Monday 15 April 2013

Trig Function Families

This is just a quick post about some fun year 11 had with this 'Trig function families' activity. Fun is in somewhat shorter supply as exams approach and so it was great to do something that can really help to understand ideas. The aim of the exercise is to help students understand how the shape of a trigonometric function and its equation are linked. Working with the general form of ....

f(x) = asinbx + c

Students were asked to try and make some of the different images that had been made by varying the values of a, b and c. This is quite different from simply seeing what happens when you vary the values, because you have a particular shape and image to work towards! The results can be very satisfying on the eye! See the slideshow below for some examples.

A slightly different take on the same idea is to try and make the following animations! They are quite are challenge! Are you up for it?


We did find that this was an excellent use for the brilliant online graphing calculator at Desmos. All in all this is an engaging and effective exercise!

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