Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
you can play a game that addresses conversational mathematics. It is designed to
draw you into an activity that forces you to set aside notions that you can do only
what you do well. There is none of that here. You just do what you do and leave it
at that.
To gain the most from such an experience, play with Visual Formula and learn
how to set up equations and view the values and graphs that result from them.
Then change the equations. Each time you change an equation, you extend your
explorations. Each time you change an equation, you make something familiar
strange but at the same time something strange familiar.
Likewise, from the first realize that it is not necessary to be systematic. The
chapters in this topic may convey a sense of disorganization. View your study of
math along the lines of a novel by Joseph Conrad. You can venture from island to
island, finding new adventures on each one. Just because one proves a little
strange just now does not mean that you cannot go on to another and return
later. Chance can prevail.
One way to understand this approach to the topic at hand is to consider that in
the vast majority of instances, people study grammar and composition only after
they have learned the language. Along the same lines, if you have a way of
visualizing and playing with math before you pursue a systematic knowledge of
it, your adventure becomes one of recognizing familiar features in new and more
intricate ways.
This provides a way that you can increase the chance that you can acquire
knowledge and feel confident about the knowledge you acquire. It also allows you
to review what you have learned with greater confidence. Along with these
benefits, Visual Formula can serve as a special sort of map that allows you to
explore a new territory in a way you find more comfortable.
Algebra and Trigonometry
Algebra allows you to converse using variables. It allows you to set up equations.
It allows you to explore the properties of numbers. It also allows you to explore
how to graph equations using the Cartesian coordinate system. When you can
graph the relations you explore using algebra, you find that you begin examining
the behavior of numbers as specific types of patterns.
Math might be viewed as a way of formally expressing patterns. Likewise,
everything can be viewed as a pattern. Some patterns are found. Others are
