CJeremy Posted September 14, 2017 Report Share Posted September 14, 2017 (edited) Hello everyone. Currently I'm trying to think of a topic and a research question for the extended essay. Among the 6 subject groups, only math(and maybe physics) is of interest to me, but right now I'm not sure if my topic would work well for me so I would like to ask you guys to pitch in your thoughts or suggestions on it. My idea is trying to derive a formula for any conic section that is in an angle using analytical geometry and loci, and maybe compare it with other methods like matrices or rotation functions. I don't have a lot of idea on matrices though I also want to try to use the applications of calculus, but i dont know where to start thanks for the help Edited September 14, 2017 by CJeremy Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kw0573 Posted September 14, 2017 Report Share Posted September 14, 2017 For sake of academic integrity, IB does not allow others to "recommend" topics for you. The conic section topic sounds interesting and appropriate to the level of math in IB. May 2019 exams ... are you IB Year 1? If so you don't have to worry too much about the EE right now as you probably will learn a little bit of matrices when you do vectors in HL. Regarding using matrices to do transformations, you may want to reference some linear algebra textbook on transformations. This transformation is very analogous to u-substitution, which you will learn in Calculus in HL, but there is likely very little calculus in the topic itself as you are not finding rate of change or sum of anything. With that said, you definitely should understand the math of your EE topic early on (say at least 4-5 months before it's due) to prepare for the structuring of your essay. 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJeremy Posted September 15, 2017 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2017 Yes, i am in year 1 haha, but i am worried because in our school, the extended essay coordinator set a deadline on the 23rd to propose the topic, the research question, polish it and be assigned to a EE supervisor and talk about it, so i really feel helpless as i dont know if my idea would work out, especially that not many ib students do math EEs and some sample math EEs i read had good content i couldnt even think of doing. Anyways, thank you haha Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kw0573 Posted September 15, 2017 Report Share Posted September 15, 2017 I see, although your coordinator's approach clearly place people who want to do a group 4 or 5 EE at a clear advantage, as you do not know enough content to even think of about the EE. To satisfy your school requirements, you should tentatively brainstorm a couple of topics of which you have somewhat of an understanding of the math. Give these to your math teacher, and later when you cover more syllabus, you can always add more math concepts and make the topic more complex. However I can tell you analytical geometry and matrix rotations are out of syllabus. The HL topics are found in the HL guide Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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