Laboratory / Mathematics

Change and accumulation

Move two points together on a parabola and watch the secant slope approach a tangent slope. Then accumulate rectangles under that slope curve and compare the total with the original change in position.

Change one thing
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Move two points together on a parabola and watch the secant slope approach a tangent slope. Then accumulate rectangles under that slope curve and compare the total with the original change in position. Current reading: 11 rectangles approximate the accumulated area. Narrower intervals expose the curve more faithfully.
What changed

11 rectangles approximate the accumulated area. Narrower intervals expose the curve more faithfully.

Return to the route

Experiment after prediction.

Before changing a control, say which visible feature should move and which should remain invariant. That prediction is the useful part of the experiment; motion alone is not evidence.