The purpose of this exercise is to familiarize students with the
vocabulary terms used in the article "Computer Recreations - A computer
microscope zooms in for a look at the most complex object in
mathematics." It will also lead students into further
consideration of the meaning of the article and how math and computers
relate to each other.
Students will take the set of terms listed below and sort them into the following categories:
For many of the terms, different answers may be acceptable - but students should be prepared to defend their answers in class. If after reading the article the meaning of one of these terms is still unclear, the student should look up the term in the dictionary, or better yet on the internet through a source such as wikipedia.org.
Extra Credit: Students will suggest at least two other plausible categories for sorting at least some (but not necessarily all) of the vocabulary terms.
| Real | Imaginary |
| Distance/Size | Complex Number |
| Coordinate | Set |
| Plane | Operation |
| Number | Fractal Geometry |
| Boundary | i |
| Iteration/Iterative | Hypotenuse |
| Finite | Infinity |
| Pixel | Theorem |
| Point | Color |
| Array | Row/Columns |