Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Holy shift, look at the asymptotes on that mother function!

The things we do for our kids.

My son says their pre-calculus class is studying shapes (first of all, back in my day, this class was called trigonometry; and second of all, I don't remember doing these kinds of shapes, but, whatever), and if they bring in a food like one of the shapes, they'll get extra credit. So after much discussion, with my son trying to explain these shapes to me (I vaguely remember the word "asymptote," but not what it means), he asked me if I'd make my specialty red velvet cake, but in a tube pan. All I did was bake it and make the icing, he did the rest.


As you can see, the "rest" meant cutting it in half, cutting the extra rectangle cake in half to extend the legs of the shape, then frosting it. I covered a piece of cardboard in foil for easy transportation. But to get extra-extra points, he drew out the axis, (I'm not sure how you pluralize that word), the asymptotes, and the functions using a sharpie on the board. The extra points were needed, and the cake was enjoyed by all.


P.S. I give credit to the catchy title of this post to my son's friend, Sammie, who came up with it for a math bumper sticker assignment. Despite being a kick-your-butt hard class, occasionally they do fun things, too.

1 comment:

Nic Hohn said...

What a great mum you are....and who ever though Maths could taste good?