Once Upon a Prime
Once upon a Prime is a math project that incorporates math, history, and creative writing. We began with a story about someone who has played a important role in the history of mathematics. Next, we wrote a fictional piece incorporating the real dates, math, and acurrate facts about our persons live. I choose Richard Arenstorf, the man who solved the three body problem that was necessary to launch the apollo 11 to the moon. Next I teamed up with other students that had stories from the same time period as mine. Together we made a time line made of a collage of important events in history as well as quotes from our own writing. This was to illustrate what as occurring on earth while this math was being discovered. Our group covered 1960-2013. Together, our whole class as a whole had created a time line dating back to 4000 ad. We then complied all of our stories online into a digital time line.
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"Richard Arenstorf, professor emeritus of mathematics,
was responsible for this feat in mathematics and
consequently for mankind"
Lula Richardson
December 12, 2012
Richard Arenstorf: The math that took us to the moon
Cape Kidney, Florida july 16th 1969. 9:26 am EDT. America gathers to watch the countdown on television. “Five minutes fifty two second and counting” a man announced. Watching each second pass in slow motion, time began to slow with anticipation. To the people involved in the launch of apollo 11 it was quite the opposite, these few minutes went by quicker, as every moment passed hundreds of things were doubled checked, fueled, and prepared. As the clock struck 0 everybody was on the same page and the whole nation held their breath. Beams of fire shot out from the bottom of the spacecraft as a cloud of smoke shot out behind it. It began to raise up into the air, fighting the laws of gravity it shot up into the sky with a velocity of 2091 feet per second. About one minutes after launch Huston announced it was 30 miles out as the now tiny aircraft faded out of sight from all tv screens. This launch brought man to the moon but first it was all made possible by some crucial and innovative mathematical problem solving.
To figure out the route for the apollo 11 to the moon NASA scientists had to find a new solution for a difficult mathematical problem that had been studied for more than 300 years by a number of famous mathematicians, including Lagrange, Euler and Poincare. This problem was called the three-body problem.
Richard Arenstorf, professor emeritus of mathematics, was responsible for this feat in mathematics and consequently for mankind. Richard Arenstorf had gone through the 2 body problem a hundred times. Something most of his student and colleagues struggled with. It was easy for him. He always had a unique way of thinking about things that allowed him to remember many variables in his head at once. “The two body problem was simple” he thought. The two-body problem is to solve the motion of two point that interact only with one another. The most common examples are classical electron orbiting an atomic nucleus or a satellite orbiting a planet. For a problem of this natural you need a quantum mechanical approach. See its that third variable that really complicates things. In this case those three variables were the earth, the moon, and the space craft. Now when most people watching that tv the day the apollo launch it seemed fairly simple. It is a common thought to this its a straight shot to the moon. Richardson Arenstorf knew this wasn't the case. The complexity of solving the effect of three bodies which all pull on each other while moving is extraordinarily hard to imagine. Richard Arenstorf spent many years trying to solve this problem. It wasn't until one night when he was just about to quite that he discovered the solution. Arenstorf found a stable orbit for a spacecraft orbiting between the Earth and Moon. It was shaped like a figure eight. Imagine a loop around each planet.
December 12, 2012
Richard Arenstorf: The math that took us to the moon
Cape Kidney, Florida july 16th 1969. 9:26 am EDT. America gathers to watch the countdown on television. “Five minutes fifty two second and counting” a man announced. Watching each second pass in slow motion, time began to slow with anticipation. To the people involved in the launch of apollo 11 it was quite the opposite, these few minutes went by quicker, as every moment passed hundreds of things were doubled checked, fueled, and prepared. As the clock struck 0 everybody was on the same page and the whole nation held their breath. Beams of fire shot out from the bottom of the spacecraft as a cloud of smoke shot out behind it. It began to raise up into the air, fighting the laws of gravity it shot up into the sky with a velocity of 2091 feet per second. About one minutes after launch Huston announced it was 30 miles out as the now tiny aircraft faded out of sight from all tv screens. This launch brought man to the moon but first it was all made possible by some crucial and innovative mathematical problem solving.
