Parametric Graphing

Andi likes to walk most places she goes in town. So that we can plot her travels, let’s put
an xy-axis on top of her city so that the origin is at her house. To track her path, let’s
measure t in seconds, let x represent her position in the east-west
direction (the east/west component of her direction), and let y represent
her position in the north-south direction (the north/south component of
her direction).

1. a) If Andi travels one foot per second in the eastern direction, and travels at the
same speed I the northern direction, plot 6 points along her path. t x y
Draw a t-table to keep track of the coordinates. 1 1 1
2 2 2
3 3 3
b) How does the path change if she travels twice as fast in the northern direction as
the eastern direction? (Plot 6 points.) Draw a t-table to keep track of the
coordinates.

c) Three times as fast? Half as fast? (Plot her path by plotting 6 paths.) Draw a t-
table to keep track of the coordinates.

d) If instead for every 3 feet in the eastern direction she walks two feet in the
southern direction, what is her path? (Plot 6 points.) Draw a t-table to keep track of
the coordinates.

2. For problems 1a)-1d), write the equation which relates x to t, and then write the
equation that relates y to t.

3. On Thursdays Andi walks a strange pattern. The western component of her path is
given by the equation x = -t 2 , and the southern component of her path t x y
is given by y = -t . Plot 6 points along this path. 1 -1 -1
2 -4 -2
3 -9 -3

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4. Last Friday Andi had several errands to run and she followed a path described by
the following equations.

0 �t �4 : x=t
y =t

4 �t �9 : x=t
y=4

9 �t �17 : x=9
y = -t + 13

17 �t �23 : -2 61
x= t+
3 3
y = t - 21

a) Sketch Andi’s path, placing arrows in the direction of travel.

b) Does Andi start her errands from home? Does she end them at home? If not from
where does she start? Where does she end?

c) At what time(s) does Andi have a western component to her path?

d) At what time(s) does Andi have a northern component to her path?

e) What is the total distance she has traveled while running her errands? (Give the
exact answer.)

END OF DAY 1

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(We’ll now explore the role of t in parametric graphing.)

Graph the following.

1. 0 �t �6 2. 4 �t �10 3. 7 �t �8
3 3
x = t +1 x = t -5 x = 9t - 62
2 2
y = 8-t y = 12 - t y = 50 - 6t

used the following to get the equations of the lines:

t x y
0 1 8
6 10 2
4 1 8
10 10 2
7 1 8
8 10 2

Note that these are all the same graphs. What is happening is that t is representing initial
start time and end time. The length of the t interval also tells us about speed. Regardless
of speed and start and end time, the same path can still be taken, only it will look different
in the equations because of these different times.

Now graph the parametric equations:

0 �t �6
3
x = - t + 10
2
y =t+2

After you graph this (it’s the same as the above but in the opposite direction), what
question am I going to ask you?

Why is it the same? Almost – is it the same (why or why not)?

DIRN Matters!!

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For example, how can we find the equation of the following path:

The endpoints are at (-3, 8) and (7, -2). We have to choose the range for t. We’ll do a
couple different ways.

Each person (or group) come up with a different answer. After working a bit, tell them that
we will switch answers with others for them to verify that their equations correctly describe
the graph.

1. 0 �t �10 2. 9 �t �10 3. 2 �t �40

3 3
x = t +1 x = t -5 x = 9t - 62
2 2
y = 8-t y = 12 - t y = 50 - 6t

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Find a parametric representation for the following path:

Encourage them to pick different time intervals. The groups naturally chose three different
divisions –
0 �t �4, 4 �t �8
0 �t �8, 8 �t �18
0 �t �1, 1 �t �3

It can be organized similar to: t x y

0 0 0 x=stuff with t
1 4 8 y=stuff with t
1 4 8 can use STAT mode and
3 8 -10 linear regression

We worked through the computations by hand, and also used linear regression on the
calculator to check our answers. Some equations (those starting at 0) could be guessed,
and we stressed that all of this could be done only because these are all lines and these
are special properties of the linear relationship.

Question: If you reverse the path on the picture above, do you get the same equations?

Most said yes. We picked our favorite time intervals and checked to see that this is
not the case.

We also discussed what t would look like if we went at dramatically different speeds on
each leg of the picture. Which does the longer interval correspond to?

END OF DAY TWO

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Suppose know we have a graph given by the parametric equations
x = 3t 2 + t
y = t4 - t2 - 2
0 �t �10

a) Use your calculator to sketch a graph.

b) Where does this path start? end?

Discuss setting the window for t’s, x’s, y’s, and t-step.

c) If this were the graph of Andi’s path while on her errands, is there an initial
northern component to her direction? Does this ever change? Does she start with
an eastern or western component?

Tell a story whose graph might be given by the following equations.

x = (t - 2) 2
y = t 3 - 4t 2 + 3t + 1
0 �t �4
-1 �x �4
-2 �y �4