Where Do I See Math? Project
For this project, we had to create an image or video that would inspire questions by the viewer of the picture. For example, we watched a short 27-second video about a penny pyramid (below) and saw a picture of a colorful car caravan circle (also below). We then asked questions about both of the pictures/videos, and were given information accordingly. For the "Penny Pyramid" activity, we were given information that the base of the structure was 40 by 40 coins, and each stack of coins was 13 pennies high. We could therefore determine that the base of the pyramid was 20,800 coins. Since we knew that the top layer of the pyramid would be 1 by 1 coin, we added up each total starting with 40 x 40, 39 x 39, 38 x 38, and so forth and multiplying each product by 13. After a series of long and methodical calculations, we determined that there were 287,820 pennies in the pyramid. We then created our own Act 3 prompt, where Act 1 would be the picture/video and would have questions about it that were asked by the viewers, Act 2 would be trying to come up with a strategy to answer the questions inspired by the Act 1 piece, and Act 3 would be the reveal, like how the number of coins in the penny pyramid. For our prompt, I took a picture of my fireplace, hoping that we would get asked about the number of tiles on the fireplace and/or the measurements of the fireplace. We included a fireplace for our mathematics model because it allowed the viewer to calculate the answers for different components of the fireplace. For example, we provided both measurements and tile amounts so the audience could choose the method of conversion they wanted to use. The most difficult aspect of this project was creating the 2nd Act. The 2nd Act of the project was basically giving the viewers some facts and statistics that they would need to know in order to solve the problem. Because our picture was so specific in the sense that the tiles were the focus of the image, our information we provided had to be very particular to the picture. Therefore, I had to use the HOHAM significance throughout this project, because I needed to be able explain why each piece of information was crucial to the final product.
Questions we Expect to be Asked...
- How many tiles are there?
- What is the area of the fireplace?
- What is the area of the glass?
- How big is each tile?
- How many tiles would be covering the area the glass takes up?