DP Mathematics Exploration Graphing of Hokusai’s Wave

Cyrilla Meigidia 10B

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Introduction:

The Great Wave off Kanagawa, also known as The Great Wave or The Wave, is a woodblock print by

the Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai. It was created in 1831 in the late Edo period as the first print in

Hokusai's series (khanacademy.org). It uses an ancient method called woodblock printing, in which

the artists uses his painting skills and carving in order to create different layers of colour and ink on a

single paper (The Unique History and Exquisite Aesthetic of Japan’s Ethereal Woodblock Prints,

2019). Not only the artwork depicts the wave in an ethereal style, under the wave shares a

wonderful perspective of the icon mountain of Japan, followed by the history of fisherman’s respect

and fear towards the ocean. This art piece has influenced many people in terms of art, history,

science, and many more. Realizing that the wave was also an influence on math, captured my

attention to analyse the artwork piece. At first glance of the drawing, the waves show forms of

curves and lines which told me that there was more to just artistically creating this woodblock. It

made sense, as woodblock printing requires high precision and accuracy in order to create the right

results.

The aim I am reaching is to involve the topics I have studied this year in order to measure the basic

forms, shapes and curves that I could calculate in this art piece. The measurements included in this

project are quadratic graph equations and trigonometry, followed by formulas that will be applied

which includes the measurements of vertex, points and Pythagorean theorem. These equations will

help me find the initial points of the wave’s size and directions.

The reason I chose this topic was because I never thought that math could be applied into art. I want

to study and analyse more to how mathematics is involved and application to art, vice versa. I also

want to increase my analysing skills to find the details of how this artwork can be measured.

I’ve decided to use Desmos, an online graphing calculator to format my equations and Casio fx-

CG50; my digital school calculator, to measure the formulas.

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Process:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Great_Wave_off_Kanagawa.jpg

To start off, I choose a picture of ‘The Great Wave’ artwork and plan on which parts I will focus and

measure in the picture. Ive decided to measure the curve of the big wave’s parabola curve, the

downward curve of the wave, and the mountain fuji.

I inserted the picture into the Desmos cartesian plane in order to measure the required points,

including 2 points, an axis of symmetry, and a vertex. I inserted the picture as big as the original,

which was approximately dimensions of 25.7 cm × 37.8 cm. However, I’ve rounded it off to whole

numbers, so the dimensions used for this measurements are 26 x 38 cm.

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I wanted to begin by estimating the parabola to recollect what I have learnt about parabolas. So for

now, I shaped the way I want to on the parabola, while still making sure the line follows the wave,

and has a vertex. The vertex of this low wave was (25,6). I also labeled the coordination points in the

line that traces at whole numbers.

It is important for the formula to have an x^2, because without it, the parabola wont form. The

formula of a parabola is y=x^2. Since a quadratic function have y=ax^2+bx+c, The only coefficient

applies to a, with at least a coefficient of one while b and c have coefficients of 0.

The things we have to pay attention at is that a parabola will always have a vertex. It identifies the

point where the line changes or curves. It is also the minimum or the maximum of the parabola. A

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parabola will always have only one of the two, not both. That is the only highest or lowest point,

because the rest of the parabola line continues in an infinite line.

The direction of the line also determines wether the value is a positive or a negative. Parabolas can

face two ways, upwards and downwards. If the parabola concave upwards, it means that the value is

a positive. On the other hand, a parabola that concaves upwards means that the value is a negative.

In this case the wave is concaving upwards, so the value of the parabola is positive.

(Parabola - Definition & Graph, n.d.)

There are two ways to measure a parabola, which is the standard form, and the vertex form. Since

we have chosen our own coordinates of vertex and points, we will be using the vertex form. The

equation we use is as shown below:

y=a(x−h)^2+k

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The first point I chose was (4,18), the upper curve of the wave. The second point was (4,18), The end

splashes of the wave. We still need to collect the axis of symmetry. Luckily, there was a formula that

allows us to collect the axis, which is:

(p+q)/(2)

So, we will use our x-axis coordinates from both sides, which turns the equation to:

(4+22)/(2)=13

Therefore, the axis of symmetry is 13.

The vertex was perfectly the highest point of the wave combined with our axis of symmetry, which

will be (13,23.7).

Using only 1 point is enough in this equation. The vertex will be identified as (h,k) for this equation.

Meanwhile, the point I will use is (22,18), with 22 as x and 18 as y. This will give us the formula a,

which performs as the width of the parabola.

18=a(22−13)^2+23.7

18=104.7a

a=23/104.7

0.2263610315 ≈0.226 (3 s.f.)

So, the equation for this parabola will be written as down below. Since the parabola concaves

downwards, the value of a will be negative.

Y=-0.226(x-4)(x-22)+23.7

Y=-0.226(x^2-26x+88)+23.7

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 Y=-0.226x^2+5.876-19.888+23.7

Y=-0.226x^2+5.876-43.588

The next subject I will measure is the mountain fuji. With the shape of the mountain fuji. I will try

calculate the sides and angles of the triangle, and include the use of Trigonometry. My goal is to find

the angle witdh of the fuji’s point, along with the visible mountain perimeter.

