** Mathland Project Idea: 2D-3D Geometry Project ** The UP/DOWN arrow keys rotate this representation of a square plane, but not perfectly. It works when the top of the plane is tilting back and away from the viewer but not when it is tilting forward toward the viewer. (Push <space> key to reset!) Remix & tinker! Experiment with the pattern used to change the values of the four corner coordinates when up/down arrow is pressed. Can you add left/right arrow rotations, too?
If you need a curricular justification, this project tends to be far more interesting to middle and secondary school students exploring properties of the Cartesian plane as well as other transformational geometry ideas. Developing spatial rendering concepts from scratch using experimentation lays the ground- work for deeper understanding when exploring 3D matrices used in the transformational mathematics of 3D rendering. More information about spatial transformation matrices: http://www.it.hiof.no/~borres/j3d/math/threed/p-threed.html
