Passy's World of Mathematics

My Virtual Home

Posted on August 20, 2011 by Passy

speccy red bedroom Image Source: http://3.bp.blogspot.com “My Virtual Home” is Free downloadable software for making 3D Home Designs. It is great fun to use, but requires a reasonable computer, and a good internet connection. Here at Passy World we downloaded and tried it out, with a view to it being useful for students doing house plan Perimeter and Area type maths assignments. Click the following links for some typical example assignments. http://its.guilford.k12.nc.us/webquests/areaperim/areaperim.htm http://schools.nyc.gov/offices/teachlearn/documents/standards/math/es/67dream.html Using a modern design program on computer like “My Virtual Home” is an engaging and enjoyable way of doing these types of assignments. It would certainly be a more fun, and better learning, than using the traditional ruler, colored pencils,and grid paper. Here is an Intro Video about the My Virtual Home program. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp8dFe_2p9M] YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp8dFe_2p9M Here is another Intro Video that goes for three minutes. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b06Nh02Of_k] YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b06Nh02Of_k This video shows how to Navigate around in My Virtual Homes. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP6GlhPJwJo] YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP6GlhPJwJo Here is a demonstration of Changing channels in MyVirtualHome. These are like different libraries that can be used while making your home. The “Better Homes and Gardens” channel is more focused on outdoor garden design, and the Building channel appears to be for making houses. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdNLGacHR44] YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdNLGacHR44 Here is a video on How to Display Measurements onto floor plans. This is what we need students to do before taking screen shots for their assignments. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4cC85tZpqI] YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4cC85tZpqI This video shows how to use the program Menus. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfe73REzqew] YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfe73REzqew Here is a walk through (has no sound) of a completed home. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hETqJrYQ5g0] YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hETqJrYQ5g0 Downloading the Program This is easily done by clicking the “Download” button on the following site: http://www.myvirtualhome.com.au/ As soon as the program is started for the first time, it is necessary to Register your details by giving a valid email address that a verification email can be sent to with a link that needs to be clicked. You can however use the program for three times before needing to verify it. The program has to download all the components for given houses from the Internet, and this can be up to 150Meg or more of data for a large home that is already furnished. The System Requirements state that at least a 128M 3D graphics card is needed. The PC we tried it on had an old NVidia gaming card in it, with an AMD Quadcore processor, and it was reasonable quality, but not quite 100%. It was okay while moving through the house, but angled lines were slightly jagged whenever we stopped moving. We are not sure how this program would run on a school laptop, but expect that it might be a little bit glitchy in the display. There could also be slow download times for components, depending on how good the school’s wi fi network is. Here is a screen print a house plan with measurements shown from our PC: Here is a screen shot of the walk through view of these rooms: My Virtual Home is a really well made fun program, and is great for designing houses and trying out different floor plans. It would be great for students to use for doing part of a typical Areas and Perimeters House Plan assignment at home, but we are not sure how it would go on the laptops at our particular school. We would need to get the program installed in a computer lab that has reasonable machines, but it would be painful to register each install and give each PC a password. We have emailed My Virtual Home to find out if educational institutions are using the program, and if there a free site version available without passwords that is easier to install and manage. Pending a response, we will update this blog post. Related Items Perimeter Circumference Area of Simple Shapes Area of a Circle Interesting Circles Composite Areas Measurement Formulas Tall Buildings and Huge Water Dam If you enjoyed this post, why not get a free subscription to our website. You can then receive notifications of new pages directly to your email address. Just find the subscribe area on the right hand sidebar, fill in your email address and click the “Subscribe” button. To find out exactly how free subscription works, click the following link: How Free Subscription Works Enjoy, Passy ]]>

Posted in Area, Math in the Real World, My Virtual Home, Online Math Tools, Perimeter | Leave a comment

My Virtual Home

Posted on August 20, 2011 by Passy

Posted in Area, Math in the Real World, My Virtual Home, Online Math Tools, Perimeter | Leave a comment

My Virtual Home

Posted on August 20, 2011 by Passy

Image Source: http://3.bp.blogspot.com

“My Virtual Home” is Free downloadable software for making 3D Home Designs. It is great fun to use, but requires a reasonable computer, and a good internet connection.

Here at Passy World we downloaded and tried it out, with a view to it being useful for students doing house plan Perimeter and Area type maths assignments.

