Graphing Calculator..6

so the other day in Physics, messing around with my graphing calculator, i stumbled across an equation to make the Millennium Force hill.

x(10-2x)(12-2x)

make sure your window settings are

x min: -1 and x max is 6

y min: -1 and y max is 100

share what you think :)

I have to write that down and bust out my TI-84 tomorrow in school. ;)

Oh how I miss the days of using my TI-89. Gotta love the games;)

My TI-86 is an overglorified sales tax calculator nowadays. Or a good programming debugging tool. (Add up the values and look at what they're SUPPOSED to be)

http://www.pointbuzz.com/Gallery.aspx?i=1241

Not even close. :)

The photo above is a good way to picture where the points are. You know one dimension, 310 feet With that photo, you can do scale measurements. Say the linear portion of the lift is 45 degrees starting from the origin to say 280 feet. The formula for that line is: (Syntax for TI-83, should be the same for TI-84)

y=x, 0<x<280 (type into y= {x/(0<x)/(x<280)} )

Window 0<x<400, 0<y<400

The graph will look funky since the screen is not square. To correct this hit zoom>zsquare.

I found this by using the form for a line, y=mx+b, m is the slope, and b is the y intercept. The slope is a 45 deg. angle therefore the rise per unit of run is 1. So m is 1. Since b is the y intercept and the y intercept is at the origin, b = 0. So the equation is y = x.

If done correctly, you should see the basic form for the linear portion of the lift. Could it be 270 or 290'? Maybe. You will be able to get a better idea of were the lift starts to curve near the top of the hill by the picture above. There is also a little bit of distortion that can be compensated for if you want a really good approximation.

How do you go about fitting a graph that goes from the linear portion of the lift of the base of the drop? Modeling using differential calculus. And of course, guess and check too. If your feeling really bold, you can try to guess and check with a 3rd degree polynomial equation. The better bet is to find 4 points in the picture above and use cubic regression. (cubreg)

too much time on your hands

No he is intelligent, and you are to ignorant to see it.

CP4eva'04 said:
No he is intelligent, and you are to ignorant to see it.

:)

Haha. I use that stupid calculator on a daily basis. I'm the only moron that doesn't have games on it too. I mean, I do need something to keep me busy in Algebra.