Message-Id: <3.0.3.32.19980126123050.00699dc8@mail.walltech.com>
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 12:30:50 -0600
To: pinhole@exploratorium.edu
From: geoff ruth <geoffr@eastside.org>
Subject: math questions
Right now in my algebra 2 class, we are starting to study rational and
irrational functions. Does anyone know of any particularly interesting
places that these sorts of functions show up in nature? (I know I could
look through a physics book and find that they show up in gravitational
attraction, magnetism, and so forth. But does anyone have any particularly
salient examples that really could grab students -- we just finished
exponential functions and population growth was a great example of how that
works since exponential growht of a population has such forceful and real
consequences. Is there something similarly grabbing that has to do with
rational functions.
Also, what is the purpose of studying long-division of polynomials? Is this
just something that people do as part of algebra 2 without any applications
to the physical world? I'm frustrated because of a lot of the advanced
algebraic manipulations of these sorts of functions seem like they're set
up so that they don't have any obvious importance in the natural world.
Geoff Ruth