Here is a question that one of my students posed to me. I am wondering if anyone can help me out.
And, can you give me a practical application of an asymptote (I find I learn easily this way)? I can't find one online. I think it could be used when documenting research data? Perhaps if a subject does not carry out a task fully under a certain set of parameters?
I was just supervising the start of the Science 30 Diploma and there was a questions about when certain types of radiation are visible. Students interpreted a graph and had to decide what (two?) types of radiation could be (seen?) at 200 km above the earth that is not seen at surface. There seemed to be points at which some types were invisible to the human eye. Would that be of any use? Also, not sure if this is a secure question or not having never taught science 30!!!
From your description Ingrid, I would think that the question is refering the atmosphere and what wavelengths of energy get absorbed or deflected back into space. The only thing I would question is the word "visible" because visible could refer to the tiny portion of the EM spectrum that we can see with our eyes. I believe in this case, "visible" refers to the wavelengths are detectable (with sensors, not your eyes) 200km up, that are not at the surface of the Earth. Here is a cartoon (below) to give you a rough idea of what wavelengths make it to Earth.
Picture Reference: https://www.e-education.psu.edu/astro801/content/l3_p4.html
Oh I see, that makes total sense now. Thank you Lee. So would it be correct to relate the point at which the waves are absorbed to asymptotes if they are defined as points at which there are non-permissible values? Or does that over simplify?
No that does not over simply it, just make sure you say that for the points where the wavelength is completely absorbed. Where it is partially absorbed is more like a filter (which is what the ozone layer is doing) and that could be near where the function approaches the asymptote, or local min/max.