To figure out the route for the apollo 11 to the moon NASA scientists had to find a new solution for a difficult mathematical problem that had been studied for more than 300 years by a number of famous mathematicians, including Lagrange, Euler and Poincare. This problem was called the three-body problem.
Richard Arenstorf, professor emeritus of mathematics, was responsible for this feat in mathematics and consequently for mankind. Richard Arenstorf had gone through the 2 body problem a hundred times. Something most of his student and colleagues struggled with. It was easy for him. He always had a unique way of thinking about things that allowed him to remember many variables in his head at once. “The two body problem was simple” he thought. The two-body problem is to solve the motion of two point that interact only with one another. The most common examples are classical electron orbiting an atomic nucleus or a satellite orbiting a planet. For a problem of this natural you need a quantum mechanical approach. See its that third variable that really complicates things. In this case those three variables were the earth, the moon, and the space craft. Now when most people watching that tv the day the apollo launch it seemed fairly simple. It is a common thought to this its a straight shot to the moon. Richardson Arenstorf knew this wasn't the case. The complexity of solving the effect of three bodies which all pull on each other while moving is extraordinarily hard to imagine. Richard Arenstorf spent many years trying to solve this problem. It wasn't until one night when he was just about to quite that he discovered the solution. Arenstorf found a stable orbit for a spacecraft orbiting between the Earth and Moon. It was shaped like a figure eight. Imagine a loop around each planet.
Project Reflection
What challenges did you face along the way?
The biggest challenge I faced was trying to wrap my head round the three body problem. To write about the three body problem I first had to figure it out myself. This took about 4 websites and rereading a sentence about 20 times. The complexity of even trying to understand what the question is asking you really just goes to show how revolutionary and incredible it was to solve.
How did you know you were done with your final product?
We knew we were finished with the project when we glued down our final image onto our time line bord. It was a moment we had all been anticipating. We had all worked really hard getting everything together.
Where is literacy in the process or product of this project?
Our individual stories required a lot of thought and time. I usually write about current events, issues, literature, or personal experiences so it was a challenge for me to write something that incorporated fiction. I predicted the combination of math and creativity involved in this assignment.
What new ideas or concepts were you introduced to during this project?
Everything I wrote about in my writing piece was new to me. I learn about the math involved in a spacecraft launch and how complex math is in space in general. It was really interesting and inspiring see how useful math is to science and the progression of mankind. It is incredible what we can solve with math.
What has changed about the way you think through problems or situations after completing this project? If nothing has changed, why do you think that is?
While trying to understand the three body problem I had to consider all these three dimensional variables at once. The three body concepts involves gravity which is already a difficult subject to fully understand. I had to envision math as a question of objects all moving at different speeds and in differnt directions. It took math from something two dimensional in my notebook to the actual question math is proposing. By trying to understand what math is physically solving before seeing it written down on paper it helped me make the real world connect math has to practically everything around us.
The biggest challenge I faced was trying to wrap my head round the three body problem. To write about the three body problem I first had to figure it out myself. This took about 4 websites and rereading a sentence about 20 times. The complexity of even trying to understand what the question is asking you really just goes to show how revolutionary and incredible it was to solve.
How did you know you were done with your final product?
We knew we were finished with the project when we glued down our final image onto our time line bord. It was a moment we had all been anticipating. We had all worked really hard getting everything together.
Where is literacy in the process or product of this project?
Our individual stories required a lot of thought and time. I usually write about current events, issues, literature, or personal experiences so it was a challenge for me to write something that incorporated fiction. I predicted the combination of math and creativity involved in this assignment.
What new ideas or concepts were you introduced to during this project?
Everything I wrote about in my writing piece was new to me. I learn about the math involved in a spacecraft launch and how complex math is in space in general. It was really interesting and inspiring see how useful math is to science and the progression of mankind. It is incredible what we can solve with math.
What has changed about the way you think through problems or situations after completing this project? If nothing has changed, why do you think that is?
While trying to understand the three body problem I had to consider all these three dimensional variables at once. The three body concepts involves gravity which is already a difficult subject to fully understand. I had to envision math as a question of objects all moving at different speeds and in differnt directions. It took math from something two dimensional in my notebook to the actual question math is proposing. By trying to understand what math is physically solving before seeing it written down on paper it helped me make the real world connect math has to practically everything around us.