This activity explores the concept of limit by comparing the area and circumference of a circle and an inscribed regular polygon. As the number of sides of the polygon increases, the area and perimeter of the polygon approaches the area and circumference of the circle.
There is a [url=http://www.ltftraining.org/Home.aspx]Laying the Foundation[/url] (LTF) activity with regular polygons (3-10 sides) to encourage students to study this hands-on. This applet extends the LTF activity to a 100-gon for review and illustration of the limits.
LTF designs lessons to extend student thinking toward higher level thinking skills need in Advanced Placement (even IB). This activity should be done with handouts of the different inscribed polygons with the blank table at the bottom.
