Skip to content Skip to navigation Skip to collection information
Inside Collection: Advanced Algebra II: Activities and Homework
Summary: This module provides sample problems which develop concepts related to using matrices for transformations.
You are an animator for the famous company Copycat Studios. Your job is to take the diagram of the “fish” below (whose name is Harpoona) and animate a particular scene for your soon-to-be-released movie.
In this particular scene, the audience is looking down from above on Harpoona who begins the scene happily floating on the surface of the water. Here is a picture of Harpoona as she is happily floating on the surface.
 |
Here is the matrix that represents her present idyllic condition.
Explain, in words, how this matrix represents her position. That is, how can this matrix give instructions to a computer on exactly how to draw Harpoona?
The transformation
Now, Harpoona is going to swim three units to the left. Write below a general transformation that can be applied to any 2×4 matrix to move a drawing three units to the left.
Harpoona—in her original configuration before she was transformed in either way—now undergoes the transformation
Now: in the movie’s key scene, the audience is looking down from above on Harpoona who begins the scene happily floating on the surface of the water. As the scene progresses, our heroine spins around and around in a whirlpool as she is slowly being sucked down to the bottom of the sea. “Being sucked down” is represented visually, of course, by shrinking.
More about this module: Metadata | Downloads | Version History
This work is licensed by Kenny M. Felder under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 2.0), and is an Open Educational Resource.
Last edited by Kenny M. Felder on Jan 7, 2009 3:43 pm -0600.
"This is the "main" book in Kenny Felder's "Advanced Algebra II" series. This text was created with a focus on 'doing' and 'understanding' algebra concepts rather than simply hearing about them in […]"