2011/09/17

Things they should teach in Highschool

What are some things you think they should teach in highschool that they didn't teach you? What about things they taught that were useless/not necessary?

They should add these classes to the curriculum:
  1. Statistics. I really think this is more important than calculus for most people and useful for everyone in daily life (especially when reading/watching the news).
  2. Law/Taxes. They should teach a class that shows people how to do their taxes and teaches them about where the money goes, tax rates, different kind of taxes, interest, etc. One of the assignments should be registering to vote (if taught senior year). Students should learn their civil rights and how to avoid giving them up in certain situations. We should learn about our current representatives and what they stand for. I couldn't name (hardly) anyone in congress in Highschool and I had no idea what the Governor was for or against.
  3. Home Economics. I don't care if it sounds old-fashioned. I wish I had learned to do what I saw Japanese kids do in home ec. Heck, just name the class 'chef apprentice' or something to make the kids interested. I would have loved to learn how to cook. But basic cleaning skills are also something every college student needs.
I found these classes useless or just unnecessary for a Highschooler:
  1. Calculus. I say this despite the fact that my profession is one of the few that actually uses it. It just isn't as important as statistics. I took 2 years of calculus in Highschool and when I got to University, I started at the beginning with everyone else.
  2. Spanish/French. Those were my only two choices and I sat in those classes for 4 years of Highschool and learned very little. The way they teach languages is totally backwards. Begin at an earlier age with exposure to many languages. Encourage or even require semesters abroad. Have an exchange program at the school to let the students mingle with people from around the world. By the time students reach Highschool, it is very late to begin their first foreign language. I'm not saying they should cut foreign languages, just change how they are taught entirely.
It's hard to stop and not rant on about the horrible ways they teach in american schools, but I'll leave it here today. What do you all think? Snarky comments about Rio Americano will be insta-liked.

2011/07/29

Answer to Problem

Solving the problem in my previous post allows me to do Gouraud Shading.

Here is the before picture. I calculate the color of each polygon face using the face normals (the line perpendicular to the face of the polygon).



With Gouraud Shading, I use the normals at each vertex, not the face. The normal for a vertex is the average of the normals of all the faces that use that vertex. With this normal I calculate the shading value for each vertex and create a gradient in each triangle.



I'll post the answer to the problem in the future if someone wants me to.

2011/07/28

Problem of the week

Here's the problem:

You have a triangle with points A, B and C (known). Each point has a shading value s: As, Bs, and Cs that are also known.

You want to shade the triangle with a single linear gradient so that each point has the right shading value.

So what is the starting and ending point of the gradient?

Some hints:

If As = Bs = Cs, the triangle is all the same color, so any points will do.
If Bs = Cs but not As, then the gradient should go from As to the closest point on the line BC to A.