the
theorem? (Hint: If the shapes are congruent, what do you know about
triangle and try the their areas?)
experiment again.

6 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Using Sketchpad in Different Classroom Settings
Schools use computers in a variety of classroom settings. Sketchpad was designed with this in mind, and its
display features can be optimized for these different settings. Teaching strategies also need to be adapted to
available resources. What follows are some suggestions for using and teaching with Sketchpad if you’re in a
classroom with one computer, one computer and an overhead display device, a handful of computers, or a
computer lab.

A Classroom with One Computer


Perhaps the best use of a single computer without a projector is to have small groups of students take turns
using the computer. Each group can investigate or confirm conjectures made working at their desks or tables
using standard geometry tools such as a compass and straightedge. In that case, each group would have an
opportunity during a class period to use the computer for a short time. Alternatively, you can give each
group a day on which to do an investigation on the computer while other groups are doing the same or
different investigations at their desks. A single computer without a projection device or large-screen monitor
has limited use as a demonstration tool. Although preferences can be set in Sketchpad for any size or style of
type, a large class will have difficulty following a demonstration on a small computer screen.

One Computer and a Projection Device


A variety of devices are available that plug into computers so that the display can be output to a projector, a
large-screen monitor, an LCD device used with an overhead projector, or a large-format touch panel. The
Geometer’s Sketchpad was designed to work well with these projection devices, increasing your options
considerably for classroom uses. You or a student can act as a sort of emcee to an investigation, asking the
class as a whole things like, “What should we try next? Where should I construct a segment? Which objects
should I reflect? What do you notice as I move this point?” With a projection device, you and your students
can prepare demonstrations, or students can make presentations of findings that they made using the
computer or other means. Sketchpad becomes a “dynamic chalkboard” on which you or your students can
draw more precise, more complex figures that, best of all, can be distorted and transformed in an infinite
variety of ways without having to erase and redraw. Many teachers with access to larger labs also find that
giving one or two introductory demonstrations on Sketchpad in front of the whole class prepares their
students to use it in a lab with a minimum of lab-time lost to training. For demonstrations, we recommend
using large display text in a bold style and formatting illustrations with thick lines to make text and figures
clearly visible from all corners of a classroom.

A Classroom with a Handful of Computers


If you can divide your class into groups of three or four students so that each group has access to a computer,
you can plan whole lessons around doing investigations with the computers. Make sure of the following:
• That you introduce the whole class to what it is they’re expected to do.
• That students have some kind of written explanation of the investigation or problem they’re to work on.
It’s often useful for that explanation to be on a piece of paper on which students have room to record some
of their findings; but for some open-ended explorations the problem or question could simply be written
on the chalkboard or typed into the sketch itself. Likewise, students’ “written” work could be in the form
of sketches with captions and comments.
• That students work so that everybody in a group has an opportunity to actually operate the computer.
• That students in a group who are not actually operating the computer are expected to contribute to the
group discussion and give input to the student operating the computer.
• That you move among groups posing questions, giving help if needed, and keeping students on task.
• That students’ findings are summarized in a whole-class discussion to bring closure to the lesson.

A Computer Lab
The experience of teachers in using Sketchpad in the classroom (as well as the experience of teachers using
The Geometric Supposers) suggests that even if enough computers are available for students to work
individually, it’s perhaps best to have students work in pairs. Students learn best when they communicate
about what they’re learning, and students working together can better stimulate ideas and lend help to one

© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 7
another. If you do have students working at their own computers, encourage them to talk about what they’re
doing and to compare their findings with those of their nearest neighbor—they should peek over each others’
shoulders. The suggestions above for students working in small groups apply to students working in pairs as
well.
If your laboratory setting has both Macintosh computers and computers running Windows, your students
can read sketches created on one type of machine with the other. Use PC-formatted disks (Macintoshes can
read them, but Windows PCs cannot read Mac-formatted disks) or a network to exchange documents
between platforms.

Using Sketchpad as a Presentation Tool


You’ll find that Sketchpad’s features—especially its text capabilities, multi-page document structure, and
action buttons—make it ideally suited for teacher and student presentations. Sketchpad provides a powerful
medium for mathematical communication.
With the Text tool, students and teachers can annotate their sketches with captions that describe salient
features of a construction. Captions can highlight properties that a construction demonstrates, or they can
provide instructions for manipulating a construction, including what to look for as the construction changes.
In this way, students and teachers can communicate about what they’ve done in a sketch.
Teachers and students can use action
buttons to simplify complex sketches.
Buttons can be used to show and hide
geometric objects and text or to initiate
animations. Buttons can also be The Circle Squared
m AB = 1.347 in.
sequenced so that procedures and
explanations of a construction can be D. Bennett 7.6.01 (m AB)2
š = 0.760 in.
“played” with the click of a button. In
Given a segment AB, I've constructed
other words, action buttons turn a square and a circle with equal areas. Radius CC' = 0.760 in.
sketches into presentations. First I constructed a square with side Area CC' = 1.815 in2
length AB. Then I calculated the radius
Text and action buttons make possible Area ABA'B' = 1.815 in2
of a circle with the same area. Finally, I
presentations without presenters: A translated the center of the square by
that quantity and constructed the
sufficiently annotated sketch could
circle.
speak for itself when opened by
Press the action buttons to transform
another user at a time when the sketch the figure. C C'
creator isn’t around to explain it. A
presentation, in this context, is not square me! circle me!
A B
necessarily designed for a group
audience looking at an overhead
display. The audience for an annotated A Captioned Sketch
sketch might be a fellow student or a
teacher. Teachers who ask students to hand in assignments in the form of sketches can ask students to create
presentations using action buttons and to explain their work in captions.
Sketchpad’s web integration facilities allows you to draw on the full resources
of the Internet. Action buttons allow you to link to web resources to provide additional explorations, survey
real-world applications, or establish the historical context of a particular mathematics exploration. In
addition, if you’re interested in publishing web pages of your own, Sketchpad allows you to export your
activities to the web, where you can integrate them with the full set of multimedia components and
hyperlinked resources available to
web page authors, and share them over the net with users across the world. Users who visit your web page
will be able to interact with your page’s Dynamic Geometry illustrations whether they have Sketchpad or not!
By browsing through the sample documents that come with Sketchpad you can get ideas for different ways
sketch captions can be used to communicate mathematically.

8 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Using Sketchpad as a Productivity Tool
The Reference Manual describes how to use the Edit menu to cut, copy, and paste Sketchpad objects into other
applications, such as graphics or word processing programs. These features make Sketchpad an extremely
useful productivity tool for anyone, including teachers and students, who wants to easily create and store
geometric figures. Teachers, for example, can create figures in Sketchpad and paste them into a test or
worksheet created in a word processing program. All of the graphics in the sample activities and most of the
graphics in the documentation were created in Sketchpad and pasted into Microsoft Word.
Sketchpad stores objects in the clipboard both as Sketchpad objects, which behave as such when pasted back
into a sketch, and graphic images, which are recognized by virtually any program that deals with graphics.
Sketchpad graphics will act exactly like images produced in most other graphics programs and will give
excellent results when printed. If you’re writing a book or article that will be printed professionally,
Sketchpad graphics can even be output on a typesetting machine with very high quality results. Lines and
rays are truncated when pasted into other programs, just as they are when printed in Sketchpad.

Solve for x and y:

x 5 in.
y y
x
8 cm
10 cm x
y
You can save Sketchpad sketches as libraries of figures that you use
in tests and worksheets. Then you can easily change figures if you
need variations. You can edit labels and type in measurements of
angles and lengths. Even figures that you might find easier to draw
by hand have the advantage, when done with Sketchpad, that they
can be saved, easily modified, and used again and again.

Excircles of a Triangle

The Geometer’s Sketchpad and Your Textbook


The variety of ways Sketchpad can be used makes it the ideal tool for exploring school mathematics,
regardless of the text you’re using. Use Sketchpad to demonstrate concepts presented in the text. Or have
students use Sketchpad to explore problems given as exercises. If your text presents theorems and proves
them (or asks students to prove them) along the way, give your students an opportunity to explore the
concepts with Sketchpad before you require them to do a proof. Working out constructions using Sketchpad
and interacting with diagrams dynamically will deepen students’ understanding of concepts and, in formal
contexts, will make proof more relevant.
Sketchpad is ideally suited for use with books that take a discovery approach to teaching and learning
geometry. In Michael Serra’s Discovering Geometry, for example, students working in small groups do
investigations and discover geometry concepts for themselves, before they attempt proof. Many of these
investigations call for constructions that could be done with Sketchpad. Many other investigations involving
transformations, measurements, calculations, or graphs can also be done effectively and efficiently with
Sketchpad. In fact, most investigations in Discovering Geometry or any other book with a similar approach can
be done using Sketchpad.
The Discovering Geometry student text includes ten Geometer’s Sketchpad Projects and numerous
Investigations and Take Another Look suggestions for using Sketchpad. More than 60 lessons best-suited for
exploration with Sketchpad were adapted and collected as blackline masters in the ancillary book Discovering

© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 9
Geometry with The Geometer’s Sketchpad. These Sketchpad lessons have the same titles and guide students to
the same conjectures as the corresponding Discovering Geometry lessons. A collection of Sketchpad documents
accompany this book on CD-ROM. The Discovering Geometry Teacher’s Resource Book comes with
demonstration sketches corresponding to Discovering Geometry lessons.
Ancillary Sketchpad materials are also available for some secondary texts from other publishers, though for a
geometry course, none provide as complete a technology package as Key Curriculum Press’s Discovering
Geometry combined with The Geometer’s Sketchpad. If you’re using a text other than Discovering Geometry,
ask the publisher whether Sketchpad ancillaries are available.
Exploring Geometry with The Geometer’s Sketchpad, available in Canada from Spectrum Educational Supplies,
contains more than 100 reproducible activities that can be used with any text. A CD-ROM with activities for
Macintosh and Windows computers accompany the activities. Many other topic-specific volumes of activities
are also available from Spectrum Educational Supplies. Sample activities from some of these books are
included in this booklet. These books are listed and described on the back cover of this booklet.
Exploring Geometry could supply a teacher with a year’s worth of activities to cover nearly all the content of a
typical high school geometry course using The Geometer’s Sketchpad. And other activity books could occupy
a large part of the year in other mathematics courses, too. We don’t, however, advocate that you abandon
other teaching methods in favor of using the computer. It’s our belief that students learn best from a variety
of learning experiences. Students need experience with hands-on manipulatives, model building, function
plotting, compass and straightedge constructions, drawing, paper and pencil work, and most importantly,
group discussion. Students need to apply mathematics to real-life situations and see where it is used in art
and architecture and where it can be found in nature. Though Sketchpad can serve as a medium for many of
these experiences, its potential will be reached only when students can apply what they learn with it to
different situations. As engaging as using Sketchpad can be, it’s important that students don’t get the
mistaken impression that mathematics exists only in their books and on their computer screens.

10 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Sample Activities
These sample classroom activity masters will give you an idea of some of the types of learning experiences
that are possible using The Geometer’s Sketchpad. In the Teaching Notes, you saw three different types of
lessons from Exploring Geometry with The Geometer’s Sketchpad: an investigation, an exploration, and a
demonstration. Here you’ll find more activities from Exploring Geometry along with samples from other Key
Curriculum Press publications. This collection is neither a complete curriculum nor a comprehensive set of
activities to keep you and your students occupied for a school year.
The topics of the activities range from creating geometric art to calculus. Their difficulty ranges from being
appropriate for middle school students to presenting challenges to college undergraduate math majors. There
are 25 activities here, and you’re obviously not going to be able to use them all with the same class. While we
certainly hope that teachers will find some of the activities in this sample useful in their classes, the collection
here is designed to show you a range of possibilities.
Exploring Geometry contains over 100 activities. That volume does represent a nearly complete curriculum,
though we would caution teachers from overusing it. (See Teaching Notes, page 10.)

The list below shows the names of activities sampled here and the titles of the books they’re from. (The
various books are available in Canada from Spectrum Educational Supplies.)

From Geometry Activities for Middle School Points “Lining Up” in the Plane
Students with The Geometer’s Sketchpad Parabolas in Vertex Form
Angles Reflection in Geometry and Algebra
Constructing a Sketchpad Kaleidoscope Walking Rex: An Introduction to Vectors
From Exploring Geometry with The Geometer’s From Pythagoras Plugged In
Sketchpad
Leonardo da Vinci’s Proof
Properties of Reflection
From Exploring Conic Sections with The
Tessellations Using Only Translations Geometer’s Sketchpad
The Euler Segment The Folded Circle Construction
Napoleon’s Theorem The Expanding Circle Construction
Constructing Rhombuses From Rethinking Proof with The Geometer’s
Midpoint Quadrilaterals Sketchpad
A Rectangle with Maximum Area Distances in an Equilateral Triangle
Visual Demonstration of the Pythagorean Varignon Area
Theorem From Exploring Calculus with The Geometer’s
The Golden Rectangle Sketchpad
A Sine Wave Tracer Visualizing Change: Velocity
From Exploring Algebra with The Geometer’s Going Off on a Tangent
Sketchpad Accumulating Area
Adding Integers

Try some or all of these activities yourself and with your students to explore Sketchpad’s potential and learn
how you can use it in the classroom. (You may reproduce these sheets for use with your classes.) Then join us
in creating the most comprehensive teacher support materials ever to accompany new classroom software—
materials that reflect what teachers and students can accomplish with state-of-the-art teaching and learning
tools.
If you’re interested in contributing worksheets, sample sketches, or custom tools for possible inclusion in
future teacher materials and sample disks, contact the Editorial Department at Key Curriculum Press.

© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 11
Angles

1. Open a new sketch.

2. Construct a triangle.

3. Extend one side by constructing a ray using two vertices.


C

4. Measure each of the interior angles.

5. Go to the Measure menu and choose Calculate. Use Sketchpad’s


calculator to determine the sum of the three interior angles.

Q1 Drag any vertex of the triangle and observe the measures of the interior
angles and their sum.
Write any conjectures based on your exploration.

6. Click somewhere on the ray outside the triangle to construct a point.


Measure the exterior angle.

7. Use Sketchpad’s calculator to determine the sum of the two interior


angles that are not adjacent to the exterior angle.

Q2 Drag any vertex of the triangle and compare the measure of the exterior
angle to the sum of the two remote (nonadjacent) interior angles.
Write any conjectures based on your exploration.

From Geometry Activities for Middle School Students with The Geometer’s Sketchpad
12 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Constructing a Sketchpad Kaleidoscope

Follow the directions below to construct a Sketchpad kaleidoscope. The


numbered steps tell you in general what you need to do, and the lettered
steps give you more detailed instructions. Make sure you did each step correctly
before you go on to the next step.
1. Open a new sketch and construct a many-sided polygon.
a. Go to the File menu and choose New Sketch.
b. Use the Segment tool to construct a polygon with many sides
(make it long and somewhat slender).

2. Construct several polygon interiors within your polygon.


Shade them different colors.
a. Click on the Selection Arrow
tool. Click in any blank space
to deselect objects.
b. Select three or four points in
clockwise or counterclockwise
order.
c. Go to the Construct menu and
choose Triangle Interior or Step b Step c Step e
Quadrilateral Interior.
d. While the polygon interior is still selected, go to the Display menu and
choose a color for your polygon interior.
e. Click in any blank space to deselect objects. Repeat steps b, c, and d until you have
constructed several polygon interiors with different colors or shades.

3. Mark the bottom vertex point of your polygon as the center. Hide the points
and rotate the polygon by an angle of 60°.
a. Click in any blank space to deselect objects.
b. Select the bottom vertex point. Go to the Transform menu and choose
Mark Center.
c. Click on the Point tool. Go to the Edit menu and choose Select All Points.
Go to the Display menu and choose Hide Points.

From Geometry Activities for Middle School Students with The Geometer’s Sketchpad
© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 13
Constructing a Sketchpad Kaleidoscope (continued)

d. Click on the Selection Arrow tool. Use


a selection marquee to select your
polygon. Go to the Transform menu
and choose Rotate.
e. Enter 60 and then click Rotate.
(Pick a different factor of 360 if
you wish.)

selection marquee after 60˚ rotation

Rotate Dialog Box (Mac)

4. Continue to rotate the new rotated images


until you have completed your kaleidoscope.
a. While the new rotated image is still selected, go
to the Transform menu and rotate this image
by an angle of 60°. Remember to click Rotate.
b. When the newer rotated image appears, and
while it is still selected, go to the Transform menu and rotate this image by an angle
of 60°. Remember to click Rotate.
c. Repeat this process until you have constructed your complete kaleidoscope.
d. Go to the Display menu and choose Show
All Hidden. You should see the points
on the original arm reappear.

5. Construct circles with their centers at the control point

center of your kaleidoscope.


a. Click in any blank space to deselect all
objects. control point

b. Click on the Compass tool. Press on the


center point of your kaleidoscope and drag
a circle with a radius a little larger than the control point
outside edge of your kaleidoscope.

From Geometry Activities for Middle School Students with The Geometer’s Sketchpad
14 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Constructing a Sketchpad Kaleidoscope (continued)

c. Using the Compass tool, construct another circle with its center at the
center of your kaleidoscope, but this time let the radius be about half
the radius of your kaleidoscope. Repeat for a circle with a radius about
one-third the radius of your kaleidoscope.
Note: Make sure you release your mouse in a blank space between two arms of your
kaleidoscope. You do not want the outside control points of your circles to be
constructed on any part of your kaleidoscope.
6. Merge points of your kaleidoscope onto the three circles.
a. Click on the Selection Arrow tool. Click in any merged points
blank space to deselect objects.
b. Select one point on the original polygon
near the outside circle and select the outside
circle (do not click on one of the control points of
the circle). Go to the Edit menu
and choose Merge Point To Circle.
c. Click in any blank space to deselect
all objects. Repeat step b. for the middle
circle and a point near the middle circle.
Do this one more time for the smallest
circle and a point near the smallest circle.
7. Animate points of your kaleidoscope on the three
circles.
a. Click in any blank space to deselect all objects.
b. Select the three points you merged onto
circles in the previous step.
c. Go to the Edit menu, choose
Action Button, and drag to the Animate Points
right and choose Animation. Click
on OK in the Animate dialog box.
d. When the Animate Points button appears,
click on it to start the animation. Watch your
kaleidoscope turn!
e. To hide all the points, click on the
Point tool. Go to the Edit menu and choose
Select All Points. Go to the Display menu and choose Hide Points.
Click on the Compass tool, select all the circles, and hide them.

From Geometry Activities for Middle School Students with The Geometer’s Sketchpad
© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 15
Properties of Reflection

When you look at yourself in a mirror, how far away does your image in the
mirror appear to be? Why is it that your reflection looks just like you, but
backward? Reflections in geometry have some of the same properties of
reflections you observe in a mirror. In this activity, you’ll investigate the
properties of reflections that make a reflection the “mirror image” of the
original.

Sketch and Investigate: Mirror Writing


1. Construct vertical line
AB. A

2. Construct point C
to the right of
the line.
Double-click on C' C
the line.
3. Mark dAB as a mirror.
4. Reflect point C to B
construct point C´.
Select the two
points; then, 5. Turn on Trace Points
in the Display for points C and C´.
menu, choose
Trace Points. A
check mark 6. Drag point C so that it traces out your name.
indicates that
the command is Q1 What does point C´ trace?
turned on.
Choose Erase
Traces to erase
your traces.

7. For a real challenge, try dragging point C´ so that point C traces out your
name.

Select points C
Sketch and Investigate: Reflecting Geometric Figures
and C´. In the
Display menu, 8. Turn off Trace Points for
you’ll see
Trace Points points C and C´. E D
checked. Choose B
D'
it to uncheck
it.
9. In the Display menu, choose
Erase Traces.
10. Construct jCDE. E'

Select the 11. Reflect jCDE (sides and


entire figure;
then, in the vertices) over dAB.
Transform menu, C
choose Reflect.
12. Drag different parts of either A
triangle and observe how the C'

triangles are related. Also drag

From Exploring Geometry with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


16 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Properties of Reflection (continued)

the mirror line.


13. Measure the lengths of the sides of triangles CDE and C´D´E´.
Select three
points that Q2 Measure one angle in jCDE and measure the corresponding angle in
name the angle, jC´D´E´.
with the vertex
your middle What effect does reflection have on lengths and angle measures?
selection.
Then, in the
Measure menu,
choose Angle.

Q3 Are a figure and its mirror image always congruent? State your answer as
a conjecture.

Your answer to
Q4 demonstrates Q4 Going alphabetically from C to D to E in jCDE, are the vertices oriented in
that a a clockwise or counterclockwise direction? In what direction (clockwise
reflection
reverses the or counterclockwise) are vertices C´, D´, and E´ oriented in the reflected
orientation
of a figure. triangle?
Line Weight is
in the Display 14. Construct segments connecting
D
menu. each point and its image: C to C´, E
B

D to D´, and E to E´. Make these D'

segments dashed.
You may wish to
construct Q5 Drag different parts of the sketch E'
points of around and observe relationships between
intersection C
and measure the dashed segments and
distances to
look for
the mirror line. A C'
relation-ships How is the mirror line related to a segment
between the
mirror line and connecting a point and its reflected image?
the dashed
segments.

Explore More
1. Suppose Sketchpad didn’t have a Transform menu. How could you
construct a given point’s mirror image over a given line? Try it. Start with
a point and a line. Come up with a construction for the reflection of the
point over the line using just the tools and the Construct menu. Describe
your method.
2. Use a reflection to construct an isosceles triangle. Explain what
you did.

From Exploring Geometry with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 17
Tessellations Using Only Translations

In this activity, you’ll learn how to construct an irregularly shaped tile based
on a parallelogram. Then you’ll use translations to tessellate your screen with
this tile.

Sketch
1. Construct sAB in the lower left corner of your sketch, C C'

Select, in then construct point C just above sAB.


order, point A
and point B; 2. Mark the vector from point A to point B and translate A B
then, in the
Transform menu, point C by this vector. Steps 1–3
choose Mark
Vector. Select 3. Construct the remaining sides of your parallelogram.
point C; then,
in the
Transform menu,
choose C C' C C' C C' C C'
Translate.

A B A B A B A B
Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7

4. Construct two or three connected segments from point A to point C. We’ll


call this irregular edge AC.
5. Select all the segments and points of irregular edge AC and translate
them by the marked vector. (Vector AB should still be marked.)
6. Make an irregular edge from A to B.
7. Mark the vector from point A to point C
and translate all the parts of irregular edge
AB by the marked vector.
Select the
vertices in 8. Construct the polygon interior of the
consecutive irregular figure. This is the tile you
order; then, in
the Construct will translate.
menu, choose
Polygon
Interior.
9. Translate the polygon interior by the
marked vector. (You probably still
C C'
have vector AC marked.)
10. Repeat this process until you have a
column of tiles all the way up your sketch. A B
Change the shading or color Steps 8–10
on every other tile to create a pattern.

From Exploring Geometry with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


18 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Tessellations Using Only Translations (continued)

11. Mark vector AB. Then select all


the polygon interiors in your
column
of tiles and translate them by
this marked vector.
12. Continue translating columns
of tiles until C C'
you fill your screen. Change
shades and
colors of alternating A B

tiles so you can see Steps 11 and 12


your tessellation.
13. Drag vertices of your original tile until you get a shape that you like
or that is recognizable as some interesting form.

Explore More
1. Animate your tessellation. To do this, select the original polygon (or any
combination of its vertex points) and choose Animate from the Display
menu. You can also have your points move along paths you construct. To
do this, construct the paths (segments, circles, polygon interiors—
anything you can construct a point on) and then merge vertices to paths.
(To merge a point to a path, select both and choose Merge Point to Path
from the Edit menu.) Select the points you wish to animate and, in the
Edit menu, choose Action Buttons | Animation. Press the Animate button.
Adjust the paths so that the animation works in a way you like, then hide
the paths.
2. Use Sketchpad to make a translation tessellation that starts with a regular
hexagon as the basic shape instead of a parallelogram.
(Hint: The process is very similar; it just involves a third pair of sides.)

From Exploring Geometry with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 19
The Euler Segment

In this investigation, you’ll look for a relationship among four points of


concurrency: the incenter, the circumcenter, the orthocenter, and the centroid.
You’ll use custom tools to construct these triangle centers, either those you
made in previous investigations or pre-made tools.

Sketch and Investigate


Triangle
Centers.gsp 1. Open a sketch of yours that contains
can be found tools for the triangle centers: incenter,
in Sketchpad |
Samples | circumcenter, orthocenter, and centroid.
Custom Tools.
(Sketchpad is
Or, open Triangle Centers.gsp. I
the folder that
contains the 2. Construct a triangle.
application
itself.)
3. Use the Incenter tool on the triangle’s vertices
to construct its incenter.
4. If necessary, give the incenter a label that identifies it, such as I for
incenter.
5. You need only the triangle and the incenter for now, so hide anything
extra that your custom tool may have constructed (such as angle bisectors
or the incircle).
6. Use the Circumcenter tool on the
same triangle. Hide any “extras”
so that you have just the triangle,
its incenter, and its circumcenter. I
If necessary, give the circumcenter Ce
Ci
O
a label that identifies it.
7. Use the Orthocenter tool on the
same triangle, hide any “extras,”
and label the orthocenter.
8. Use the Centroid tool on the same triangle, hide “extras,” and label the
centroid. You should now have a triangle and the four triangle centers.
Q1 Drag your triangle around and observe how the points behave.
Three of the four points are always collinear. Which three?

9. Construct a segment that contains the three collinear points. This is called
the Euler segment.

From Exploring Geometry with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


20 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
The Euler Segment (continued)

Q2 Drag the triangle again and look for interesting relationships on the Euler
segment. Be sure to check special triangles, such as isosceles and right
triangles.
Describe any special triangles in which the triangle centers are related in
interesting ways or located in interesting places.

