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Re: Fractals
Posted:
May 4, 1995 9:30 PM
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Do we always have to "discuss" at the formal level? How do we get
there? Shouldn't we be helping our students _how_ we can discuss these
ideas in more and more formal way as they progress? I don't know how
solving thousands of word problems in themselves will make the students
able to "discuss" fractals at this formal level. It could be that some
people cannot discuss fractals without logarithms because they do not
know how to communicate at different levels (just like some teachers
cannot discuss math topics at children's level)? I tend to think the
ability to talk simply about the complex ideas is a gift.
Tad Watanabe
Towson State University
Towson, Maryland
On Thu, 4 May 1995, Andrei TOOM wrote:
> On Thu, 4 May 1995, Tad Watanabe wrote:
>
> > Well, reading other people's response, I'm not sure why you say you
> > cannot discuss fractals without logarthms. It sure sounds like
> > investigations of fractals can serve the purpose of intellectual
> > development of students. I wonder what you meant by "discuss." I wonder
> > if you were thinking of "discussion" at much more sophisticated levels.
>
> What remains from fractals if you discuss them with people
> who don't know logarithms ? Rorschach-like blots ?
> Small children can produce them in quantities.
> By `discuss' I mean at least formulate their mathematical properties.
> I thought `fractals' mean that they have non-integer
> fractal dimension. Please, remember its definition.
> Andrei
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