<=+=+=+>¢ The following article is from one of¢ our very newest members RUDY¢ DiGIOSAFFATTE. Thanks RUDY, you¢ already show that you will be an¢ important member of OL' HACKERS!¢¢ HIGH FLYING IDEAS.¢¢ In a moment of wild optimism, I¢ purchased a 1020 printer, hoping that¢ my son would use it for algebra. He¢ hasn't used it yet, but it has given¢ me many hours of enjoyment. I am a¢ math teacher, and it was great to¢ create line designs on the 1020 on¢ snow days, after the show was shoveled¢ and work on students' papers was¢ done.¢¢ WHERE THERE IS A WILL THERES A WAY.¢ ¢ My programing skills are not¢ great to begin with and are, or were,¢ very rusty, but the brute force method¢ worked pretty well. That is, use GOTO¢ to skip parts of the design that are¢ correct and play around with one¢ section at a time until it is right. ¢ One of the designs, a seemingly simple¢ 4-point pinwheel, took me about¢ twenty-five tries to get right, but it¢ was fun and some of the mistakes look¢ pretty good.¢¢ EVEN MINIMAL KNOWLEDGE+SKILL=BEAUTY.¢¢ Using the computer to do line¢ designs was much more fun for me than¢ using a compass, protractor, and¢ straight-edge would have been. Some ¢ knowledge of trigonometry is necessary¢ and some skill in geometry. If, on¢ top of that, you have some programing¢ skills, you can have a lot of pleasure¢ creating beautiful mathematical¢ designs. If you have good programing¢ skills, I envy you.¢¢ WANT TO BE UNIQUE?¢¢ If you come up with a design you¢ really like, you can take it to your¢ local photo shop and have it blown up¢ and printed on a t-shirt that will be¢ unique.¢¢ AN ASSIGNMENT FROM THE TEACHER¢¢ Here is a challenge: write a¢ universal spiral program that requires¢ the user to input the number of sides¢ and will take it from there. Now I¢ really sound like a teacher. If anyone¢ knows of any good programs that would¢ enable the user to plot equations,¢ please share them.¢¢ HERES AN INEXPENSIVE WAY TO HAVE FUN.¢¢ 1020 printers are available for¢ about $20.00 plus shipping and¢ handling. Be sure to get extra pens¢ and extra rolls of paper, in case you¢ get hooked.¢¢ (Editor, Thanks RUDY you hit upon the¢ OL' HACKERS theme. This is what we are¢ all about, SHARING what we know!)¢ <*><*>¢