Q3 Which of the three points are always endpoints of the Euler segment and
which point is always between them?

To measure the
distance 10. Measure the distances along the two parts of the Euler segment.
between two
points, select Q4 Drag the triangle and look for a relationship between these lengths.
the two points.
Then, in the How are the lengths of the two parts of the Euler segment related? Test
Measure menu,
choose your conjecture using the Calculator.
Distance.
(Measuring the
distance
between points
is an easy way
to measure
the length of Explore More
part
of a segment.)
1. Construct a circle centered at the midpoint of the Euler segment and
passing through the midpoint of one of the sides of the triangle. This
circle is called the nine-point circle. The midpoint it passes through is one
of the nine points. What are the other eight? (Hint: Six of them have to do
with the altitudes and the orthocenter.)
2. Once you’ve constructed the nine-point circle, as described above, drag
your triangle around and investigate special triangles. Describe any
triangles in which some of the nine points coincide.

From Exploring Geometry with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 21
Napoleon’s Theorem

French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte fancied himself as something of an


amateur geometer and liked to hang out with mathematicians. The theorem
you’ll investigate in this activity is attributed to him.

Sketch and Investigate


1. Construct an equilateral triangle. You can use a pre-made custom tool or
One way to construct the triangle from scratch.
construct the
center is to 2. Construct the center of the triangle.
construct two
medians and
their point of 3. Hide anything extra you may have constructed to
intersection. construct the triangle and its center so that you’re left
with a figure like the one shown at right.
Select the
entire figure; 4. Make a custom tool for this construction.
then choose
Create New Tool Next, you’ll use your custom tool to construct equilateral triangles on the
from the Custom
Tools menu
sides of an arbitrary triangle.
in the Toolbox
(the bottom 5. Open a new sketch.
tool).
6. Construct jABC. B

Be sure to
attach each 7. Use the custom tool to construct equilateral
equilateral triangles on each side
triangle to a
pair of of jABC.
triangle ABC’s A C
vertices. If
your
8. Drag to make sure each equilateral triangle
equilateral is stuck to a side.
triangle goes
the wrong
way (overlaps 9. Construct segments connecting the centers
the interior of of the equilateral triangles.
jABC)
or is not
attached 10. Drag the vertices of the original triangle
properly, undo and observe the triangle formed by the
and try
attaching centers of the equilateral triangles. This
it again.
triangle is called the outer Napoleon triangle of jABC.
Q1 State what you think Napoleon’s theorem might be.

Explore More
1. Construct segments connecting each vertex of your original triangle with
the most remote vertex of the equilateral triangle on the opposite side.
What can you say about these three segments?

From Exploring Geometry with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


22 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Constructing Rhombuses

How many ways can you come up with to D

construct a rhombus? Try methods that use B


the Construct menu, the Transform menu, or
combinations of both. Consider how you might
use diagonals. Write a brief description of each C
construction method along with the properties
A
of rhombuses that make that method work.

Method 1:

Properties:

Method 2:

Properties:

Method 3:

Properties:

Method 4:

Properties:

From Exploring Geometry with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 23
Midpoint Quadrilaterals

In this investigation, you’ll discover something surprising about the


quadrilateral formed by connecting the midpoints of another quadrilateral.

Sketch and Investigate


1. Construct quadrilateral ABCD. B

F
If you select
all four sides, 2. Construct the midpoints of the sides.
G
you can C
construct all 3. Connect the midpoints to construct another
four midpoints
at once. quadrilateral, EFGH. A
E
4. Drag vertices of your original quadrilateral
H
and observe the
midpoint quadrilateral. D

5. Measure the four side lengths of this midpoint quadrilateral.


Q1 Measure the slopes of the four sides of the midpoint quadrilateral.
What kind of quadrilateral does the midpoint quadrilateral appear to be?
How do the measurements support that conjecture?

6. Construct a diagonal. B F C

7. Measure the length and slope of G


the diagonal.
E

8. Drag vertices of the original A


quadrilateral and observe how the H
length and slope of the diagonal are related to D

the lengths and slopes of the sides of the


midpoint quadrilateral.
Q2 The diagonal divides the original quadrilateral into two triangles. Each
triangle has as a midsegment one of the sides of the midpoint
quadrilateral. Use this fact and what you know about the slope and
length of the diagonal to write a paragraph explaining why the conjecture
you made in Q1 is true. Use a separate sheet of paper
if necessary.

From Exploring Geometry with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


24 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
A Rectangle with Maximum Area

Suppose you had a certain amount of fence and you wanted to use it to
enclose the biggest possible rectangular field. What rectangle shape would
you choose? In other words, what type of rectangle has the most area for a
given perimeter? You’ll discover the answer in this investigation. Or, if you
have a hunch already, this investigation will help confirm your hunch and
give you more insight into it.

Sketch and Investigate


1. Construct sAB.
Select sAB,
point A, and
2. Construct sAC on sAB. E D
point C. Then,
in the 3. Construct lines perpendicular
Construct menu,
choose to sAB through points A and C.
Perpendicular A B
Be sure to C
Line.
release the 4. Construct circle CB.
mouse—or click
the second 5. Construct point D where this
time—
with the circle intersects the
pointer perpendicular line.
over point B.

6. Construct a line through point D, parallel to sAB.


7. Construct point E, the fourth vertex of rectangle ACDE.
Select the
vertices of the
rectangle in
8. Construct polygon interior ACDE.
consecutive
order. Then, in 9. Measure the area and perimeter of this polygon.
the Construct
menu, choose
Quadrilateral
10. Drag point C back and forth and observe how this affects the area and
Interior. perimeter of the rectangle.
Select point A
and point C. 11. Measure AC and AE.
Then, in the
Measure menu, Q1 Without measuring, state how AB is related to the perimeter of the
choose
Distance. rectangle. Explain why this rectangle has a fixed perimeter.
Repeat to
measure AE.

Q2 As you drag point C, observe what rectangular shape gives the greatest
area. What shape do you think that is?

From Exploring Geometry with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 25
A Rectangle with Maximum Area (continued)

In Steps 12–14, you’ll explore this relationship graphically.


Select, in
order, msAC and
12. Plot the measurements for the length of sAC and the area of ACDE
Area ACDE. Then as (x, y). You should get axes and a plotted point H, as shown below.
choose
Plot As (x, y)
from the Graph 13. Drag point C to see the plotted point move to correspond to different side
menu. lengths and areas.
If you can’t
see
the plotted H
point, drag the Area ACDE = 3.74 cm2
unit point Perimeter ACDE = 9.41 cm
at (1, 0) to E D
scale
the axes. 2
m AC = 3.69 cm
m AE = 1.01 cm A C B

-10 -5 F G

Select point H
and point C; 14. To see a graph of all possible areas for this rectangle, construct the locus
then, in the of plotted point H as defined by point C. It should now be easy to
Construct menu,
choose Locus. position point C so that point H is at a maximum value for the area of the
rectangle.
You may wish to
select point H Q3 Explain what the coordinates of the high point on the graph are and how
and measure its they are related to the side lengths and area of the rectangle.
coordinates.

15. Drag point C so that point H moves back and forth between the two low
points on the graph.
Q4 Explain what the coordinates of the two low points on the graph are and
how they are related to the side lengths and area of the rectangle.

Explore More
1. Investigate area/perimeter relationships in other polygons. Make a
conjecture about what kinds of polygons yield the greatest area for a
given perimeter.
2. What’s the equation for the graph you made? Let AC be x and let AB be
(1/2)P, where P stands for perimeter (a constant). Write an equation for
area, A, in terms of x and P. What value for x (in terms
of P) gives a maximum value for A?

From Exploring Geometry with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


26 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Visual Demonstration of the Pythagorean Theorem

In this activity, you’ll do a visual demonstration of the Pythagorean theorem


based on Euclid’s proof. By shearing the squares on the sides of a right
All sketches
triangle, you’ll create congruent shapes without changing the areas of your
referred to in original squares.
this booklet
can be found in
Sketchpad | Sketch and Investigate
Samples | Teach-
ing Mathematics
(Sketchpad is 1. Open the sketch Shear Pythagoras.gsp.
the folder that
contains the
You’ll see a right triangle with squares C
application on the sides.
itself.)
Click on a
polygon 2. Measure the areas of the squares.
interior to
select it. 3. Drag point A onto the line that’s a c
Then, in the
Measure menu, perpendicular to the hypotenuse. b
A
choose Area.
Note that as the square becomes a
parallelogram its area doesn’t change.
4. Drag point B onto the line. It should overlap
point A so that the two parallelograms form a B

To confirm that
this shape is
single
congruent, you irregular shape.
can copy and
paste it. Drag
the pasted copy 5. Drag point C so that the large square deforms to fill in the triangle. The
onto the shape area of this shape doesn’t change either. It should appear congruent to
on the legs to
see that the shape you made with the two smaller parallelograms.
it fits
perfectly.
C C

a c a c a c
b b b

A A A
B
B B

Step 3 Step 4 Step 5

To confirm that
this works for Q1 How do these congruent shapes demonstrate the Pythagorean theorem?
any right (Hint: If the shapes are congruent, what do you know about their areas?)
triangle,
change
the shape of
the triangle
and try the
experiment
again.
From Exploring Geometry with The Geometer’s Sketchpad
© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 27
The Golden Rectangle

The golden ratio appears often in nature: in the proportions of a nautilus


shell, for example, and in some proportions in our bodies and faces. A
rectangle whose sides have the golden ratio is called a golden rectangle.
In a golden rectangle, the ratio of the sum of the
sides to the long side is equal to the ratio of the
long side to the short side. Golden rectangles are
a
somehow pleasing to the eye, perhaps because
they approximate the shape of our field of vision. For
b
this reason, they’re used often in architecture,
especially the classical architecture of ancient a+b b
=
Greece. In this activity, you’ll construct a golden b a
rectangle and find an approximation to the golden
ratio. Then you’ll see how smaller golden rectangles are found within
a golden rectangle. Finally, you’ll construct a golden spiral.
Sketch and Investigate
1. Use a custom tool to construct a square ABCD. Then construct the
square’s interior.
2. Orient the square so that the control points are on the left side, one above
the other (points A and B in the figure).
3. Construct the midpoint E of sAD.
4. Construct circle EC.
B C
B C G
B C G

A D
E
A D F
A E D F

Steps 1–4 Steps 5–8 Steps 9–11

Hold the mouse


button down on
5. Extend sides AD and BC with rays, as shown.
the Segment
tool to show 6. Construct point F where fAD intersects the circle.
the Straight
Objects 7. Construct a line perpendicular to fAD through point F.
palette. Drag
right to choose
the Ray tool.
8. Construct point G where this perpendicular intersects fBC. Rectangle
AFGB is a golden rectangle.
Select the
objects; then, 9. Hide the lines, the rays, the circle, and point E.
in the Display
menu, choose
Hide Objects.
10. Hide sAD, sDC, and sBC.
From Exploring Geometry with The Geometer’s Sketchpad
28 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
The Golden Rectangle (continued)

Select, in 11. Construct sBG, sGF, and sFA.


order,
sAF and sAB; 12. Measure AB and AF.
then, in the
Measure menu,
choose Ratio. 13. Measure the ratio of AF to AB.
Choose
Calculate from 14. Calculate (AB + AF)/AF.
the Measure
menu to open 15. Drag point A or point B to confirm that your rectangle is always golden.
the Calculator.
Click once on a
measurement to Q1 The Greek letter phi (ø) is often used to represent the golden ratio. Write
enter it into a
calculation.
an approximation for ø.

Continue sketching to investigate the rectangle further and to construct a


Select, in
golden spiral.
order, the
circle and 16. Construct circle CB. B C G
points B
and D. Then
choose 17. Construct an arc on the circle
Arc On Circle from point B to point D, then
from the
the
Select
Construct menu.
entire figure;
hide the circle.
then choose
Create New Tool 18. Make a custom tool for this
from the Custom
Tools menu construction. A D F
in the Toolbox
(the bottom 19. Make the rectangle as big as you can, then
tool).
If your
rectangle goes use the custom tool on points F and D. You should find that
the wrong way the rectangle constructed by your custom tool fits perfectly in the region
when you use
the custom DFGC.
tool, undo and
try applying it
in the opposite
Q2 Make a conjecture about region DFGC.
order.

20. Continue using the custom tool within your B

golden rectangle to create a golden spiral. Hide


unnecessary points.

Explore More
A
1. Let the short side of a golden rectangle have
length 1 and the long side have length ø. Write a
proportion, cross-multiply, and
use the quadratic formula to calculate an exact value for ø.
2. Calculate ø 2 and 1/ø. How are these numbers related to ø?
Use algebra to demonstrate why these relationships hold.

From Exploring Geometry with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 29
A Sine Wave Tracer

In this exploration, you’ll construct an animation “engine” that traces out a


special curve called a sine wave. Variations of sine curves are the graphs of
functions called periodic functions, functions that repeat themselves. The
motion of a pendulum and ocean tides are examples of periodic functions.

