Mathematical Modelling: Waves of the Tsunami
Math Modelling Productions
has created a
DVD which teaches some of the mathematics
encountered by students in grades 11 and 12. Rather than focusing upon
the mathematical details, the program aims to inspire students to want
to learn the mathematics by seeing how it is applied.
Waves of the Tsunami asks the question how long did the
December 2004 tsunami take to cross the Indian Ocean from Indonesia
to Sri Lanka. To address this problem, the program introduces
-
function transformations, which are used to describe a water wave
as a translated and stretched sine function
-
tabulation, which is used to catalogue and assess data
-
graphing, which is used to plot data and fit functions to data
-
scaling, which is used to apply the mathematical prediction to
the December 2004 tsunami
The program was originally released in 2006 as a DVD with chapters directing
the viewer to different program segments. Here it has been compressed
and subdivided so that it may more easily be downloaded from the web.
You may download the entire 97.9MB
program by clicking on the image below:
Alternately, you may download individual segments of the program by
clicking on each of the images below:
Modelling |
Transformations |
Data Assessment |
Graphing |
Scaling |
Review |
|
|
|
|
|
|
size: 18MB |
size: 25MB |
size: 25MB |
size: 5MB |
size: 3MB |
size: 24MB |
Credits
- Bruce Sutherland: Producer
- Amy Palmer: Director, Designer and Technician
- Stephanie Devine: Narrator
Funding provided through NSERC's CRYSTAL program at the
University of Alberta