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A Beautiful Maths Game

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Re: A Beautiful Maths Game

#11

Post by John2022 »

empath75 wrote: post #3
John2022 wrote: post #2

I think there's a good idea in there, but it's likely to confuse as is. It seems unhelpful at best to have the task to be to determine a function involving only x and y, but then you to have to click on t, and somehow that implicitly changes x and y values. They should, in my view, have had y as a function of t, and dropped x. Or another solution that doesn't create confusion. I also think it's weird that changing th…

There are two separate equations here, one is the slope of the mountain, which is a function of x and a value of y and one is the path of the sled, which is a function of t, with a value of (x,y)

But nowhere (at least in the first couple of levels) does it refer to the slope of the mountain - it says the task is to find "the path of the sled".

But even ignoring that, nowhere does it define the relationship between t and x. What I assume they mean but don't say is that x=t. That's arbitrary.

Also I assume you mean the path of the sled is (t, f(t)) where f is the function defining the slope. If the path of the sled had a value of (x,y) it would be stationary :)

Re: A Beautiful Maths Game

#13

Post by John2022 »

mlyle wrote: post #5
John2022 wrote: post #2

I think there's a good idea in there, but it's likely to confuse as is. It seems unhelpful at best to have the task to be to determine a function involving only x and y, but then you to have to click on t, and somehow that implicitly changes x and y values. They should, in my view, have had y as a function of t, and dropped x. Or another solution that doesn't create confusion. I also think it's weird that changing th…

> They should, in my view, have had y as a function of t, and dropped x. Then you could have only had a flat floor that moved up and down. If you need shape that changes, you need it to be a function of both x and t. So e.g. (x-t)^2 / 5 is a parabola shaped "bowl" that moves right at 1 unit per second.

Yeah sorry I wasn't clear. What I meant was that they are setting x=t but not saying that.

Re: A Beautiful Maths Game

#15

Post by mlyle »

John2022 wrote: post #13
mlyle wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They should, in my view, have had y as a function of t, and dropped x. Then you could have only had a flat floor that moved up and down. If you need shape that changes, you need it to be a function of both x and t. So e.g. (x-t)^2 / 5 is a parabola shaped "bowl" that moves right at 1 unit per second.

Yeah sorry I wasn't clear. What I meant was that they are setting x=t but not saying that.

The function sets the shape of the curve that the skier skis down. It is not the path of the skier vs time. (Gravity works, you can jump, etc).

In later levels, you use t to make a floor that actually moves.

The relationship between y and x is the coordinate plane behind the level (you can hold down right click to see it, IIRC).

Re: A Beautiful Maths Game

#17

Post by dylan604 »

John2022 wrote: post #11
empath75 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two separate equations here, one is the slope of the mountain, which is a function of x and a value of y and one is the path of the sled, which is a function of t, with a value of (x,y)

But nowhere (at least in the first couple of levels) does it refer to the slope of the mountain - it says the task is to find "the path of the sled". But even ignoring that, nowhere does it define the relationship between t and x. What I assume they mean but don't say is that x=t. That's arbitrary. Also I assume you mean the path of the sled is (t, f(t)) where f is the function defining the slope. If the path of the…

Seeing how the shape of the mountain IS the path of the sled, how does changing the shape of the mountain NOT change the path for you?

Re: A Beautiful Maths Game

#18

Post by Nevermark »

dylan604 wrote: post #17
John2022 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But nowhere (at least in the first couple of levels) does it refer to the slope of the mountain - it says the task is to find "the path of the sled". But even ignoring that, nowhere does it define the relationship between t and x. What I assume they mean but don't say is that x=t. That's arbitrary. Also I assume you mean the path of the sled is (t, f(t)) where f is the function defining the slope. If the path of the…

Seeing how the shape of the mountain IS the path of the sled, how does changing the shape of the mountain NOT change the path for you?

The path is flat by default, and mostly flat by initial expression. So it might not strike someone that the shape of the path is a mountain shape.

Perhaps "the shape of a path down a mountain" would make everyone happy.

Re: A Beautiful Maths Game

#19

Post by quuxplusone »

Doesn't seem to work on Chrome on OSX. I see a sort of LineRider-esque game screen, with an equation Y=(some math) at the bottom middle, and a button that just says "click here!" at the bottom right. There's also a mountain and a gear at upper right and upper left respectively.

Clicking on the button that says "click here!" has no effect.

Clicking on the equation allows me to change it; this changes the slope of the ski slope. I think what's supposed to happen here is that when you change the slope under the sled to be non-horizontal, the sled should start moving — sliding down the slope you just created, toward the second snowman. But that doesn't happen in Chrome.

Clicking on the mountain leads to what I assume is a level-selection screen; I didn't investigate further.

Clicking on the gear leads to a settings screen; I didn't investigate further.

There's no obvious tutorial or "help text" button.

Also, the site doesn't really deal with the browser's back button correctly. I'm not sure what it's doing, but it seems to fill up the history with instances of itself, maybe on every click, which made it... more difficult than necessary... to get back to HN afterward.

Re: A Beautiful Maths Game

#20

Post by robinhouston »

quuxplusone wrote: post #19

Doesn't seem to work on Chrome on OSX. I see a sort of LineRider-esque game screen, with an equation Y=(some math) at the bottom middle, and a button that just says "click here!" at the bottom right. There's also a mountain and a gear at upper right and upper left respectively. Clicking on the button that says "click here!" has no effect. Clicking on the equation allows me to change it; this changes the slope of the…

Click the green box that says t=0, next to where it says Click here.
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