Calculation

Out of the many in class assignments, projects, and tasks, my favorite times were when we would collect data to calculate and later interpret. But before things can be interpreted, generated and presented in the ever wonderful “show, don’t tell” class theme, data must first be properly calculated to its finished form. In class the three most memorable calculations involved assignments were calculation tree height, calculation probability in dice rolls and generalizing the rolls, and once again to the regression assignment. Starting with the tree height assignment, the calculations were simple enough if we were clear and concise at all times in our measurements because of the endless variables in which might throw off the calculations at the final steps, such as measuring the person who measures the angle incorrectly by measuring their overall height instead of their eye height, or not moving back far enough from the base of the selected tree to see the actual highest point. But if everything was perfect and all calculations were made correctly we were always able to get the right tree height. I really liked this assignment because it got us out of the classroom and onto our really well kept and wonderful looking campus. Although one of the hardest parts to this assignment for me was finding the correct trees to measure base on the very detailed map so generously provided by the professors because I am the worst when it come to navigating campus. In the dice rolling assignment, we broke off into groups of two’s and rolled dice to get the probability of what we will most often or will rarely roll based off of our personal averages and then our group averages. Most individual groups got a good mismatch of rolls but when bar graphed, there was a slight bell curve in a majority of them with the exception of one or two. It wasn’t until we graphed all of our work to reveal a very obvious bell curve to our calculations and averages through the dice rolls. Lastly was the regression worksheet in which we had to properly calculate every ones’ ages from years and months to just number of months alive based on age. By being able to properly calculate this data, we were able to then take a much easier number to work with to graph, compare, and interpret the data for the rest of the assignment which required a number of scatter plots which then revealed trends calculated by the sheets program we were using.