Wednesday, April 15, 2009

An illustration of a non-linear effect

In teaching methods, I cover non-linear effects (where the change in Y resulting from X varies by the level of X). I've been looking for a good illustration of it, and lo and behold, I found a very good one for college students.... I bet that my students will better understand the concept now.




2 comments:

Unknown said...

The same appears to be true for some plants and CO2 levels. Increased CO2 levels can enhance plant growth (it is essentially plant food), but at a certain point the high levels can begin to affect gene regulation in certain plants, leaving them more susceptible to predation.

Brad Wright said...

Interesting... there are a lot of cool non-linear effects in the world (though I think the one about beer might be more relevant for college kids. :-)