Yellow+Thinking

Troubleshooting FAQ
Here are some frequently Asked Questions to help you through the "Surprise" excercise.

=__Diving the Circle/ Mathematics__= If you have connected each dot to every other dot and counted every single region, your answers should be the same. It could be that you have spaced the points to evenly around the circle, and you have three lines intersecting in one place. There should be another region where the intersection is. This is a condition in the directed investigation because it affects the results. As shown in the picture below.
 * My results are different to the ones you got. What did I do wrong?**

Drawing a bigger circle can really help when you get to the circle with many regions. Using a compass, ruler and sharp pencil to draw a circle with neat, straight lines can help too. The hard part is predicting how big you need to draw the circle. We found drawing them on the computer helped as you could blow up the image to a bigger size. You can also use our pictures if you like. [|Circle segments.doc]
 * I'm finding it near impossible to count the regions. Is there a better way?**

We assume that there will be 32 regions because until here it has followed the pattern of doubling each time. So we are surprised when we get 31 instead of 32. This is because it actually follows the pattern of lines+intersections+1 or ax^4+bx^3+cx^2+dx+e.
 * I assumed that there would be 32 regions when I connected the 6 dots, but I always get 31. Why?**

It seems like a simple problem with a simple geometric formula. The surprise is that there isn’t one. But there are a couple of quite complicated ones. lines+intersections+1 seems like a simple geometric formula, but when relating it to the number of points, it becomes quite complicated. We have tried different formulas and the ones we present on our wiki are the most simple and accurate we could find.
 * Is there a simple formula?**

=__Finding and Using the Resources__= Look in the catalogue of your local library or look in the Flinders Library catalogue. You can access it through the [|ASMS portal] or through this link: http://www.lib.flinders.edu.au/ To save you some time, the book's call number in the Sturt Library is //512.7 C767b//. But you should still check the catalogue to check it isn't on loan. You can also find a preview of the book of numbers at [|Google books - Book of Numbers]. However this may not be helpful as the chapter //How Many Regions?// (pg 76-79) are not available in the preview.
 * Where can I find the Book of Numbers?**

Here is the book's information to help you with your search: //Book of Numbers by John H Conway and Richard K Guy Published 1996 by Springer 310 pages//

Cover picture from: http://images.amazon.com/images/P/038797993X.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Follow link to Green thinking how-to

We found the book is tough to understand but you can find useful information there. The section on regions of a circle is from pages 76-79. The book doesn't actually include a formula but it does give some strategies for working it out yourself.
 * I can't understand the Book of Numbers. Where do I look in it? Where's the formula?**

There is a link to the directed investigation on the home page of this wiki. You can also find it on the [|ASMS portal] under collaboration>virtual classrooms>MAT 1>Immersion>Group task>Suprise. It is also on the R drive. Or you can acces it by clicking on the following link. [|Surprise!.doc]
 * Where can I find the Directed Investigation?**

Try looking in another library or searching the internet for a similar book. Or you can look for a preview of a book at [|books.google.com]. It won't include the whole book but it may include the information you need. If you're really desperate for it and can't find it anywhere else, you could just buy a copy from somewhere like Amazon books.
 * The library doesn’t have the book I need. What do I do?**

Try to be precise with your keywords when searching the internet. Obviously, just using the keyword ‘circle’ will not return relevant results as if you had searched for ‘regions of a circle’. Using Google as your search engine may also be a good idea as it is generally quite reliable. But other than that, you can’t do much but read the brief descriptions and judge whether it’s related to what you’re looking for.
 * How do I find what I’m looking for on the internet?**

=__Writing a Wiki__= - to a file -** Click edit page. On the toolbar press the insert files/images button. It's a tree in a box. Then press browse. Browse through your harddrive to find the file you want to attatch and press upload. You will then see it's icon. Choose whether you want to insert the file or make a link to it and double click on your file's icon.
 * How do I attatch a link?
 * - to a web site -** Click edit page. On the toolbar press the insert link button. It's a globe with a chain. Write the text you want to link. Choose whether you want it to be within the wiki or whether it's an external link. Type in the wikipage or URL address.