Activity Overview
A collection of data from bouncing balls to pendulum swings, discharging capacitors and Olympic rings are included in this activity for students to model. In each example the original function is presented and students determine the appropriate transformations of f(x) so that it models the data (or rings).
Objectives
The aim of this activity is to help students understand the use of functional notation and how to apply transformations using this notation.
Vocabulary
- Transformation
- Translation
- Dilation
- Reflection
About the Lesson
Watch Activity Tutorial
Transformations of functions apply to a whole family of curves whether they be polynomials, trigonometric, exponential or even relations such as circles. This activity provides students with a selection of data collected from bouncing balls to pendulums and capacitors. Students are provided with the appropriate primitive function and simply have to apply the appropriate transformation to get the function to match the data. Students use functional notation rather than editing the specific equation.