IA Help with chosen topic

[ThePenetrator]

Heya!

 

So a while back we had to pick our IA titles and from the ones I checked out on the internet ''Squaring a Circle'' fascinated me the most. After talking to my teacher we agreed that it's a good start, she said that I should start my reading on it as soon as possible. The problem is that now, when I have started reading the proofs and solutions to the problem, I am a bit dumbfounded as in where to start. Am I supposed to prove or solve the problem on my own terms in the Internal Assessment or am I asked to simply reiterate upon what has already been proved? How should I approach this correctly?

[mechnight]

The well-proved approach is usually to explain some proofs/theorems/whatever your background theory is, and then to apply it to your own problem. Although bear in mind that it's pretty hard, not to say impossible, to discover something entirely new at our, high school level. So your IA is going to be an explanation of already known concepts, one way or another, but it is important to do it in your own way and not just to copy from literature.

[ThePenetrator]

The well-proved approach is usually to explain some proofs/theorems/whatever your background theory is, and then to apply it to your own problem. Although bear in mind that it's pretty hard, not to say impossible, to discover something entirely new at our, high school level. So your IA is going to be an explanation of already known concepts, one way or another, but it is important to do it in your own way and not just to copy from literature.

 

Oooh, so basically I would introduce the concepts (theorems, proofs etc.) that the mathematicians used to crack the problem in the first place, and then would simply use it to create a sample of the investigation myself? In the end the result would be more or less what has already been proved, but I would have told about it in my own manner and through my own investigation/examples. Thanks for the help, sounds logical so far, but correct me if I'm wrong on anything!

[mechnight]

Exactly, that's it. You just need to show to the reader that you understand the maths behind your topic and are able to apply it to a slightly different situations. Be sure to include your sources and add a lot of personal input - helps to use "I" in writing, such as "I wanted to apply this technique to this problem because..."

 

Good luck, feel free to PM me if you need any more help.