How To Draw A Snowman On A Graphing Calculator

In a recent tour of my midde school, I observed a 6th grade instructor working with a class to use compasses. Their goal: to make a snowman with segments of different, simply given radii, 3cm, 2cm and 1cm. Eventually, this volition lead to students having their first experience with circumference, and that sneaky number pi. But why tie students to stock-still radii values? And merely what are the "perfect" measurements for a snowman? Here are some lesson ideas for letting students explore their own snowmen, using technology, then taking it a step farther by considering how much snowfall our snowmen will demand.

Snowmen may come in all different sizes, with dissimilar accessories. But it is pretty well established that the traditional snowman is made of 3 body segments. Snowmen with anything other than three segments are blasphemous.

snowmen

WHAT ARE THE PERFECT SNOWMAN DIMENSIONS?

Clicking the image to the right will accept yous to an interactive graph I made using the Desmos calculator. You can manipulate the bore of each snowman segment by pulling the sliders provided, just the elevation of the snowman is fixed at 6 anxiety. Like your snowman with equal segments? Knock yourself out. Are y'all more of a bottom-heavy snowman connoisseur? There's room on the bus for yous , also.

Once yous are convinved that you have built the globe's best snowman, please share your slider settings here. I'd like to feature them in a afterwards web log mail service.

INVESTIGATING YOUR SNOWMAN

For a classroom discussion, accept students print out their snowman images (Desmos has a snazzy print feature), and compare their snowmen in groups. Whose snowman would need the most snowfall to build? Whose would demand the least? Or, if all of the snowmen are 6 anxiety tall, then will they utilize the same amount of snow?

This is a great fourth dimension to talk almost volume, and innovate the formula for the volume of a sphere. And, since each student has their ain product, accept them notice the book of each snowman segment, then add them to get their required snowfall total.

HOW MUCH Snowfall DO We NEED?

If it snows 5″ overnight, volition we have enough snow on the ground to build our snowman? For this next stage, we can have students compare the volume of snow needed for their snowman with the book of snow on the ground. For example, if your thou is 10 feet long and 10 feet broad, volition five inches of footing snow be plenty to build our snowman?

BUT, nosotros pack snow while we build snowmen. How much less is the snow volume in a snowman vs its volume when it is on the ground? ii times less volume? five times less? ten times less? I really have no thought. Next time I have a few inches of snow on the ground, it volition be experiment time. With a form, maybe debate the right number and utilise it for calculations.

calculator

To help with calculations, and checking student work, I have created this handy Snowman Calculator on Excel. You can input your a and b values from the Desmos document, along with the dimensions of a yard or rectangular area. The book of your snowman, along with needed snowfalls, are and then given.

Think warm! And then we volition offset working on sandcastles.