Steer along a manifold

Year 12 · Student investigation

What goes wrong when a straight edit leaves a curved representation?

Keep an individual record even when you investigate in pairs. Record the exact settings, source and data split.

Predict before seeing the answer

At a 180-degree edit, what will the chord midpoint mean to the angle decoder?

Two comparisons

What did you change? What stayed the same? What did you notice?

Challenge your first explanation

Compare 0°, 180° and 360° displacements. The same endpoints can conceal completely different intermediate behaviour.

Make and explain

A steering comparison with path coordinates, maximum off-manifold distance and a statement separating analogy from empirical evidence.

Limit the claim

This activity can show _ . It cannot tell us _ . A new case I would test is ____ .

Use fictional data. Download or print your work before leaving.