ptolemy.co.uk » KS4 (GCSE)

Mandelbrot Set

Alec — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 08:07:44 +0000

An incredible rendering of the MandelBrot Set, which drives home the notion of infinite complexity!

http://vimeo.com/1908224?hd=1

As the comments underneath the video allude to, there is some utility here to attempt to consider the size of magnification that occurs during a portion of the video, and how to express magnifications of such a magnitude.

Visualising Tiny Things

Alec — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:25:49 +0000

I stumbled across this lovely page from the University of Utah today, which is extremely simple, but nevertheless well done:

Cell Size And Scale

From a scientific perspective it is interesting to reflect upon the relative sizes of elements, from a Coffee Bean to a Carbon Atom (through various things such as a human Ovum, Sperm, various viruses, compounds and so on).

From a mathematical perspective it is also interesting for the way in which the relative scales are measured in the top-left. Exploring the different notations for small sizes would be a useful exercise in place-value for all levels of Key Stage 3 and 4.

Venn Diagrams (And Mythical Creatures!)

Alec — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:57:02 +0000

This is a delightful way to revise Venn Diagrams with older students: A Venn Diagram of mythical creatures.

Visit Flickr for the original at a range of sizes.