Sketch and Investigate


1. Construct a horizontal segment AB.

E F

C
D
A B

2. Construct a circle with center A and radius endpoint C.


3. Construct point D on sAB.
Select point D
and sAB; then,
4. Construct a line perpendicular to sAB through point D.
in
the Construct 5. Construct point E on the circle.
menu, choose
Perpendicular 6. Construct a line parallel to sAB through point E.
Line.
7. Construct point F, the point of intersection of the vertical line through
point D and the horizontal line through point E.
Don’t worry,
this isn’t a Q1 Drag point D and describe what happens to point F.
trick question!

Q2 Drag point E around the circle and describe what point F does.

Q3 In a minute, you’ll create an animation in your sketch that combines these


two motions. But first try to guess what the path of point F will be when
point D moves to the right along the segment at the same time as point E
is moving around the circle. Sketch the path you imagine below.

From Exploring Geometry with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


30 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
A Sine Wave Tracer (continued)
Select points D
and E and
8. Make an action button that animates point D forward on sAB and
choose Edit | point E forward on the circle.
Action Buttons
| Animation.
Choose forward 9. Move point D so that it’s just to the right of the circle.
in the
Direction 10. Select point F; then, in the Display menu, choose Trace Point.
pop-up menu for
both points.
11. Press the Animation button.
Q4 In the space below, sketch the path traced by point F. Does the actual
path resemble your guess in Q3? How is it different?

12. Select the circle; then, in the Graph menu, choose Define Unit Circle. You
should get a graph with the origin at point A. Point B should lie on the x-
axis. The y-coordinate of point F above sAB is the value of the sine of
∠EAD.

E F

C
D B
A 5 10

Q5 If the circle has a radius of 1 graph unit, what is its circumference in


graph units? (Calculate this yourself; don’t use Sketchpad to measure it
because Sketchpad will measure in inches or centimeters, not graph
units.)

13. Measure the coordinates of point B.


14. Adjust the segment and the circle until you can make the curve
trace back on itself instead of drawing a new curve every time.
(Keep point B on the x-axis.)
Q6 What’s the relationship between the x-coordinate of point B and the
circumference of the circle (in graph units)? Explain why you think this is
so.

From Exploring Geometry with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 31
Adding Integers
Definition: They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. In the next two activities,
Integers are
positive and you’ll explore integer addition and subtraction using a visual Sketchpad
negative whole
numbers, including model. Keeping this model in mind can help you visualize what these
zero. On a number operations do and how they work.
line, tick marks
usually represent
the integers.
Sketch and Investigate
All sketches
referred to 1. Open the sketch Add 8 drag
in this booklet Integers.gsp from the
can be found in
Sketchpad | folder 1_Fundamentals. + 5
drag
Samples | Teach-ing
Mathematics 2. Study the problem that’s
(Sketchpad is
the folder that modeled: 8 + 5 = 13. Then
contains the
application drag the two “drag” circles to -1 1 2 3 4 5 10
0
itself.) model other addition
problems. Notice how the two
upper arrows
relate to the two lower arrows.
Q1 Model the problem –6 + –3. According to -6
drag
your sketch,
what is the sum of –6 and –3? + -3
drag

-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 1
0

3. Model three more problems in which you add two negative numbers.
Write your equations (“–2 + –2 = –4,” for example) below.

Q2 How is adding two negative numbers similar to adding two positive


numbers? How is it different?

Q3 Is it possible to add two negative numbers and get a positive sum?


Explain.

From Exploring Algebra with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


32 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Adding Integers (continued)

Q4 Model the problem 5 + –5. 5 drag


According to your sketch,
what is the sum of 5 and –5? + -5
drag

-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 1 2 3 4 5
0

4. Model four more problems in which the sum is zero. Have the first
number be positive in two problems and negative in two problems. Write
your equations below.

Q5 What must be true about two numbers if their sum is zero?

Q6 Model the problem 4 + –7. 4 drag


According to your sketch,
what is the sum of 4 and –7? + -7
drag

-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 1 2 3 4 5
0

5. Model six more problems in which you add one positive and one
negative number. Have the first number be positive in three problems
and negative in three. Also, make sure that some problems have positive
answers and others have negative answers. Write your equations below.

Q7 When adding a positive number and a negative number, how can you tell
if the answer will be positive or negative?

From Exploring Algebra with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 33
Adding Integers (continued)

Q8 A classmate says, “Adding a positive and a negative number seems more


like subtracting.” Explain what he means.

Q9 Fill in the blanks:

a. The sum of a positive number and a positive number is always a


number.

b. The sum of a negative number and a negative number is always a


number.

c. The sum of any number and is always zero.

d. The sum of a negative number and a positive number is


if the positive number is larger and
if the negative number is larger. (“Larger” here means farther
from zero.)

Explore More
To commute
means to travel 1. The Commutative Property of Addition says that for any two numbers
back and forth. a and b, a + b = b + a. In other words, order doesn’t matter in addition!
The Commutative
Property of Model two addition problems on your sketch’s number line that
Addition
basically says
demonstrate this property.
that addends can
commute across a. Given the way addition is represented in this activity, why does the
an addition sign
without Commutative Property of Addition make sense?
affecting the
sum. b. Does the Commutative Property of Addition work if one or both
addends are negative? Give examples to support your answer.

From Exploring Algebra with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


34 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Points “Lining Up” in the Plane

If you’ve seen marching bands perform at football games, you’ve probably


seen the following: The band members, wandering in seemingly random
directions, suddenly spell a word or form a cool picture. Can these patterns
be described mathematically? In this activity, you’ll start to answer this
question by exploring simple patterns of dots in the x-y plane.

Sketch and Investigate


1. Open a new sketch.
Holding down
the Shift key 2. Choose the Point tool from the Toolbox. Then, while holding down the
keeps all five Shift key, click five times in different locations (other than on the axes) to
points
selected. construct five new points.
To measure
the coordinates 3. Measure the coordinates of the A: (3.00, 3.00)
of selected five selected points. B: (-1.00, -1.00) A
points, choose C: (2.00, -2.00)
2
Coordinates A coordinate system appears and D: (3.00, -1.00) E
from the
Measure menu. the coordinates of the five points E: (1.00, 2.00)

are displayed.
To hide
objects, select 4. Hide the points at (0, 0) and
B D
them and choose at (1, 0).
Hide from the -2
Display menu. C
5. Choose Snap Points from the
Graph menu.
From now on, the points will only land
on locations with integer coordinates.
Q1 For each problem, drag the five points to different locations that satisfy
the given conditions. Then copy your solutions onto the grids on the next
page.
For each point,
a. the y-coordinate equals the x-coordinate.
b. the y-coordinate is one greater than the x-coordinate.
c. the y-coordinate is twice the x-coordinate.
d. the y-coordinate is one greater than twice the x-coordinate.
e. the y-coordinate is the opposite of the x-coordinate.
The absolute
value of a f. the sum of the x- and y-coordinates is five.
number is its
“positive
value.”
g. the y-coordinate is the absolute value of the x-coordinate.
The absolute
value of both h. the y-coordinate is the square of the x-coordinate.
5 and –5 is 5.

From Exploring Algebra with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 35
Points “Lining Up” in the Plane (continued)

a. b.
6 6

3 3

-10 -5 5 10 -10 -5 5 10

-3 -3

-6 -6

c. d.
6 6

3 3

-10 -5 5 10 -10 -5 5 10

-3 -3

-6 -6

e. f.
6 6

3 3

-10 -5 5 10 -10 -5 5 10

-3 -3

-6 -6

g. h.
6 6

3 3

-10 -5 5 10 -10 -5 5 10

-3 -3

-6 -6

From Exploring Algebra with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


36 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Points “Lining Up” in the Plane (continued)

Backward Thinking
In Q1, you were given descriptions and asked to apply them to points. Here,
we’ll reverse the process and let you play detective.
All sketches
referred to in 6. Open the sketch Line Up.gsp from the folder 2_Lines.
this booklet
can be found in
You’ll see a coordinate system with eight points (A through H), their coordinate
Sketchpad | measurements, and eight action buttons.
Samples | Teach-
ing Mathematics
(Sketchpad is
Q2 For each letter, press the corresponding button in the sketch. Like the
the folder that members of a marching band, the points will “wander” until they form a
contains the
application pattern. Study the coordinates of the points in each pattern, then write a
itself.)
description (like the ones in Q1) for each one.

a.

b.

c.

d.

e.

f.

g.

h.

Explore More
1. Each of the “descriptions” in this activity can be written as an equation.
For example, part b of Q1 (“the y-coordinate is one greater than the x-
coordinate”) can be written as y = x + 1. Write an equation
for each description in Q1 and Q2.
2. Add your own action buttons to those in Line Up.gsp, then see if
your classmates can come up with descriptions or equations for your
patterns. Instructions on how to do this are on page 2 of the sketch.

From Exploring Algebra with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 37
Parabolas in Vertex Form

Things with bilateral symmetry—such as the human body—have parts on the


sides that come in pairs (such as ears and feet) and parts down the middle
there’s just one of (such as the nose and bellybutton). Parabolas are the same
way. Points on one side have corresponding points on the other. But one
point is unique: the vertex. It’s right in the middle, and—like your nose—
there’s just one of it. Not surprisingly, there’s a common equation form for
parabolas that relates to this unique point.

Sketch and Investigate


All sketches
referred to in 1. Open the sketch Vertex Form.gsp from the folder 3_Quads.
this booklet
can be found in You’ll see an equation in the form y = a(x – h)2 + k, with a, h, and k filled in, and
Sketchpad | sliders for a, h, and k. Adjust the sliders (by dragging the points at their tips) and
Samples | Teach-
ing Mathematics watch the equation change accordingly. There’s no graph yet because we wanted
(Sketchpad is you to practice using Sketchpad’s graphing features.
the folder that
contains the
application 2. Choose Plot New Function y = 1.4(x – (0.9))2 – 1.6
itself.)
from the Graph menu. 2

f(x) = a⋅(x-h) +k
2
The New Function dialog
box appears. If necessary,
move it so that you can see -5
a = 1.4
P

To enter a, h,
a, h, and k’s measurements.
h = 0.9 xP = 2.5
and k, click on -2
their 3. Enter a*(x–h)^2+k and k = -1.6
measurements in
the sketch. To click OK.
enter x, click
on the x in Sketchpad plots the function for the current values of a, h, and k.
the dialog box.
You’ll now plot the point on the parabola whose x-coordinate is the same as
point P’s.
Choose
Calculate from 4. Calculate f(xP), the value of the function f evaluated at xP.
the Measure
menu. Click on You’ll see an equation for f(xP), the value of the function f evaluated at xP.
the function
equation from 5. Select, in order, xP and f(xP); then choose Plot as (x, y) from the
step 3.
Then click on Graph menu.
xP to enter it.
Now type a A point is plotted on the parabola.
close
parenthesis— Q1 Using paper and pencil or a calculator, show that the coordinates of the
“)”—
and click OK. new point satisfy the parabola’s equation. Write your calculation below.
If the numbers are a little off, explain why this might be.

From Exploring Algebra with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


38 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Parabolas in Vertex Form (continued)

Exploring Families of Parabolas


By dragging point P, you’re exploring how the variables x and y vary along
one particular parabola with particular values for a, h, and k. For
the rest of this activity, you’ll change the values of a, h, and k, which
will change the parabola itself, allowing you to explore whole families
of parabolas.
Q2 Adjust a’s slider and observe the effect on the parabola.
Summarize a’s role in the equation y = a(x – h)2 + k. Be sure to discuss a’s
sign (whether it’s positive or negative), its magnitude (how big or small it
is), and anything else that seems important.

Q3 Dragging a appears to change all the points on the parabola but one: the
vertex. Change the values of h and k; then adjust a again, focusing on
where the vertex appears to be.
How does the location of the vertex relate to the values of h and k?

Q4 Adjust the sliders for h and k. Describe how the parabola transforms as h
changes. How does that compare to the transformation that occurs as k
changes?

Here’s how the Plot as (x, y) command in the Graph menu works:
Select two measurements and choose the command. Sketchpad plots a point
whose x-coordinate is the first selected measurement and whose
y-coordinate is the second selected measurement.
6. Use Plot as (x, y) to plot the vertex of your parabola.

From Exploring Algebra with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 39
Parabolas in Vertex Form (continued)
Note: In this Q5 Write the equation in vertex form y = a(x – h)2 + k for each parabola
activity, the
precision of described. As a check, adjust the sliders so that the parabola is drawn on
measurements
has been set to the screen.
one decimal
place.
It’s important a. vertex at (1, −1); y-intercept at (0, 4)
to be aware of
this, and to
check your
answers by b. vertex at (−4, −3); contains the point (−2, −1)
hand, in
addition to
adjusting the
sliders in the c. vertex at (5, 2); contains the point (1, −6)
sketch.

d. same vertex as the parabola –3(x – 2)2 – 2; contains the point (0, 6)

e. same shape as the parabola 4(x + 3)2 – 1; vertex at (−1, 3)

Q6 The axis of symmetry is the line over which a parabola can be flipped and
still look the same. What is the equation of the axis of symmetry for the
parabola y = 2(x – 3)2 + 1? for y = a(x – h)2 + k?

