The image above is a picture of a beautiful winged unicorn. Your job is to find a function y = f(x) describing the curve formed by the unicorn's body. As part of describing the function f(x) you will need to specify its domain -- that is, the lowest and highest values of the variable x.
You can click on the picture above to find the coordinates of the point at which you clicked. Trace from the head to the back for example. You can fine tune the selected point by clicking at the arrows at the four sides of the photograph. Each click on an arrow moves the cursors one pixel in the direction indicated by the arrow.
You must enter three items in the form below to describe the curve formed from the unicorn's forehead to the neck and down the back to the butt. The first two items specify the domain of the function f(x) and, thus, the part of the photograph above containing the curve formed by the unicorn. The third item is an algebraic expression -- like 36.9647*sin(.017865*x+.17975)+123.897, for example -- that defines the function f(x) that describes the shape of the curve.
After you have entered the three items in the form below, click the "Try it!!" button to see the curve superimposed on the photograph.
After you have found a function that you are reasonably happy with that describes the curve formed by the creature, discuss why it does not do as good a job as you might have hoped.