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Topic: Does step size really equal speed?
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Subject:   RE: Does step size really equal speed?
Author: suehellman
Date: Feb 6 2010
Here's my nickels' worth: as I look at the graph, I see several "limitations" so
that it is not a perfect representation of reality. The runners race at a
constant rate. If a runner faces backwards, he cannot move. When the runners are
stopped, time stops as well. But these do not take away from its potential as a
teaching TOOL to get students thinking about relationships of variables on a
graph.

I think it would be an important discussion to talk about how step size is
arrived at -- in this case rise/run and how strange it is to think that a
giant-sized change in position/a giant-sized time can be equivalent to a
tiny distance/tiny run.

I see the 'steps', not as steps people would take which cannot be counted on
this graph, but like the steps on a staircase graph and then the analogy bends
to nicely take students to an understanding of slope.
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