Q7 Just as your right ear has a corresponding ear across your body’s
axis of symmetry, all points on a parabola (except the vertex) have
corresponding points across its axis of symmetry.
The point (5, 9) is on the parabola y = 2(x – 3)2 + 1. What is the
corresponding point across the axis of symmetry?

Explore More
1. Assume that the point (s, t) is on the right half of the parabola
y = a(x – h)2 + k. What is the corresponding point across the axis of
symmetry? If (s, t) were on the left half of the parabola, what would the
answer be?
2. Use the Perpendicular Line command from the Construct menu to
construct the axis of symmetry of your parabola. Then use the Reflect
command from the Transform menu to reflect point P across the new axis
of symmetry. Measure the coordinates of the new point, P′.
Are they what you expected?

From Exploring Algebra with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


40 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Reflection in Geometry and Algebra

If you’re like most people, you’ve spent at least a little time looking at
yourself in the mirror. So you’re already pretty familiar with reflection.
In this activity, you’ll add to your knowledge on the subject as you explore
reflection from both geometric and algebraic perspectives.

Sketch and Investigate


1. In a new sketch, use the Point tool to draw a point.
2. With the point still selected, choose a color
from the Display | Color submenu. Then
choose Trace Point from the Display menu.
Use the Arrow tool to drag the point around.
The “trail” the point leaves is called its trace.
3. If the trace from the previous step fades and disappears, go on to the next
step. If the trace remains on the screen, choose Preferences from the Edit
To choose the
menu. On the Color panel, check the Fade Traces Over Time box and
Line tool, click OK.
press and hold
the
mouse button 4. Using the Line tool, draw a line. With the line selected, choose
over the Mark Mirror from the Transform menu.
current
Straightedge A brief animation indicates that the mirror line has been marked.
tool,
then drag and
release over 5. Using the Arrow tool, select the point. Choose Reflect from the
the Line tool
in the palette
Transform menu.
that appears. The point’s reflected image appears.
Starting in
this step, 6. Give the new point a different color
we’ll refer to and turn tracing on for it as well.
the two points
defining the
line as line 7. What will happen when you drag one
points and the
other
of the reflecting points? Ponder this a moment.
two points as Then drag and see. What do
reflecting
points. you think will happen when you drag
one of the line points? Find the answer
to this question too.
Q1 Briefly describe the two types of patterns
you observed in step 7 (one when dragging
a reflecting point, the other when dragging a line point).

From Exploring Algebra with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 41
Reflection in Geometry and Algebra (continued)

8. Select the reflecting points; then choose Trace Points to toggle


tracing off.
9. With the two points still selected, choose
Segment from the Construct menu.
A segment is constructed between the points.
Drag the various objects around and observe the
relationship between the line and the segment.
Q2 What angle do the line and the segment
appear to make with each other? How does
the line appear to divide the segment?

From Geometry to Algebra


Now that you’ve learned some geometric properties of reflection, it’s
time to apply this knowledge to reflection in the x-y plane. You’ll start
by exploring reflection across the y-axis.
10. Click in blank space to deselect all objects. Drag one of the line points so
it’s near the center of the sketch. With this point selected, choose Define
Origin from the Graph menu.
A coordinate system appears. The selected point is the origin—(0, 0).
11. Deselect all objects; then select 2
the y-axis and the other line A' A
point (the one that didn’t become
1
the origin). Choose Merge Point
To Axis from the Edit menu.
The point “attaches” itself to the -2 2

y-axis, which now acts as the


mirror line.
12. Select one of the reflecting points and choose Coordinates from the
Measure menu.
The point’s (x, y) coordinate measurement appears. Drag the point and watch its
coordinates change.
13. How do you think the other reflecting point’s coordinates compare?
Measure them to find out if you were right.

From Exploring Algebra with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


42 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Reflection in Geometry and Algebra (continued)

Q3 A point with coordinates (a, b) is reflected across the y-axis. What are the
coordinates of its reflected image?

14. How does the distance between the two reflecting points relate to their
coordinates? Make a prediction. Then select the two points and choose
Coordinate Distance from the Measure menu. Were you right?
A special
challenge is to Q4 A point with coordinates (a, b) is reflected across the y-axis.
make sure your How far is it from its reflected image?
answers to this
question and Q6
work regardless
of what
quadrants the
points are in. 15. Deselect all objects. Then select the point on the y-axis that was merged in
step 11. Choose Split Point From Axis.
The point splits from the y-axis.
16. With the point still selected, select the x-axis as well. Then choose Merge
Point To Axis from the Edit menu.
The x-axis now acts as the mirror line. Drag one of the reflecting points and
observe the various measurements.
Q5 A point with coordinates (c, d ) is reflected across the x-axis.
What are the coordinates of its reflected image?

Q6 A point with coordinates (c, d ) is reflected across the x-axis.


How far is it from its reflected image?

Explore More
1. Plot the line y = x. Split the point from the x-axis and merge it to
the new line. What do you notice about the coordinates of the reflecting
points?
2. Consider the following transformations (each is separate):
a. Reflect a point over the x-axis, then reflect the image over
the y-axis.
b. Reflect a point over the y-axis, then reflect the image over
the x-axis.
c. Rotate a point by 180° about the origin.
How do these three transformations compare? What would the
coordinates of a point (a, b) be after each of these transformations?

From Exploring Algebra with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 43
Walking Rex: An Introduction to Vectors

You know, and most everyone over age five knows, that 2 + 2 = 4. No big
shock there. But what if you walk 2 miles north, turn around, then walk
2 miles south—how far have you walked? In one sense, you’ve walked
4 miles—that’s certainly what your feet would tell you. But in another sense,
you haven’t really gotten anywhere. We could say: 2N + 2S = 0.
Values that have both a magnitude (size) and a direction are called vectors.
Vectors are very useful in studying things like the flight of airplanes in wind
currents and the push and pull of magnetic forces. In this activity, you’ll
explore some of the algebra and geometry behind vectors in the context of a
walk with your faithful dog, Rex.

All sketches
referred to in
this booklet
can be found in
Sketchpad | Walk the Dog
Samples | Teach-
ing Mathematics
(Sketchpad is 1. Open the sketch Walk the Dog.gsp from the folder 5_Transform.
the folder that
contains the Rex’s leash is tied to a tree at the origin of an x-y coordinate system. Rex is
application
itself.)
pulling the leash tight as he excitedly waits for you to take him on a walk.
Rex has a head
and tail too,
Rex’s taut leash is represented by a vector—a segment with an arrowhead.
of course, but The end with the arrowhead (Rex) is called the head and the other end (the
those have
nothing to do tree) is called the tail. We’ve labeled this particular vector j.
with the
vector! Q1 One way to define vectors is by their magnitude (length) and direction.
Which of these two quantities stays the same as you drag point Rex?

Q2 For each description of vector j, find Rex’s coordinates.

a. magnitude = 5; direction = 30º


b. magnitude = 5; direction = 90º
c. magnitude = 5; direction = 225º

From Exploring Algebra with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


44 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Walking Rex (continued)

Q3 A second way to define a vector is by the coordinates of its head when its
tail is at the origin. Use Sketchpad to find the magnitude and direction of
the following vectors:
a. vector j = (5, 0)
b. vector k = (3, 4)
c. vector l = (0, –5)
d. vector m = (–3, –4)
Q4 Rex is terrified of ladybugs. Suppose a ladybug is sitting at (5, 0). Where
should Rex move to face the opposite direction and be as far from it as
possible? What if the ladybug moves to (3, –4)?

Now it’s time to untie the leash from the tree and take Rex for a walk.
2. Go to the second page of Walk the Dog.gsp: Walk 1.
Rex is a very determined dog! As you walk him, he pulls the leash taut and
always tries to steer you in the same direction (toward an interesting scent
perhaps). Rex is still at the head of vector j (where the arrowhead is) and
now you’re at the tail.
Q5 Drag vector j around the screen. Explain why, no matter where you drag
it, vector j is always the same vector. Use one of the two methods for
defining vectors we’ve discussed to support your argument.

Q6 Suppose you stood at the point (80, 80). Where would Rex be standing?
Explain how you found your answer. (Don’t scroll or use Sketchpad’s
menus—all the information you need is on the screen.)
3. Go to the third and fourth pages of Walk the Dog.gsp: Walk 2
and Walk 3.
You’ll see that Rex is heading in different directions on these pages. The
information presented on screen is also a little different for each page.
Q7 As in Q6, determine where Rex will be standing when you’re at
(80, 80) for Walk 2 and Walk 3. Explain your reasoning in each case.

Q8 Answer Q7 again, this time assuming that you have a leash twice as long
and Rex heads in the same directions.

From Exploring Algebra with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 45
Leonardo da Vinci’s Proof

Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was a great Italian painter, engineer, and


inventor during the Renaissance. He is most famous, perhaps, for his painting
the Mona Lisa. He is also credited with the following proof of the Pythagorean
theorem.

Construct
In this figure,
you don’t have 1. Construct a right triangle and squares B

to construct on the legs.


the square on a c
the hypotenuse.
2. Connect corners of the squares to b
a C A
construct a second right triangle H
congruent to the original. b
c

3. Construct a segment through the center


of this figure, connecting far corners of
the squares and passing through C.
Hide reflection
4. Construct the midpoint, H, of this segment.
The Action
Buttons submenu 5. This segment divides the figure into mirror image halves. Select all the
is in segments and points on one side of the center line and create a
the Edit menu.
Hide/Show action button. Change its label to read “Hide reflection.”
6. Press the Hide reflection action button. You should now see half the figure.
B

a c

b
C A
H

Show reflection

7. Mark H as center and rotate the entire figure (not the action buttons) by
180° around H.
8. Select all the objects making up the rotated half of this figure and create a
Hide/Show action button. Relabel this button to read
“Hide rotation” but don’t hide the rotated half yet.

From Exploring Conic Sections with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 46
The Folded Circle Construction (continued)
a B

a c

b b
C A

H
C'
A'

B'
Show reflection
Hide rotation

9. Construct xA′B and xB′A. Do you see c squared?


10. Construct the polygon interior of BA´B´A and of the two triangles
adjacent to it.
11. Select xA′B, xB′A, and the three polygon interiors and create a
Hide/Show action button. Name it “Hide c squared.”
a B

a c
c
b b
C A

H
C'
A'

B'
Show reflection
Hide rotation
Hide c squared

Investigate
From going through this construction, you may have a good idea of how
Leonardo’s proof goes. Press all the hide buttons, then play through the
buttons in this sequence: “Show reflection,” “Show rotation,” “Hide
reflection,” “Show c squared.” You should see the transformation from two
right triangles with squares on the legs into two identical right triangles with
a square on their hypotenuses. Explain to a classmate or make a presentation
to the class to explain Leonardo’s proof of the Pythagorean theorem.

Prove
Leonardo’s is another of those elegant proofs where the figure tells pretty
much the whole story. Write a paragraph that explains why the two hexagons
have equal areas and how these equal hexagons prove the Pythagorean
theorem.
From Exploring Conic Sections with The Geometer’s Sketchpad
© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 47
The Folded Circle Construction

Sometimes a conic section appears in the unlikeliest of places. In this activity,


you’ll explore a paper-folding construction in which crease lines interact in a
surprising way to form a conic.

Constructing a Physical Model

Preparation: Use a compass to draw a circle with a radius of approximately


three inches on a piece of wax paper or patty paper. Cut out the circle with
a pair of scissors. (If you don’t have these materials, you can draw the circle
in Sketchpad and print it.)

1. Mark point A, the center of your circle.


If you’re
working 2. Mark a random point B within the
in a class, interior of your circle. B
have members
place B at
different 3. As shown below right, fold A
distances from
the center.
the circle so that a point on its
If you’re circumference lands directly onto
working alone,
do this section point B. Make a sharp crease to
twice— keep a record of this fold.
once with B
close Unfold the circle.
to the center,
once with B
close
4. Fold the circle along a new crease
to the edge. so that a different point on the
circumference lands on point B. Unfold
the circle and repeat the process.
5. After you’ve made a dozen or so creases, examine
them to see if you spot any B
emerging patterns. A
Mathematicians
would describe 6. Resume creasing your circle. Gradually,
your set of a well-outlined curve will appear. Be patient—it
creases as an
envelope may take a little while.
of creases.
7. Discuss what you see with your
classmates and compare their folded
curves to yours. If you’re doing this
activity alone, fold a second circle with
point B in a different location.

From Exploring Conic Sections with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 48
The Folded Circle Construction (continued)

Questions
Q1 The creases on your circle seem to form the outline of an ellipse.
What appear to be its focal points?
Q2 If you were to move point B closer to the edge of the circle and fold
another curve, how do you think its shape would compare to the
first curve?
Q3 If you were to move point B closer to the center of the circle and fold
another curve, how do you think its shape would compare to the
first curve?

