1. Describe your story and what real-life situation it modeled?
My story is about how Alan check on Baidu Map the time needed for a journey to a friend’s place in order to determine when to leave home. However, after delaying the departure time for 10 mins, the traffic conditions got worse. In addition, he took a wrong turn which he did not budget for. As a result, he was late for an hour. The story modeled situation where sometimes we check online for the time required for a journey without thinking that traffic conditions change quite dramatically depending on the time of the day. In addition, there could be unexpected situation (such as taking a wrong turn) when we drive. Throughout this ride, Alan had times where the road was really congested, fast-driving on the highway, even a wrong turn. I drew a graph modeling his distance to the destination against time to record his journey.
2. What part of your project are you most proud of? Why?
I am the most proud of my explanation of the story problem. I draw a very clear graph in recording his journey. I also managed to explain what each interval means and were able to put down the equations for them. I feel like I tried my best to give a “mathematic description”, using numbers, x’s and y’s to represent Alan’s trip.
3. What was the hardest part of creating your piecewise function?
The hardest part for me was to create the story as it needed to have the different intervals and at the same time it needed to be realistic. I think the story I have created is interesting and definitely realistic. Before this creation, I spent a lot of time and effort brainstorming lots of ideas before deciding on this particular story.
4. If you could revise one part of this project, what would you improve and how?
If I could revise and improve this project, I would try harder to give an explanation that is easier to understand. Even though I have it very precise, I feel like I can organize it into a form which it will be easier for the reader to get a clearer idea on what I am talking about.
5. What did this project help you understand better about piecewise functions?
I think the project helped me a lot in understanding the things we have learned in class. Although I felt I was quite familiar with the concept of piecewise functions before the project, having to come up with a real-life situations gave me a deeper understanding. After the project, I understood how things like slopes, intervals, equations could help explain real-life situations. I also acquired a much better feel on how a graph could help explain a real-life situation.