The+Equations

I have seen people referencing them in other topics, but I wanted to devote one topic specifically to the equations that we made in class about this play. Kathleen and I decided to use a chemical equation because that seemed to make the most sense. Here was what we had:

Kate (s) + Constance (s) + Tony (s) + parents (s) + Marlow (s) +Hastings (s) YIELDS KateMarlow (s) + ConstanceHastings (s) + Trials (g) + Confusion (g) + Deceit (g)

Like in most chemical reactions, certain substances are expended as gases after serving as catalysts in combining two substances. In this case, confusion and deceit (formed from Tony and parents, as well as parts of the other elements) were exhausted in forming the bonds of KateMarlow and ConstanceHastings. Would anybody else like to share theirs?1203040708

That is an interesting equation NVa and probably the best I have seen. I definitely agree that trials, confusion, and deceit serve as catalysts in the play. My equation was similar, but slightly more simplistic. Math and Chemistry are not exactly my strong points.

[(courtship+attraction)deception+truthx]/change in circumstance=happy ending Both courtship and attraction play a crucial part in creating the conflict and plot of this play especially when deception is distributed to the equation. Further, truth is an unknown variable in the play because many do not know it. When divided by change in circumstance which occurs when Marlow and the Hardings discover the truth, there is a happy ending. 1203042723

I had two equations: (Hastings+Miss Neville)/Tony's illiteracy x botched ride to Pedigree's - Mr. Hardcastle's lie about Tony's coming of age = Hastings and Neville's love (Marlow+Miss Hardcastle)/Tony's lie + Marlow's arrogance x Miss H barmaid disguise = Miss H and Marlow's love

I concluded all these equations with a simpler equation which stated that ever single situation in this book was a result of Tony, no matter what. Tony was always the prominent "element" in the equation. If it was not for him, nothing could have happened. I liked other student's use of certain words in their equations such as attraction, deception, etc. However, I believe that if the equations is going to use character names, Tony has to be the main element. 1203043438

Kaitlyn and I had an equation for each act. We put all the acts together to equal "Disclosed Deception." Deception and multiple identities played a large role throughout the play. As the events of the evening unrolled, people were lied to and the plot became more complicated. Marlow acted differently to the "lower class Miss Hardcastle" and to the "upper class Miss Hardcastle." No one told Marlow that he was in Mr. Hardcastle's home rather than an inn. Hastings and Miss Neville hid their love by Miss Neville pretending to have interest in Tony. But in the end, all of the deception was revealed to the characters, and the doubleness of their characters was erased.

I'm interested in what other groups used on the other side of the equal sign. What did all the events equal? What was the effect of the play? 1203044206

Mike and I made a formula that resulted in a graph that was fitting for this play. Ours dealt with limits and steps. We wanted one that was complex and could fit in humor and confusion. Because of the many points on our graph, the result is something chaotic. It revolves around the center until everything eventually becomes clear. That is one thing I’ve noticed about all of these equations so far. It’s difficult to come up with a simple equation that relates to this play. We were actually trying to come up with a complicated one so we could show the confusion surrounding Marlow. As far as KGa’s question about what comes after the equal sign, I think it will be a variety of things. It depends on what each equation is dealing with. It was a little tough to incorporate all the elements of this story into one. However, I think love, happy ending, and disclosed deception all work well with the equations the groups chose. As long as it was a general result from the end of the story, it fit well with what the equation equaled. 1203118700

The equation Lauren and I put together added up to equal happily ever after. Usually I would find this cheesy to say, but it is true here - everyone got what they wanted. Here it is in full form:

Love((Miscommunication+Mistaken Identity+Deception)/Humor=Happily Ever After)

I believe that's what it was anyway. All the faults or snags in the play were divisible with a sense of humor and an open mind - otherwise much of the events would not have been let go of nearly as easily. Plus, nothing would have been possible without the aid of love (or what they thought love was...). I say this because, to me, it seemed like the attraction involved was a bit shallow - anyone else share this view? The equation does not look like it would work out smoothly when first looked at, but that is what makes the play one of a kind in my opinion. 1203120749