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I chose the visible points of the triangle points to start off its base shapes. Find distance of triangle

between two points. The coordinates I have picked are (24.1,9.2),(21,7), and (27,7). We call this an

oblique triangle, which is a triangle that has no right angles. To approach all measurements of the

triangle’s angles and sides, there are 3 possible measurements that we must at least measure in the

triangle:

ASA (angle-side-angle)

AAS (angle-angle-side)

SSA (side-side-angle)

Since Trigonometry works only with right triangles, so I will use a

substitute of the point (27,7) with the coordinates (24.1,7). This

will allow me to measure the sides of the triangle and use the

formulas of trigonometry.

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I will focus measuring SSA of the triangles. The two points ),(21,7), and (24.1,7) have the same y-axis

coordinates, so we can easily find the distance between the 2 points by subtracting both coordinates

of the x-axis.

24.1-21=2.9

The first side measured has a length of 2.9 cm. Now I will measure the right side of the triangle. The

coordinates I need this time are (24.1,7) and (24.1,9.2). To find the length of a vertical line, we will

subtract the y-axis on both chosen coordinates.

9.2-7=2.2

The last side we are measuring is a hypotenuse, which is the longest line out of all sides. We find the

distance between two points by using the equation below.

C^2 = a^2 + b^2

With c expressed as the hypotenuse, we will measure the two sides on the expressions a and b.

C^2 = 2.9^2 + 2.2^2

C^2 = 13.25

C=7.74

Here, we found the lengths for all 3 sides for the right triangle. To figure out the side of the bigger

triangle, we need to find the angle from the bottom left of the triangle. We use an equation called

Sine Rule, which is useful for right triangle measurements. The law of this formula is as stated below:

sin A/a = sin B /b= sin C/c

a,b,c are sides and A,B,C are angles. The angle bottom left of the triangle will be expressed as C. C

expresses an angle the opposite direction of c. The bottom side of the triangle will be marked as a

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and the hypotenuse line marked as b. The opposite side of b is the 90 degree angle, so we will use

the fractions of b and c for this equation.

sin 90/7.74=sin B/2.2

(sin 90/7.74) x 2.2=sin B

Sin B= 0.2842377261

B=Sin^-1(0.2842377261)

B=16.51328921°≈16.5°(3 s.f.)

We will measure the unknown parts of the triangles left off the big triangle, which is where we start

using the Cosine Rule. Its law is similar to the Pythagorean theorem with a bit of addition to it, as it

works for all types of triangles. It is useful to find the third side of a triangle that has 2 sides and an

angle. It also is useful to finding angles with a triangle that has all sides.

C^2 = a^2 + b^2 − 2ab cos(C)

There are more forms to do this, though it is basically the rearranged form of the above:

cos(C) = a^2 + b^2 – c^2/2ab

cos(A) = b^2 + c^2 – a2/2bc

cos(B) = c^2 + a^2 − b2/2ca

We will measure the top right side of the triangle which will be expressed in a form of c, and the

angle opposite of it C.

c^2 = 7.74^2 + 6^2 − 2(7.74)(6) cos(16.5)

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 c^2 = 6.852423025

c =√6.852423025

c=2.61771332cm≈2.62cm(3 s.f.)

The right side of the fuji mountain is 2.46cm. To find the perimeter of the visible fuji triangle, we add

it up with the length of the top left side.

P=7.74+2.62=10.36

Finally, we need to find the last angle we need in order to complete the perimeter of the fuji

mountain to finish the measurement. We will use the Sine Rule to find the final angle needed.

Sin 16.5/2.62=sin(C)/6

(Sin 16.5/2.62) x 6=sin(C)

Sin(C)=0.852046031

C=sin^-1(0.852046031)

C=58.4349096°≈58.43°(3 s.f.)

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Conclusion:

In order to get the parabola curve of the great wave, the formula you need to add in order to get the

results in Desmos is the formula below1:

Y=-0.226x^2+5.876-43.588

For the fuji mountains measurement, the perimeter and the angle width results are shown as stated

below:

P=10.36cm

Angle=58.43

Though it is unsure because this woodblock artwork uses ancient technique, there is still a possibility

that The Great Wave by Hokusai uses methods of graphing mathematically in order to create the

wave’s curves, along with the shapes of other objects visible in the picture.

Math in Real Life Application:

Trigonometry could be used to measure the distances and height of objects, for example buildings or

towers. Similarly, looking a distance from above the building seeing the angle of depression is also

trigonometry.

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Meanwhile, parabolas could be applied to things that involves curves, just like a roller coaster. By

observing the shapes, a roller coaster can be built on the right positions with the most durable

strength.

Motions of objects could also be measured with quadratic equations. It allows to create objects

aimed at more accurate positions and energy. With technology now, it gives us more accurate

results and become very useful in many possible ways.

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Bibliography:

References

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Buddy. https://studiousguy.com/parabola-examples/

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The unique history and exquisite aesthetic of Japan’s ethereal woodblock prints. (2020, September

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Vertex form - How to find the equation of a parabola. (n.d.). Mathematics

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