Click the following links for some typical example assignments.

http://its.guilford.k12.nc.us/webquests/areaperim/areaperim.htm

http://schools.nyc.gov/offices/teachlearn/documents/standards/math/es/67dream.html

Using a modern design program on computer like “My Virtual Home” is an engaging and enjoyable way of doing these types of assignments.

It would certainly be a more fun, and better learning, than using the traditional ruler, colored pencils,and grid paper.

Here is an Intro Video about the My Virtual Home program.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp8dFe_2p9M]

YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp8dFe_2p9M

Here is another Intro Video that goes for three minutes.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b06Nh02Of_k]

YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b06Nh02Of_k

This video shows how to Navigate around in My Virtual Homes.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP6GlhPJwJo]

YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP6GlhPJwJo

Here is a demonstration of Changing channels in MyVirtualHome.

These are like different libraries that can be used while making your home. The “Better Homes and Gardens” channel is more focused on outdoor garden design, and the Building channel appears to be for making houses.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdNLGacHR44]

YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdNLGacHR44

Here is a video on How to Display Measurements onto floor plans.

This is what we need students to do before taking screen shots for their assignments.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4cC85tZpqI]

YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4cC85tZpqI

This video shows how to use the program Menus.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfe73REzqew]

YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfe73REzqew

Here is a walk through (has no sound) of a completed home.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hETqJrYQ5g0]

YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hETqJrYQ5g0

Downloading the Program

This is easily done by clicking the “Download” button on the following site:

http://www.myvirtualhome.com.au/

As soon as the program is started for the first time, it is necessary to Register your details by giving a valid email address that a verification email can be sent to with a link that needs to be clicked. You can however use the program for three times before needing to verify it.

The program has to download all the components for given houses from the Internet, and this can be up to 150Meg or more of data for a large home that is already furnished.

The System Requirements state that at least a 128M 3D graphics card is needed. The PC we tried it on had an old NVidia gaming card in it, with an AMD Quadcore processor, and it was reasonable quality, but not quite 100%. It was okay while moving through the house, but angled lines were slightly jagged whenever we stopped moving.

We are not sure how this program would run on a school laptop, but expect that it might be a little bit glitchy in the display. There could also be slow download times for components, depending on how good the school’s wi fi network is.

Here is a screen print a house plan with measurements shown from our PC:

Here is a screen shot of the walk through view of these rooms:

My Virtual Home is a really well made fun program, and is great for designing houses and trying out different floor plans.

It would be great for students to use for doing part of a typical Areas and Perimeters House Plan assignment at home, but we are not sure how it would go on the laptops at our particular school.

We would need to get the program installed in a computer lab that has reasonable machines, but it would be painful to register each install and give each PC a password.

We have emailed My Virtual Home to find out if educational institutions are using the program, and if there a free site version available without passwords that is easier to install and manage. Pending a response, we will update this blog post.

Area of Simple Shapes

Posted on August 19, 2011 by Passy

Image Source: http://rackcdn.com

Perimeter is the distance around the outside of an object, but Area is the amount of space inside a two dimensional flat object.

In this post we look at the area of geometric shapes. However we do not look at Compound Areas or Circles, as these will be covered in other posts.

Areas are Important for Surveyors, Town Planners, and Councils.

Image Source: http://clcreport.files.wordpress.com

Aeronautical Engineers work out the areas of aircraft wings when investigating aerodynamic properties and designs.

Image Source: http://www.grc.nasa.gov

Area is also very important for Builders, when quoting for costs of materials.

Image Source: http://www.ebricksolutions.com

People who work with lighting and media projectors need to understand the mathematics involved with the dispersion and intensity of light.

Image Source: http://www.sciencebuddies.org

Now that we know how important Area is to our everyday lives, let’s start looking at the Mathematics of calculating areas.

Here is a great music video to watch all about Perimeter and Area.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5jTP-q9TgI]

Different shapes have different area formulas.

Area of a Rectangle

A very simple shape is the “Rectangle”.

A Rectangle has an Area of Base x Height, which is sometimes called Length x Width, or Length x Height.

Image Source: http://www.k6-geometric-shapes.com

We can prove this formula by drawing a whole bunch of rectangles, and counting how many squares are inside them.

