Bad Tomatoes

The first 200 words of this essay...

Maths Coursework Investigation

Bad Tomatoes

My aim is to investigate the mathematical propagation of 'bad tomatoes' This is essentially an investigation of patterns derived from a simple set of rules for this propagation, in the manner of a simplified life genesis program. The rules are as followed:

1. The first hour, any one of the tomatoes (depending on the investigation) turns 'bad'

2. From that hour on, any tomato touched by a bad tomato will turn bad itself, on an hourly basis.

3. Tomatoes are constrained within an n*n grid, which restricts propagation of bad tomatoes.

As visible from the rules, this allows for creation of simple models to show the propagation of bad tomatoes. From these, I hope to derive formulae, or sets of rules if formulae are not possible, to make logical predictions.

We shall define the variables as will be used in the description of this investigation as follows:

n

The hour in which a tomato turns

g

The grid size (g2)

x

The number of turned tomatoes in each n

h

The number of hours taken for all tomatoes to go bad