Constructing a Sketchpad Model


Fold and unfold. Fold and unfold. Creasing your circle takes some work.
Folding one or two sheets is fun, but what would happen if you wanted
to continue testing different locations for point B? You’d need to keep starting
with fresh circles, folding new sets of creases.
Sketchpad can streamline your work. With just one circle and one set of
creases, you can drag point B to new locations and watch the crease lines
adjust themselves instantaneously.
8. Open a new sketch and use the C
Compass tool to draw a large
circle with center A. Hide the
circle’s radius point.
B
9. Use the Point tool to draw
a point B at a random spot A
inside the circle. crease

10. Construct a point C on the


circle’s circumference.
11. Construct the “crease” formed
when point C is folded onto
point B.
12. Drag point C around the circle. If you constructed your crease line
correctly, it should adjust to the new locations of point C.
13. Select the crease line and choose Trace Line from the Display menu.
If you don’t
want your 14. Drag point C around the circle to create a collection of crease lines.
traces to fade,
be sure the
Fade Traces
15. Drag point B to a different location and then, if necessary, choose Erase
Over Time box Traces from the Display menu.
is unchecked
on the Color
panel 16. Drag point C around the circle to create another collection of
of the crease lines.
Preferences
dialog box.
From Exploring Conic Sections with The Geometer’s Sketchpad
© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 49
The Folded Circle Construction (continued)

Retracing creases for each location of point B is certainly faster than folding
new circles. But we can do better. Ideally, your crease lines should relocate
automatically as you drag point B. Sketchpad’s powerful Locus command
makes this possible.
17. Turn tracing off for your original crease line by selecting it and once
again choosing Trace Line from the Display menu.
18. Now select your crease line and point C. Choose Locus from the
Construct menu. An entire set of creases will appear: the locus of crease
locations as point C moves along its path. If you drag point B, you’ll see
that the crease lines readjust automatically.
19. Save your sketch for possible future use. Give it a descriptive name such
as Creased Circle.
Questions
Q4 How does the shape of the curve change as you move point B closer to
the edge of the circle?
Q5 How does the shape of the curve change as you move point B closer to
the center of the circle?
The Merge and
Split commands Q6 Select point B and the circle. Then merge point B onto the circle’s
appear in the circumference. Describe the crease pattern.
Edit menu.

Q7 Select point B and split it from the circle’s circumference. Then merge it
with the circle’s center. Describe the crease pattern.

Playing Detective
Each crease line on your circle touches the ellipse at exactly one point.
Another way of saying this is that each crease is tangent to the ellipse. By
engaging in some detective work, you can locate these tangency points and
use them to construct just the ellipse without its creases.
All sketches
referred to in 20. Open the sketch Folded Circle.gsp. You’ll see a thick crease line and its
this booklet
can be found in
locus already in place.
Sketchpad |
Samples | Teach- 21. Drag point C and notice that the crease line remains tangent to the ellipse.
ing Mathematics
(Sketchpad is The exact point of tangency lies at the intersection of two lines—the
the folder that
contains the
crease line and another line not shown here. Construct
application this line in your sketch as well as the point of tangency, point E.
itself.)
Select the
locus 22. Select point E and point C and choose Locus from the Construct menu. If
and make its
width thicker
you’ve identified the tangency point correctly, you
so that it’s should see a curve appear precisely in the white space bordered
easier to see.
by the creases.

From Exploring Conic Sections with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


50 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
The Folded Circle Construction (continued)

How to Prove It
C I
The Folded Circle construction seems
to generate ellipses. Can
you prove that it does? Try
developing a proof on your E
own, or work through the B
following steps and questions.
The picture at right should A
resemble your construction.
Line HI (the perpendicular H
bisector of segment CB)
represents the crease formed
when point C is folded onto
point B. Point E sits on the
curve itself.
23. Add segments CB, BE, and AC to the picture.
24. Label the intersection of CB with the crease line as point D.
Questions
Q8 Use a triangle congruence theorem to prove that jBED m jCED.

Q9 Segment BE is equal in length to which other segment? Why?


Remember: An
ellipse is the Q10 Use the distance definition of an ellipse and the result from Q9 to prove
set that point E traces an ellipse.
of points such
that the sum of
the distances
from each point
Explore More
to two fixed
points (the 1. When point B lies within its circle, the creases outline an ellipse.
foci)
is constant. What happens when point B lies outside its circle?

2. Use the illustration from your ellipse proof to show that


∠AEH = ∠BED.
Here’s an interesting consequence of this result: Imagine a pool
table in the shape of an ellipse with a hole at one of its focal points.
If you place a ball on the other focal point and hit it in any direction
without spin, the ball will bounce off the side and go straight into
the hole. Guaranteed!

3. The sketch Tangent Circles.gsp in the Ellipse folder shows a red circle c3
that’s simultaneously tangent to circles c1 and c2. Press the Animate button
and observe the path of point C, the center of circle c3. Can you prove that
C traces an ellipse?

From Exploring Conic Sections with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 51
The Expanding Circle Construction
In response to
those who
In this activity, you’ll explore a little-known parabola construction
advised him to from the tenth century. The method originates from Ibn Sina, a
take life easy,
Ibn Sina is jack-of-all-trades who was a physician, philosopher, mathematician,
said to have and astronomer!
replied, “I
prefer a short
life with width
to a narrow one Constructing a Sketchpad Model
with length.”
He died 1. Open a new sketch. Choose
at the age of G D H
58. Show Grid from the Graph menu. 6
Then choose Hide Grid to remove
the grid lines while keeping the 4

x- and y-axes. C
2
2. Label the origin as point A.
A
3. Choose the Compass tool. Click -5
E F
5
on the y-axis above the origin -2
B

(point C) and then below the origin


(point B). You’ll create a circle with
center at point C passing through point B.
4. Construct point D, the intersection of the circle and the positive y-axis.
5. Construct points E and F, the intersections of the circle and the x-axis.
6. Construct lines through points E and F perpendicular to the x-axis.
7. Construct a line through point D perpendicular to the y-axis.
8. Construct points G and H, the intersections of the three newly
created lines.
If you don’t
want your 9. Select points G and H and choose Trace Intersections from the Display
traces to fade, menu. Drag point C up and down the y-axis and observe
be sure the
Fade Traces the curve traced by points G and H.
Over Time box
is unchecked
on the Color
The curve you see is the locus of points G and H as point C travels along
panel the y-axis.
of the
Preferences
dialog box. 10. Drag point B to a new location, but keep it below the origin. Then, if
necessary, choose Erase Traces from the Display menu to erase your
previous curve. Trace several new curves, each time changing the
location of point B.

For every new location of point B, you need to retrace your curve.
Ideally, your parabola should adjust automatically as you drag point B.
Sketchpad’s powerful Locus command makes this possible.

From Exploring Conic Sections with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 52
The Expanding Circle Construction (continued)

11. Turn tracing off for points G and H by selecting them and once again
choosing Trace Intersections from the Display menu.
12. Now select points G and C. Choose Locus from the Construct menu. Do
this again for points H and C. You’ll form an entire curve: the locus of
points G and H. Drag point B to vary the shape of the curve.
Questions
Q1 As you drag point B, which features of the curve stay the same? Which
features change?
Q2 The creator of this technique, Ibn Sina, didn’t, of course, have Sketchpad
available to him in the tenth century! How would
this construction be different if you used a compass and
straightedge instead?
The Geometric Mean
It certainly looks like the Expanding Circle method draws parabolas,
but to prove why, you’ll need to know a little about geometric means.
The geometric mean x of two numbers, a and b, is equal to ab .
Equivalently, x2 = ab.

Thus the geometric mean of 4 and 9 is


(4)(9) = 6
It’s possible to determine the geometric mean of two numbers geometrically
rather than algebraically. Specifically, if two segments have lengths a and b,
we can construct—without measuring—a third segment of length ab .

x
a b

All sketches
referred to in
this booklet can
be found in Sketchpad | Samples | Teach-ing Mathematics
(Sketchpad is
the folder that contains the application itself.)
13. Open the sketch Geometric Mean.gsp.
You’ll see a circle whose diameter
consists of two segments with lengths
a and b laid side to side. A chord
perpendicular to the diameter is
split into equal segments of length x.

From Exploring Conic Sections with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 53
The Expanding Circle Construction (continued)

14. Use Sketchpad’s calculator to compute the geometric mean of


lengths a and b. Compare
this value to x.
Questions
Q3 The second page of Geometric Mean.gsp outlines a proof
showing that x is the geometric mean of a and b. Complete the proof.
How to Prove It
With your knowledge of geometric means, you can now prove that
points G and H of the Expanding Circle construction trace a parabola.
Since the location of point H changes as the circle grows and shrinks,
it’s labeled below as (x, y), using variables as coordinates. To make
things more concrete, we’ll assume AB = 3.

G D H = (x, y)
6

2
C

E A = (0, 0) F

-5 5

-2

B (0, -3)

Questions
The questions that follow provide a step-by-step guided proof. You can
answer them or first write your own proof without any hints.

Q4 Fill in the lengths of the following segments in terms of x and y:

AF =
AD =
Q5 Use your knowledge of geometric means to write an equation relating the
lengths of AB, AF, and AD. Is this the equation of a parabola?
Q6 Give an argument to explain why point G also traces a parabola.

Q7 Rewrite your proof, this time making it more general. Let AB = s.

Explore More
1. Open the sketch Right Angle.gsp. Angle DEB is constructed to be a right
angle. Drag point E and observe the trace of point G and its reflection G′.
Explain why this sketch is essentially the same as the Expanding Circle
construction.
From Exploring Conic Sections with The Geometer’s Sketchpad
54 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Distances in an Equilateral Triangle

C
A shipwreck survivor manages to swim to a
desert island.
As it happens, the island closely approximates
the shape of an equilateral triangle. She soon
discovers that the surfing is outstanding on
all three of the island’s coasts. She crafts a surfboard
A B
from a fallen tree and surfs every
day. Where should she build her house so that
the sum of the distances from her house to all
three beaches is as small as possible? (She visits each beach with equal
frequency.) Before you proceed further, locate a point in the triangle at the
spot where you think she should build her house.

Conjecture
All sketches
referred to in 1. Open the sketch Distance.gsp. Drag point P to experiment with your
this booklet sketch.
can
be found in
Sketchpad | Q1 Press the button to show the distance sum. Drag point P around the
Samples | Teach- interior of the triangle. What do you notice about the sum of the
ing Mathematics
(Sketchpad is distances?
the folder that
contains the
application
itself.)

Q2 Drag a vertex of the triangle to change the triangle’s size. Again, drag
point P around the interior of the triangle. What do you notice now?

Q3 What happens if you drag P outside the triangle?

Q4 Organize your observations from Q1–Q3 into a conjecture. Write your


conjecture using complete sentences.

From Rethinking Proof with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


55 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Distances in an Equilateral Triangle (continued)

Explaining
You are no doubt convinced that the total
sum of the distances from point P to all
a
three sides of a given equilateral triangle is always
h1
constant, as long as P is an interior h3
P
point. But can you explain why this is true? h2
a
Although further exploration in Sketchpad
might succeed in convincing you even more a
fully of the truth of your conjecture, it would only
confirm the conjecture’s truth without providing an
explanation. For example, the observation that the
sun rises every morning does not explain why this is true. We have to try to
explain it in terms of something else, for example the rotation of the earth
around the polar axis.
Recently, a mathematician named Mitchell Feigenbaum made some
experimental discoveries in fractal geometry using a computer, just as you
have used Sketchpad to discover your conjecture about a point inside an
equilateral triangle. Feigenbaum’s discoveries were later explained by
Lanford and others. Here’s what another mathematician had to say about all
this:
Lanford and other mathematicians were not trying to validate Feigenbaum’s
results any more than, say, Newton was trying to validate the discoveries of
Kepler on the planetary orbits. In both cases the validity of the results was
never in question. What was missing was the explanation. Why were the
orbits ellipses? Why did they satisfy these particular relations? . . . there’s a
world of difference between validating and explaining.
—M. D. Gale (1990), in The Mathematical
Intelligencer, 12(1), 4.

Challenge
Use another sheet of paper to try to logically explain your conjecture
from Q4. After you have thought for a while and made some notes,
use the steps and questions that follow to develop an explanation of
your conjectures.

From Rethinking Proof with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


56 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Distances in an Equilateral Triangle (continued)

2. Press the button to show the small triangles in your sketch.


Q5 Drag a vertex of the original triangle. Why are the three different sides all
labeled a?

Q6 Write an expression for the area of each small triangle using a and the
variables h1, h2, and h3.

Q7 Add the three areas and simplify your expression by taking out any
common factors.

Q8 How is the sum in Q7 related to the total area of the equilateral triangle?
Write an equation to show this relationship using A for
the area of the equilateral triangle.