Image Source: http://www.geom.uiuc.edu

However, not all shapes are as simple as a Rectangle. If we push a Rectangle sideways, we from a Parallelogram.

Area of a Parallelogram

The Area of a Parallelogram is Area = base x height

Here is a video all about the Area of a Parallelogram.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLZd1MD9kaw]

How do you like this for a real life Parallelogram!

Image Source: http://www.elec-intro.com

Area of a Triangle

We could work out the area of a triangle by drawing it to scale on grid paper and counting squares.

Image Source: http://www.geom.uiuc.edu

But it is much easier to measure the triangle’s base and height, and use a mathematical formula to calculate the area.

This formula can be worked out very easily, because a Triangle is half of a Parallelogram.

Area of any Parallelogram is Area = base x height.

So the area of any Triangle is : Area = 1/2 x base x height.

Here is a video that explains how this works.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2avSR3Izbss]

Here is an example of how we calculate the area of a triangle.

Image Source: http://www.loisterms.com

Note that the above example used “FISC” working out steps.

Formula
Information diagram
Substitution of values into Formula
Calculate the final answer and make sure it has square units on it. Eg. sq cm, sq inches, sq km, and so on.

It is vitally important to always show these steps when calculating the area of any shape.

Area of a Trapezium (or Trapezoid).

This shape is a bit like a Parallelogram, except that it only has two parallel sides.
Australians call it a “Trapezium”, and Americans call it a “Trapezoid”.

Image Source: http://www.mathwarehouse.com

Here is a quick little video to help remember how to calculate the area of a Trapezium.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlxawNewXiY]

Area of a Rhombus

A Rhombus is a Parallelogram that has all four sides equal. We can work out its area using Base x Height, but we can also work out the same area by multiplying the two internal diagonals together, and dividing by 2.

Image Source: http://www.thefreemathtutor.com

Answers to Rhombus Questions:
Q1. 418 sq cm, 41600 sq mm, 0.0006 sq m.
Q2. 91 sq cm
Q3. (1000×2) / 10 = 200mm.
Q4. (120×2) / 30 = 8m.

Area of a Kite

A Kite is a similar shape to a Rhombus, and its area is obtained by multiplying together its diagonals.

Image Source: http://www.coolmath.com

Summary of Area Formulas

Here is a set of formulas that are used in mathematics for finding areas.

$Area and Perimeter Formulas in color$
Image Source: http://www.math-videos-online.com

Image Source: http://www.grc.nasa.gov

Online Activities

Here is an Online learning Activity to do that is all about Perimeter and Area

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/perimeter_and_area/index.html

Here is an activity on Areas of Rectangles, Triangles, and Parallelograms.

(This one takes a little while to load up).

Click the question mark to enter your answer, then click the ok to check your answer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks3bitesize/maths/measures/area/activity.shtml

Online Area and Perimeter Games

Play this fun game where we use basic Area and Perimeter skills to design zoo enclosures for animal exhibits:

http://www.mrnussbaum.com/zoo/index.html

Play this interesting game to find the relationship between Perimeter and Area.

http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/games/perimeterarea/index.html

Have some fun learning about irregular shaped areas with this Tangrams game.

http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/games/area/index.html

A Challenging Area and Perimeter Game

It is necessary to get right on the corners of the initial symbols, get the hand symbol, and then drag the items around the grid to make them fit according to the Perimeter and Area rules given.

Note that final areas of items are not allowed to overlap. However, it might be necessary to do some overlapping while making the shapes.

http://www.mathplayground.com/PartyDesigner/PartyDesigner.html

Test Yourself Online

Click the link below for an Online Lesson on Area of Triangles, and scroll down the page to do a five question online test.

http://www.mathgoodies.com/lessons/vol1/area_triangle.html

Click the link below for an Online Lesson on Area of Parallelograms, and a five question online test.

http://www.mathgoodies.com/lessons/vol1/area_parallelogram.html

Click the link below for an Online Lesson on Area of Trapeziums, and a five question online test.

http://www.mathgoodies.com/lessons/vol1/area_trapezoid.html

Here is an Online Quiz on Areas of Rectangles and Parallelograms, that includes finding unknown sides, if Area is known.

http://au.ixl.com/math/year-7/area-of-rectangles-and-parallelograms

Try these mixed practice questions on Perimeter and Area.