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- Contributed By: Isaac Newton
This lesson walks students through a classic optimization problem involving building a (lidless) box from a sheet of paper. The lesson uses a worksheet in The Geometer’s Sketchpad.
Students will explore some classic optimization problems using The Geometers Sketchpad. This lesson has students begin by exploring a pattern, then has them extrapolate their findings into a generalization about inscribed shapes. Extension questions are included.
This is a fun problem that has students investigate how many triangles they can create out of rods of various lengths. Students use the triangle inequality, and look for a pattern in their solutions.
Students find the area of an annulus and find that the result is unexpectedly intuitive.
A second problem to investigate the concept of linear programming
Students use the idea of volume of a cylinder to figure out the length of a single fiber of cotton candy.
A worksheet with five common optimization problems.
This lesson will explain the concept of a limit from various points of view.
This resource is a list sorted by subject and individual lessons that include web pages for students to obtain extra practice.
