MATH SL IA QUESTION

[cvillau]

Hi guys! 

I wanted to ask for any suggestions of things I could add to my math IA. 

Im gonna do it about the mathematics in tennis and I've already got a few ideas but  as we all know that in IB they love when we add things that are considered of a higher level, I'd wanted to ask you for any suggestions you could have that could make me  expand a little bit my IA and make it more interesting and appealing. For example I thought about finding the equation of the parabola with matrixes, which we dont study in IB. 

 

So any ideas please answer this post!

Thanks very much!!

Claudia

[IB Math Helper]

Hi, I'm an IB examiner so I can give you a few suggestions:

It's very important to look at the criteria because that's what examiners use to give you marks. Specifically, for Criterion E: Use of Mathematics, in order to score the highest mark in this criterion (6/6), you need to demonstrate "thorough knowledge and understanding". That is, can you explain the use of systems of equations and connect them with matrices to find the co-efficients for x^2, x and the constant for the quadratic model of the tennis ball? Can you do this in a thorough manner such that the examiner knows you have an in-depth understanding of this? Matrices is beyond the scope of the curriculum. If you use it without showing any understanding, the maximum you can get is 2/6 for Criterion E. However, if you're able to sufficiently explain WHY and HOW it works, then you could potentially get 6/6.

The important takeaway here is that you do not have to go beyond the scope of the curriculum to get the maximum mark. However, if you choose to do so, make sure you can thoroughly explain the relevance of what you have used.

Keep the criteria in mind at ALL times. At the end of the day, your teachers and the examiners who mark your IA refer to the criteria to assign your grade.

With regards to your question above, here are some other things you could consider:

1) Combining calculus with quadratic functions. Assuming you can model the path of a tennis ball as a quadratic function (distance vs time), you can use the derivative function to calculate the speed at different points of the path.

2) Using Trigonometry and the quadratic function to find the best angle to hit the ball so you can have an ace. You can use some physics knowledge (if you've studied that) to help you with this.

Hope this helps.

[cvillau]

Thank you very much !

I really appreciate your help, it was very usefull !

 

[cvillau]

11 hours ago, IB Math Helper said:

Hi, I'm an IB examiner so I can give you a few suggestions:

It's very important to look at the criteria because that's what examiners use to give you marks. Specifically, for Criterion E: Use of Mathematics, in order to score the highest mark in this criterion (6/6), you need to demonstrate "thorough knowledge and understanding". That is, can you explain the use of systems of equations and connect them with matrices to find the co-efficients for x^2, x and the constant for the quadratic model of the tennis ball? Can you do this in a thorough manner such that the examiner knows you have an in-depth understanding of this? Matrices is beyond the scope of the curriculum. If you use it without showing any understanding, the maximum you can get is 2/6 for Criterion E. However, if you're able to sufficiently explain WHY and HOW it works, then you could potentially get 6/6.

The important takeaway here is that you do not have to go beyond the scope of the curriculum to get the maximum mark. However, if you choose to do so, make sure you can thoroughly explain the relevance of what you have used.

Keep the criteria in mind at ALL times. At the end of the day, your teachers and the examiners who mark your IA refer to the criteria to assign your grade.

With regards to your question above, here are some other things you could consider:

1) Combining calculus with quadratic functions. Assuming you can model the path of a tennis ball as a quadratic function (distance vs time), you can use the derivative function to calculate the speed at different points of the path.

2) Using Trigonometry and the quadratic function to find the best angle to hit the ball so you can have an ace. You can use some physics knowledge (if you've studied that) to help you with this.

Hope this helps.

I'll keep in touch and tell you what Im up to when I start working working on it in depth on it as i go back to school. I also had the idea of working with statistics ; Using the highest and lowest hits, or maybe I could do statistics with different ranges of heights, or of distances. Like the amount of balls that go between 5-10 cm over the net, between 10-20cm over the net... Or the balls that go in distance between 0-50 cm from the net, from 50 cm to 1m from the net... What do you think?? How'd you make it work. I thought of recording a game just for 15 mins or so, and doing the statistics and all of the calculus  with that data.

[IB Math Helper]

If you can record video and measure the distance and create a cumulative-frequency graph of the data, then go for it.

But the more important thing to consider is the variable that you are measuring. That is, can you answer why the distance above the net of a shot is important? Why is it important to measure this distance? Is a higher distance better than a shorter one?

Basically ask yourself first which variables are important and then collect data for it and not the other way around.

Edited August 13, 2016 by IB Math Helper