Q9 Use your equation from Q8 to explain why the sum of the distances
to all three sides of a given equilateral triangle is always constant.

Q10 Drag P to a vertex point. How is the sum of the distances related to the
altitude of the original triangle in this case?

Q11 Explain why your explanation in Q5–Q9 would not work if the triangle
were not equilateral.

Present Your Explanation


Summarize your explanation of your original conjecture. You can use Q5–
Q11 to help you. You might write your explanation as an argument
in paragraph form or as a two-column proof. Use the back of this page,
another sheet of paper, a Sketchpad sketch, or some other medium.

From Rethinking Proof with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 57
Distances in an Equilateral Triangle (continued)

Further Exploration
1. Construct any triangle ABC and an arbitrary point P inside it. Where
should you locate P to minimize the sum of the distances to all three sides
of the triangle?

2. a. Construct any rhombus and an arbitrary point P inside it. Where


should you locate P to minimize the sum of the distances to all four
sides of the rhombus?
b. Explain your observation in 2a and generalize to polygons with a
similar property.

3. a. Construct any parallelogram and an arbitrary point P inside it.


Where should you locate P to minimize the sum of the distances to all
four sides of the parallelogram?
b. Explain your observation in 3a and generalize to polygons with a
similar property.

From Rethinking Proof with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


58 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Varignon Area

In this activity, you will compare the area of a quadrilateral to the area of
another quadrilateral constructed inside it.
B F C
Conjecture
All sketches E
referred to in 1. Open the sketch Varignon.gsp and
G
this booklet drag vertices to investigate the shapes A
can be found in
Sketchpad | in this sketch. H
Samples | Teach- D
ing Mathematics Q1 Points E, F, G, and H are midpoints
(Sketchpad is
the folder that of the sides of quadrilateral ABCD.
contains the
application Describe polygon EFGH.
itself.)

2. Press the appropriate button to show the areas of the two polygons you
described. Drag a vertex and observe the areas.
Q2 Describe how the areas are related. You might want to find their ratio.

Q3 Drag any of the points A, B, C, and D and observe the two area
measurements. Does the ratio between them change?

Q4 Drag a vertex of ABCD until it is concave. B

Does this change the ratio of the areas?


E F

C
A G
Q5 Write your discoveries so far as one or H
more conjectures. Use complete sentences. D

Q6 You probably can think of times when something that always appeared
to be true turned out to be false at times. How certain are you that your
conjecture is always true? Record your level of certainty on the number
line and explain your choice.

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%


Challenge
If you believe your conjecture is always true, provide some examples to
support your view and try to convince your partner or members of your
group. Even better, support your conjecture with a logical explanation or a
From Rethinking Proof with The Geometer’s Sketchpad
59 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Varignon Area (continued)

convincing proof. If you suspect your conjecture is not always true, try to
supply counterexamples.

Proving
In the picture, you probably observed that quadrilateral EFGH is a
parallelogram. You also probably made a conjecture that goes something like
this:
The area of the parallelogram formed by connecting the midpoints of
the sides of a quadrilateral is half the area of the quadrilateral.
This first conjecture about quadrilateral EFGH matches a theorem of
geometry that is sometimes called Varignon’s theorem. Pierre Varignon was a
priest and mathematician born in 1654 in Caen, France. He is known for his
work with calculus and mechanics, including discoveries that relate fluid
flow and water clocks.
The next three steps will help you verify that quadrilateral EFGH is a
parallelogram. If you have verified this before, skip to Q10.
Q7 Construct diagonal AC. How are sEF B
F
and sHG related to sAC? Why? E C

A G
H
Q8 Construct diagonal BD. How are sEH D

and sFG related to sBD? Why?

Q9 Use Q7 and Q8 to explain why EFGH must be a parallelogram.

Work through the steps that follow for


B
one possible explanation as to why parallelogram
F
EFGH has half the area E
of quadrilateral ABCD. (If you have C
constructed diagonals in ABCD, it will A
G
help to delete or hide them.) H
D

Q10 Assume for now that ABCD is convex.


One way to explain why ABCD has twice the area of EFGH is to look at
the regions that are inside ABCD but not inside EFGH. Describe these
regions.

From Rethinking Proof with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


60 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Varignon Area (continued)

Q11 According to your conjecture, how should the total area of the regions
you described in Q10 compare to the area of EFGH?
3. Press the button to translate the midpoint B

quadrilateral EFGH along vector EF. E F F'

Q12 Drag any point. How does the area of C


the translated quadrilateral compare to A
G'
G
the area of EFGH? H
D

4. Construct xF′C and xG′C.


Q13 How is jEBF related to jF′CF? B

E F F'

C
A
G'
Q14 Explain why the relationship you described in H
G
D
Q13 must be true.

Q15 How is jHDG related to jG′CG?

Q16 Explain why the relationship you described in Q15 must be true.

Q17 How is jAEH related to jCF′G′ ?

Q18 Explain why the relationship you described in Q17 must be true.

Q19 You have one more triangle to account for. Explain how this last triangle
fits into your explanation.

From Rethinking Proof with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 61
Varignon Area (continued)

Present Your Proof


Create a summary of your proof from Q10–Q19. Your summary may be in
paper form or electronic form, and may include a presentation sketch in
Sketchpad. You may want to discuss the summary with your partner or
group.

Further Exploration
Which part of your proof does not work for concave quadrilaterals? Try to
redo the proof so that it explains the concave case as well. (Hint: Drag point C
until quadrilateral ABCD is concave.)

From Rethinking Proof with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


62 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Visualizing Change: Velocity

There are many ways to create motion or move an object. You could control
where the object is located—its position—by dragging it around, or you could
control how fast or slow the object moves—its speed.
Velocity is related to speed but it provides more information. If you know
your velocity, you really know
two things—how fast you are
moving (speed) and the direction
you are heading. Can knowing
the velocity of an object tell you
anything else? Are there any
relationships or patterns between
position and velocity? In this
activity you will start to answer
these questions by moving a
point, controlling its velocity with a slider.

Sketch and Investigate


All sketches
referred to in 1. Open the sketch Velocity.gsp.
this booklet
can be found in You will see a horizontal line and point Me that moves along it. Point Home
Sketchpad |
Samples | Teach-
represents your base point or origin. You will also see the point Me2d. This
ing Mathematics point represents where you are at any time. The x-coordinate of point Me2d
(Sketchpad is
the folder that (labeled timeMe2d) represents time, and the y-coordinate (labeled positionMe2d)
contains the
application represents your position or distance from point Me to point Home.
itself.)
2. Drag point Me2d around the plane, getting used to the way point Me’s
position along the line (in other words, distance from point Home) relates
to Me2d’s location in the time/position plane (in other words, its
coordinates).
Q1 Drag point Me2d horizontally. Explain point Me’s motion.

Q2 You can drag point Me2d any way you’d like, but dragging in certain
directions doesn’t make sense given the way time works in our universe.
How do you have to drag point Me2d so that it represents a physically
possible motion of point Me?
Now we want to bring in velocity and see what
effect it has.
3. Press the Show Controls button.
You should see two sliders, one for velocity and
one for a time interval. There is also a new point
labeled FutureMe. This point is located one time
interval away at the position you would reach if your velocity stayed
From Exploring Calculus with The Geometer’s Sketchpad
63 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Visualizing Change: Velocity (continued)

constant. The deltaT slider is set at 1 and the velocity slider should be set at 2.
So point FutureMe should be to the right 1 unit and up 2 units.
Q3 If you change deltaT to 0.5 and keep the velocity the same, what will
happen to point FutureMe? Try it and see.
Q4 Move the deltaT slider to various time intervals. Does point FutureMe
move in any particular pattern? What happens to point Me or point Me2d
when you change just the time interval? Why is that?
Q5 Set deltaT back to 1 and now move the velocity slider to various values.
Does point FutureMe move in any particular pattern? What happens to
point Me or point Me2d when you change just the velocity? Why is that?
The Start Motion button will start both points
moving in relationship to the set velocity and
time intervals.
Select point
Me2d, then 4. Press the Reset button to set time back
choose to 0.
Trace Point
from the
Display menu. 5. Turn on tracing for point Me2d.
You can also
change the 6. Set the velocity slider to 2 and the deltaT
color of your
selected point slider back to 1.
and trace in
the Color For these first trials, you won’t change the velocity slider once your point is
submenu of the
Display menu. moving. Predict what kind of position trace you’ll get if your velocity (speed
and direction) stays the same. Sketch this prediction in the margin.
Q6 Press the Start Motion button and observe point Me’s motion and point
Me2d’s corresponding time/position trace. Press the button again to stop
the motion. Describe your trace. (Was it what you predicted?)
Q7 Press the Reset button, but do not clear your trace. Instead, change the
velocity slider to 0.5 and make point Me2d a different color. Make a
prediction, and then press the Start Motion button again. What happened
this time? How are your traces different? How are they the same?
Q8 Repeat Q7, but this time set your velocity slider to a negative value. Any
idea what will happen? Press the Start Motion button again. What
happened this time? How are your traces different? How are they the
same?
Q9 What conclusions can you reach about movement and position traces
when velocity is constant over a time interval?
Q10 What are the equations for the different traces you see on your screen?
What would the equation for the trace be if velocity were set to 0?

From Exploring Calculus with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


64 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Visualizing Change: Velocity (continued)

For the next set of trials, you will change the velocity
of point Me while time is changing. The smaller the
time interval, the more accurate the trace, so set deltaT
To hide a
point, select as close to 0.1 as possible and hide point FutureMe.
the point and You can change the velocity slider to any value you
then choose
Hide Plotted wish, but try each of these suggested experiments as
Point from the
Display menu. well. For each experiment, draw a little sketch of your
trace in the margin. Remember to choose Erase Traces
from the Display menu and press the Reset button
when you want to start over. It is also a good idea to
change the color of point Me2d for each trace.
A. Start with the velocity at a positive value. Increase the velocity, and then
decrease the velocity, but keep it positive throughout the experiment.
B. Start with the velocity at a negative value. Increase the velocity, and then
decrease the velocity, but keep it negative throughout the experiment.
(Remember that –2 to –1 is an increase!)
C. Start with velocity > 2. Decrease the velocity, and then increase it. Again,
keep the velocity positive throughout.
D. Start with –1 < velocity < 0. Decrease the velocity, and then increase it, but
again, keep the velocity negative throughout.
E. Start with a positive velocity and decrease to a negative value. Then
increase the velocity again until you get to 0. Stay at 0 for a while and
then increase the velocity again.
Q11 How are the traces in A and B similar? How are they different? What
happens to the position trace when you switch from increasing the
velocity to decreasing it?
Q12 How are the traces in C and D similar?
How are they different? What happens
to the position trace when you switch
from decreasing the velocity to
increasing it?
Q13 How are the traces in A and C similar?
How are they different? What about B
and D?
Q14 What happened when you changed the velocity from positive to
negative? From negative to positive? What happened when you stayed at
velocity = 0?

From Exploring Calculus with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 65
Visualizing Change: Velocity (continued)

Q15 For each of the following, describe the position trace that you would get.
Then check your answer using the velocity slider.
a. positive and increasing velocity
b. negative and increasing velocity
c. positive and decreasing velocity
d. negative and decreasing velocity

Explore More
Go to page 2 of the sketch. Press the Show
Path1 button. Using your answers from Q15
for reference, make a trace trying to match
the path as closely as you can. During
which part of your trace did you have to go
the fastest? When did you move the
slowest?
Hide Path 1 and press the Show Path2
button. Again, try to match the path as
closely as you can.
What is different about Path 2? Which one was easier to trace? Is it possible to
trace Path 2’s corners?

From Exploring Calculus with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


66 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Going Off on a Tangent

You can see what the average rate of change


between two points on a function looks like—
it’s the slope of the secant line between the two
points. You have also learned that as one point
approaches the other, average rate approaches
instantaneous rate (provided that the limit
exists). But what does instantaneous rate look
like? In this activity you will get more acquainted with the derivative and
learn how to see it in the slope of a very special line.

Sketch and Investigate


All sketches
referred to in 1. Open the sketch Tangents.gsp.
this booklet
can be found in In this sketch there is a function plotted and a line that intersects the
Sketchpad |
Samples | Teach-
function at a point P. This new line is called the tangent line because it
ing Mathematics intersects the function only once in the region near point P. Its slope is the
(Sketchpad is
the folder that instantaneous rate of change—or derivative—at point P:
contains the
application tangent’s slope = instantaneous rate at P = f ′(xP)
itself.)
So how do you find this line? Let’s hold off on that for a bit and look at the
line’s slope—the derivative—and see how it behaves. Remember, slope is
the key!
Be careful
here—the grid
Q1 Move point P as close as possible to x = –1. Without using the
is not square! calculator, estimate f ′(–1)—the derivative of f at x = –1. (Hint: What’s
the slope of the tangent line at x = –1?)
Q2 Move point P as close as possible to x = 0. Without using the
calculator, estimate f ′(0)—the derivative of f at x = 0. (Hint: See the
previous hint!)
Q3 Move point P as close as possible to x = 1. Without using the
calculator, estimate f ′(1)—the derivative of f at x = 1. (Sorry, no hint
this time.)
2. Move point P back to about x = –1. Drag point P slowly along the
function f from left to right. Watch the line’s slope carefully so that
you can answer some questions. (If you’d like, you can animate point
P by selecting point P, then choosing Animate from the Edit menu. )
Q4 For what x-values is the derivative
positive? (Hint: When is the slope of
the tangent line positive?) What can
you say about the curve where the
derivative is positive?

