Objectives
Students use basic programming commands to generate a sequence. The program can generate large amounts of data for students to explore. Students can also write other programs to track through the large amounts of data so they might look for patterns much quicker. The sequence produces a very unexpected result. The idea here is to encourage students to continue exploring well beyond the first couple, or even couple of hundred points as the solution may be just around the corner, and this solution is totally unpredictable!
Vocabulary
- If ...Then .. Else ... EndIf
- For ... EndFor
- Condition
- Sequence
- Highest Common Factor
- Scatter Plot
About the Lesson
Fly Straight is one of the most amazing sequences you will ever see. The sequence is easy to generate but patterns will emerge once enough terms have been generated. You could spend hours doing the calculations by hand with just one mistake rendering your time wasted, or you could write a simple program. Students are encourage to hypothesize as they begin their explorations, but nothing will prepare them for what comes after one particular term.