Skip to main content

Welcome!

Welcome to MA 391: Composition and Communication at the University of Kentucky!

This semester we are going to be practicing the (sometimes frustrating and always ) important skill of communicating mathematics. At the start of the semester we are going to revisit some topics from calculus and for each of those topics you will pick an example you think really helps explain what is going on. You will design and print a 3d model of that example. Then you will write a blog post (here!) and a description card for your model and participate in the class show and tell.

After spending some time in calculus we will switch over to topics motivated by geometry and topology. You don't need to know anything about these area yet. We're going to look at them since they will be new to many of you, they lend themselves well to visualization projects and my research is in topology!

Popular posts from this blog

The Approximation of a Solid of Revolution

Most math teachers I've had have been able to break down Calculus into two very broad categories: derivatives and integrals. What is truly amazing, is how much you can do with these two tools. By using integration, it is possible to approximate the shape of a 2-D function that is rotated around an axis. This solid created from the rotation is known as a solid of revolution. To explain this concept, we will take a look at the region bounded by the two functions: \[ f(x) = 2^{.25x} - 1 \] and \[ g(x) = e^{.25x} - 1 \] bounded at the line y = 1. This region is meant to represent a cross section of a small bowl. While it may not perfectly represent this practical object, the approximation will be quite textured, and will provide insight into how the process works. The region bounded by the two functions can be rotated around the y-axis to create a fully solid object. This is easy enough to talk about, but what exactly does this new solid look like? Is...
8 comments
Read more

Knot Your Average Knot

Knots are an object that we come across in our everyday lives. From tying our shoes to tying a mask around the back of our head, tying and creating knots is something that we begin to become exposed to at a very early age. For our final project for the semester, we decided to go more in-depth into knots and see what information we can get out of our individual knots. To begin, I will show you my knot that I chose to use for this project, and then we will go into all of the interesting information we can pull out of it! My Knot: My knot is a knot with ten crossings, on the atlas you will find it with the name 10 38, which is the number of times you see the strand go beneath itself. Throughout this post, we will go in-depth into a couple of different things we can find out about this particular knot, this list being: finding a way to make it into the unknot, attempting a coloring of the knot, finding the writhe of the knot, and breaking this knot down in...
Post a Comment
Read more

Do Over: Integration for Over Regions in the Plane

Introduction Earlier in the semester, we visited the topic of integration for over region regions in the plane. This was our first experience with taking integration in the third dimension. To do this, we had to use double integrals to calculate the volume of a region between two surfaces. This topic seems relatively straightforward and anyone who has taken a higher calculus class knows of double integrals. Today, we are going to revisit this topic for a couple of reasons. Why Double Integrals Again? As mentioned before, I am revisiting this topic for a couple of reasons. One of the main reasons is due to how the 3D print turned out. Due to the function, I chose, the final rectangular prism was stand alone. When printing, this resulted in a sloppy prism that lacked structural integrity. The image below is a reference to my original design that includes the prism that had the issue. The main cause of ...
Post a Comment
Read more