This activity explores three different ways to generate a rule for a particular interactive and dynamic block pattern. Students use symbolic notation to develop algebraic expressions and represent functions, solve systems of simultaneous equations and produce graphs from data. At the end of the activity students are provided with a powerful visual representation of the same problem that helps them produce the same equation simply and easily.

Students use trigonometric functions to model biorhythmic activity. Whilst the psuedo science of biorhythms equates approximately to astrology, the activity content is applicable to graphing simple trigonometric functions involving only transformations. The alignment of days helps students understand the period of the function.