Fifth Central- and Eastern European Conference
on Computer Algebra- and Dynamic Geometry Systems
in Mathematics Education

Investigating the dependence on parameters is essential in studying dynamical systems. In particular, the bifurcation theory is getting more and more important in most fields of engineering and sciences. Nevertheless, these theories are hardly included in standard university curricula.

We will give an intuitive introduction with the help of dynamic demonstrations developed in Mathematica. We consider elementary examples of both difference and differential equations presenting different types of bifurcation. During the whole treatment, we keep in mind the real didactic “contradiction” that the students do not or only partly have the required knowledge.

The interactive demonstrations will be available on our website www.model.u-szeged.hu.

The idea for this work is based on the visualization of the limit process in elementary school. The circumference of a circle is obtained visually starting from the perimeter of regular polygon. The volume of cylinder is obtained visually starting from the volume of prism.