From Exploring Calculus with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


67 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Q5 For what x-values is the derivative negative? (Hint: Look at the hint in
Q4 and make up your own hint.) What can you say about the curve
where the derivative is negative?
Q6 For what x-values is the derivative 0? What can you say about the
curve where the derivative is 0?
Q7 For what value or values of x on the interval from –1 to 3 is the slope
of the tangent line the steepest (either positive or negative)? How
would you translate this question into the language of derivatives?
3. Double click on the equation for f, and
change the function to f (x) = 4 sin(x). (If f(x)=4sin(x)
the graph isn’t what you expected, you
probably need to change Angle Units
on the Units panel of Preferences to
radians.)
If you want to
recenter your 4. Press the Show Zoom Tools button and
sketch, select use the x-scale slider to change your
the origin and
move it to the window to go from –2π to 2π on the x-axis. (You can hide the tools
desired
location. again by pressing the Hide Zoom Tools button.)
5. Move point P so that its x-coordinate is around x = –6.
6. Move point P slowly along the function from left to right until you get
to about x = 6. As you move the point, watch the tangent line’s slope
so that you can answer the following questions.
Q8 Answer Q4–Q7 for this function. Could you have relied on physical
features of the graph to answer these questions quickly?(In other
words, could you have answered Q4–Q7 for this function without
moving point P?)
There is an interesting relationship between how the slope is increasing or
decreasing and whether the tangent line is above or below the curve.
Move point P slowly from left to right again on the function, comparing
the steepness of the line to its location—above or below the curve.
Q9 When is the slope of the line increasing? Is the tangent line above or
below the function when the slope is increasing?
Q10 When is the slope of the line decreasing? Is the tangent line above or
below the function when the slope is decreasing?
Q11 Write your conclusion for the relationship between the slope of the
tangent line and its location above or below the curve. How would
you translate this into a relationship between the derivative and the
function’s concavity?
Let’s check whether or not your conclusion is really true. The derivative is
the slope of the tangent line, so an easy way to check is to calculate the
slope of the line.

From Exploring Calculus with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


68 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
7. Select the tangent line and
measure its slope by choosing
Slope from the Measure
menu. Label it TangentSlope.
8. Move point P slowly along the
function again from left to
right and watch the values of
the measurement
TangentSlope.
Q12 Do your answers to Q9–Q10
hold up?

Explore More
Each of the following functions has some interesting problems or
characteristics. For each one, change the equation for f (x) as you did in
step 3 above and answer the questions below. If you need to zoom in at a
point, press the Show Zoom Tools button. Remember that (a, b) represents
the point you will zoom in on. To change a or b, double-click on the
measurement and enter a new value.
1. f1 (x) = x − 2

2. f 2(x) = x 2 − 6x + 8

3. f 3(x) = x − 1

Q1 Where does the derivative not exist for f1(x) and why? (What happens
to the tangent line at that point?)
2
Q2 Answer Q1 for f 2(x) = x − 6x + 8 .

Q3 Answer Q1 for f 3(x) = x−1.

Q4 How is the function f1 (x) = x − 2 different from all the others that
you have looked at in this activity, including f 2 and f 3?

From Exploring Calculus with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 69
Accumulating Area

How would you describe the shaded


region shown here? You could say: The
shaded region is the area
between the x-axis and the curve f (x) on
the interval 0 ≤ x ≤ 4. Or, if you didn’t
want to use all those words, you could
say: The shaded region is
4 4
∫0 f or ∫0 f (x) dx

which is much faster to write!


b
In general, the notation ∫a f (x) dx represents the signed area between the
curve f and the x-axis on the interval a ≤ x ≤ b. This means that the area
below the x-axis is counted as negative. This activity will acquaint you
with this notation, which is called the integral, and help you translate it
into the signed area it represents.

Sketch and Investigate


All sketches
referred to in 1. Open the document Area2.gsp. You have a function f composed of
this booklet some line segments and a semi-circle connected by moveable points.
can be found in
Sketchpad | 4
Samples | Teach-
ing Mathematics
If you need to evaluate the integral ∫0 f (x) dx ,
(Sketchpad is the first step is to translate it into the language
the folder that
contains the of areas. This integral stands for the area
application
itself.) between f and the x-axis from
x = 0 to x = 4, as shown. This area is easy to
find—you have a quarter-circle on 0 ≤ x ≤ 2
and a right triangle on 2 ≤ x ≤ 4.
So on [0, 2] you have
2
∫0
2 2
f (x) dx = 0.25πr = 0.25π(2) = π
and on [2, 4] you have
4
∫2 f (x) dx = 0.5(base)(height) = 0.5(2)(6) = 6
4
so ∫ 0
f (x) dx = 6 + π

2. To check this with the Area tools, press the Show Area Tools button.
There are three new points on the x-axis—points start, finish, and P. Points
P and start should be at the origin. Point P will sweep out the area under
the curve from point start to point finish. Point P has not moved yet, so the
measurement AreaP is 0.
3. Press the Calculate Area button to calculate the area between f and the
x-axis on the interval [start, finish] and to shade in that region.
From Exploring Calculus with The Geometer’s Sketchpad
70 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
Q1 Is the value of the measurement AreaP close to 6 + π? Why isn’t it
exactly 6 + π or even 9.142?
4
Q2 Based on the above reasoning, evaluate ∫−2 f (x) dx .
Before you move
the point, 4. Check your answer by moving point start to point B, pressing the
check the Reset button, and then pressing the Calculate Area button.
Status Line to
make sure you
have selected Q3 What do you think will happen to the area measurement if you switch
the right −2
point. If you
haven’t, click
the order of the integral, in other words, what is ∫4 f (x) dx ?
on the point
again. 5. Choose Erase Traces from the Display menu.
6. Check your answer by moving point start to x = 4 and point finish as
close as you can get to x = –2, pressing the Reset button, the Esc key,
and then the Calculate Area button.
Q4 What is the area between f and the x-axis from x = 4 to x = –2?

Now, what happens if your function goes below the x-axis? For example,
6
suppose you want to evaluate ∫4 f (x) dx .
Q5 Translate the integral into a statement about areas.

Q6 What familiar geometric objects make up the area you


described in Q5?
6
Q7 Using your familiar objects, evaluate ∫4 f (x) dx .
(Hint: You can do this one quickest by thinking.)
7. Move point start to x = 4 and point finish to x = 6. Press
the Reset button.
8. Choose Erase Traces from the Display menu, and then
press the Calculate Area button to check your answer.
Does the result agree with your calculation?
−3
Q8 Evaluate ∫−6 f (x) dx using the process in Q5–Q7 and check your
answer using steps 5 and 6.
If you fix your starting point with xstart = –6, you can define a new
xP
function, A(xP ) = ∫−6 f (x) dx , which accumulates the signed area between
f and the x-axis as P moves along the x-axis.
−6
Q9 Why is A(−6) = ∫−6 f (x) dx = 0 ?
Q10 What is A(–3)?

To get an idea of how this area function behaves as point P moves along
the x-axis, you’ll plot the point (xP, A(xP)) and let Sketchpad do the work.

From Exploring Calculus with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 71
9. Move point start to x = –6 exactly. Now move point finish to x = 9.
xP
The measurement AreaP is now the function A(xP ) = ∫−6 f (x) dx .
To turn off
tracing, choose 10. Select the line segment that joins point P to the curve. Turn off tracing
Trace Segment for the segment.
from the
Display menu.
11. Select measurements xP and AreaP in that order and choose
Plot as (x, y) from the Graph menu.
Double-click on
the point with
12. Give this new point a bright new color from the Color submenu of the
the Text tool Display menu. Turn on tracing for this point and label it point I.
to label it.
13. Press the Reset button and then the Calculate Area button to move
point P along the x-axis and create a trace of the area function.
Q11 Why does the area trace decrease
as soon as point P moves away
from point start?
Q12 Why doesn’t the trace become
positive as soon as point P is to
the right of point B?
Q13 What is the significance (in terms
of area) of the trace’s first root to
the right of point start? The second
root?
Q14 What is significant about the original function f ’s roots?
Why is this true?
14. Turn off tracing for point I and Erase Traces.
15. Select points I and P and choose Locus from the Construct menu.
The locus you constructed should look like the trace you had above. The
advantage of a locus is that if you move anything in your sketch, the locus
will update itself, whereas a trace will not.
There are quite a few familiar relationships between the original function f
and this new locus—including the ones suggested in Q11–Q14. See if you
can find some of them by trying the experiments below.
Be sure to keep
points A, B, C,
D, E, and F A. Move point B (which also controls point C) to make the radius of the
lined up in
that order from
semicircle larger, then smaller.
left to right.
If point C B. Move point B back to (–2, 0). Now move point A around in the plane.
moves to the
right of point (Make sure to stay to the left of point B.) Try dragging point A to
D, the line various places below the x-axis, and then move point A to various
segment CD will
no longer places above the x-axis.
exist.
C. Move point A back to (–6, –4). Now move point D around in the
plane. (Make sure to stay between point C and point E.) Drag point D
to various places above the x-axis, and then drag point D to various
places below the x-axis.
From Exploring Calculus with The Geometer’s Sketchpad
72 • Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad © 2002 Key Curriculum Press
D. Follow step C with points E and F.
Q15 List the various patterns that you found between the two functions or
in the area function alone. How many patterns were you able to find?
Any conjectures about the relationship between the two functions?

Explore More
Will the area function’s shape change if you move point start to a value
other than x = –6?
1. Select point start and move it along the x-axis.
Q1 Does the area function’s shape change when your starting point is
shifted along the x-axis? If so, how? If not, what changes, and why?
Q2 Write a conjecture in words for
how the two area functions
xP xP
∫−6 f (x)dx and ∫x start
f (x)dx are
related.
2. Make a new shape for your
area function by moving one
or more points—point A, B, D, E, or F. Then move point start again
along the x-axis.
Q3 Does your conjecture from Q2 still hold? Write your conjecture in
integral notation.
3. Fix point start at the origin. Move point P to the left of the origin but to
the right of point B.
Q4 The following two sentences sound good, but lead to a contradiction.
Where is the error?
The semicircle is above the x-axis from the origin to point P, so the
area is positive. Point I, which plots the area, is below the
x-axis, so the area is negative.

From Exploring Calculus with The Geometer’s Sketchpad


© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Teaching Mathematics with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 73
Also Available from Spectrum
Exploring Calculus with The Geometer’s
The activities in this booklet are excerpted
Sketchpad
from publications of Key Curriculum
These activities help students visualize and
Press, available in Canada from Spectrum experiment with the fundamental concepts of
Educational Supplies. Here’s the complete calculus—from working with limits to sketching a
list of Sketchpad activity modules: slope field. Activities can be done with a class, in
small groups, or individually..

Exploring Geometry with The Pythagoras Plugged In: Proofs and


Geometer’s Sketchpad Problems for The Geometer’s Sketchpad
This collection of over 100 activities in an easy-to- This book guides students through a variety of
use format covers nearly all the concepts studied proofs and applications of the theorem that has
in high school geometry. The activities include a fascinated mathematicians throughout history.
range of experiences, from guided investigations Constructing and dynamically manipulating
to open-ended explorations. figures provides insights that no static illustration
. can offer.
Exploring Algebra with The Geometer’s
Sketchpad Geometry for Middle School Students
The activities in this collection help students move with The Geometer’s Sketchpad
from the concrete world of pre-algebra to the more This collection of imaginative activities and
abstract world of algebra. By exploring many of projects, written by a team of experienced middle
the core Algebra I concepts in a dynamic school teachers, covers the range of the middle
mathematical environment, students gain a deeper school geometry curriculum.
understanding of and greater fluency with the
material.
For additional supplemental curriculum modules,
Exploring Conic Sections with The visit the Spectrum web site at
Geometer’s Sketchpad http://www.spectrumed.com/index.html.
These investigations help students experience the
connection between the geometry and algebra of For additional activity ideas, visit The Geometer’s
ellipses, hyperbolas, and parabolas. Students Sketchpad Resource Center at
construct physical models before constructing the http://www.keypress.com/sketchpad/
corresponding Sketchpad model.

1150 65th Street 125 Mary Street


Emeryville, California 94608 Aurora, Ontario L4G 1G3
USA 1-800-668-0600
510-595-7000 customerservice@spectrumed.com
http://www.keypress.com/ http://www.spectrumed.com/

© 2002 Key Curriculum Press Activity Notes—Teaching Geometry with The Geometer’s Sketchpad • 74

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen