Tower of Hanoi

When we worked on The Tower of Hanoi puzzle yesterday we tried to find a pattern that would help us solve it; some of us did it by counting the number of steps; others did it by trying to visualize a pattern as we moved the circles around; now it's time to find a way to express the pattern that we found in two ways: with a sentence that explains the pattern and finally with mathematical symbols. The link named Tower will bring you to an applet that allows you to play the game. Then answer the questions below.

1. Write a description of how you solved the puzzle for three disks.

2. How did you know that you found the least number of steps?

3. Using x = the number of disks, write a mathematical expression to describe the pattern.

Post the answers in the comment window on the link below.

The Mathematics of Flying

One of the earliest attempts to fly was with the use of a kite; in the year 1894 a man named Hargrave was lifted from the ground by a group of four cellular kites; As many of you know Ben Franklin used kites to help in his study of lightening. Kites have been used during wars to lift men high enough to see across a battle field and spy on the enemy. For the third trimester we will build our own kites to help us study the math of flying. The first step in our project is to study the different types of kites and pick one that you think you would like to make.The links to the right will bring you to pages that have articles on the history of kites, the different types of kites and how kites are made; your challenge today is to read each page and post a comment to me about which type of kite you would like to make and why.