Both myself and Dan Grum decided that the plot of the play followed a path notably similar to the devious actions of Tony Lumpkin. Tony was the catalyst of the two happy relationships at the end of the play. The effect of Tony's actions rippled to turn Marlow's character into one that Kate "stopped to conquer", as well as his aid to a possible climax for the lustful relationship between Neville and Hastings through his distraction of Mrs. Hardcastle. We actually created values denoting the strength of each of 4 of Tony's deceptive actions, and, plugging the data into a graphing calculator, we found the equation to be a wavy line with increases at the moments of Tony's deceptive actions and decreases for Tony's harmful actions, such as when he gave Hastings letter to Mrs. Hardcastle. The line ended up being a sinusoidal line with an equation somewhere around y=5(2.6sinx), not that anyone would actually care. This line, with the increases correlating to Tony's mischievous actions, holds a strong correlation to the development of the two major relationships of the play, which was the main plot.1203125172

Bryanna and I created an equation for each act, going through the actions and adding or subtracting various variables based on the events. These variables included things like love/mutual attraction, irony, deception, humor, etc. We hoped to discover which variable was most prominent throughout the play and which variables crossed-out. Also, we hoped to discover which characters actions had the most impact. While this got to be especially tedious in putting all the acts together and trying to simplify them. We eventually discovered that humor and love/mutual attraction were the most common. Deception too was very common, though overall it canceled out many times when the truth was revealed. Tony had the most obvious impact over any of the other characters. While this may have been obvious in just reading the play, it was interesting to see how our equation brought it to light. 1203135584

I actually really like this assignment. Well, at first I was pretty confused. I mean chemistry was like sophmore year, but I actually really liked the equation Nick and I made. It was like all these variables come together and transform into something totally different. The end of the book or the product is so different from the beginning of the book or the intial materials. I was quite impressed by many of the other groups' equation. While ours was quite simple, many groups created an equation per Act or used advanced tangent formulas, but no matter how confusing them seemed to me, it seemed like their inventors really understood them and seemed to have a deeper grasp on the book. Did anyone else think this activity was quite fascinating? Anymore sweet equations? 1203140611

So what are we gonna combine next with English? So I think this assignment was pointless at an end result, but useful in thinking the way to that useless formula. We sorta just put together relationships between all the different things that were going on in the novel, and that's how we came up with what we did. Of course, sticking in powers, roots, etc. was pretty pointless - none of that means anything in the literature sense. We just had everything yield the plot of the book instead of the individual parts of the play though, unlike what you did, Nick. It all works I guess. I just loved Dec and Mikey's chem thing though. "Applied Chemistry" ie a cookie recipe. Still, it was interesting seeing how some people went chapter by chapter to crunch down a formula, while others just said the whole thing was more predictable and came up with a general formula for the whole thing. Question though: anyone think that, as in chemistry, these might reach an equilibrium? ie, results moving to causes balances out? If you've taken chem, you might know what I'm referring to. 1203143518

In a way I disagree with Azu’s belief that this exercise was pointless. If you think about the common plotline with the rising action, main conflict, and falling action and resolution, it’s basically a graph. How do you think people came up with that? They came up with a bunch of different graphs for different books in literature. What if you could do the same thing with equations? If we could all agree on certain needed elements in comedic play then maybe we could come up with a generic formula that fits most plays like the general plotline of literature fits most books. I must say, I loved Mike and Dec’s equation, the recipe one. In a lot of ways it made the most sense. People tried to break down each act and had formulas for all the acts but Mike and Dec just threw it all the elements of the play and took a holistic approach and I think it came out as the best “equation” in our class. 1203166140

Declan and I made a sweet cookie recipe. I won't explain it fully here, but I'll give some examples of the ingredients in our cookies. Kate and Marlow were the flour and eggs, which form the base of the dough or relationship. The servents in the book were the chocolate chips; they were not essential to the plot or cookies, but they made the story a whole lot sweeter and more delicious. Finally, Tony Lumpkin was the Lasagna twang still left on the cookie pan from last night's dinner. He made some of the story or cookies taste worse, but also a whole lot more interesting. With out him the cookies would just be your run of the mill average cookies. We baked for 63 pages on high heat and came out with a tasty book!1203166721