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Re: Fun with Manipulate

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg76775] Re: [mg76745] Fun with Manipulate
• From: Murray Eisenberg <murray at math.umass.edu>
• Date: Sun, 27 May 2007 04:54:08 -0400 (EDT)
• Organization: Mathematics & Statistics, Univ. of Mass./Amherst
• References: <200705260849.EAA18905@smc.vnet.net>
• Reply-to: murray at math.umass.edu

Zooming in to see whether a function is differentiable and, if so, to 
see that it is locally linear has always been possible to do in 
Mathematica (and with other tools).  But it took a lot of programming. 
I've always dreamed that it would be easy.  Now with Mathematica 6.0 it is.

Helen Read wrote:
> So I'm retooling some calculus lab assignments for use with Mathematica 
> 6. And I just *love* Manipulate. For example, have a look at
> 
> http://www.uvm.edu/~cems/mathstat/mathematica/math21/math21X_lab4_zzzz.nb
> 
> In the old version of this lab, which is assigned before we have talked 
> (much) about derivatives in class, I had the students make a plot on 
> some relatively large interval, then "zoom in" by changing the domain of 
> the plot manually and re-executing, until eventually they had something 
> that looked linear. But now with 6.0, this is just way more fun. 
> Hopefully this will make them go "Cool!" :-)
> 
> [Don't be put off by the wonky filename, BTW. The students are supposed 
> to change the "X" to the section of the class that they are in, and the 
> "zzzz" to their username when they download the file, for ease of 
> sorting the submitted files on the instructor's computer. (It's 
> completely paperless, at least in my classes. My students e-mail me 
> their notebooks, I insert GraderText -- a custom style in the embedded 
> stylesheet -- and mail the files back.)]
> 
> I'm not actually teaching right now, but am very much looking forward to 
> using Mathematica 6 with my summer class later in the summer.
> 
> --
> Helen Read
> University of Vermont
> 

-- 
Murray Eisenberg                     murray at math.umass.edu
Mathematics & Statistics Dept.
Lederle Graduate Research Tower      phone 413 549-1020 (H)
University of Massachusetts                413 545-2859 (W)
710 North Pleasant Street            fax   413 545-1801
Amherst, MA 01003-9305

• References:
  • Fun with Manipulate
    • From: Helen Read <read@math.uvm.edu>