Tideline

A target wave is plotted on the grid. Adjust amplitude, period, phase and offset until your curve overlaps it, watching the live root-mean-square error fall. The fewer parameters you move from their defaults, the higher you score.

• Tune the four sliders to match the target sine wave
• Watch the RMS error readout shrink as your curve aligns
• Using fewer parameters earns a bigger score
• Submit your match when the curves overlap

• Clear: the target curve is drawn for you to trace
• Noise: the curve is hidden, leaving only scattered dots so you must infer the period
• Daily and Practice rounds

• Desktop: drag the four sliders; Reset wave and New start fresh
• Phone & tablet: drag the sliders by touch to tune each parameter

• Lock in the period first, it controls the spacing of the peaks and is hardest to read on a noise round
• Leave parameters you don't need at their defaults; an unmoved slider is worth points at submission

Tideline teaches the anatomy of a sine wave, how amplitude, period and phase shape it.

• Skills: trigonometric functions, sine waves, amplitude, period and phase
• Best for: roughly grades 10–12 (ages 15+)
• For parents & teachers: the anatomy of a sine wave.

Matching a target wave by adjusting amplitude, period, phase and offset, with a live root-mean-square error, is fitting a sine wave by its four parameters.

Scoring on fewer parameter changes is the original economy.

The four parameters are independent and that is the lesson. Each controls one aspect of the curve and nothing else, so a systematic fitter adjusts them one at a time — and RMS error falling monotonically is the signal that you have understood which knob does what.

Tideline is an original free browser math game about the anatomy of a sine wave, teaching how amplitude, period, phase and offset each reshape a curve through direct, visual tuning.

A free, original browser game on PlayPendium. No download, no install.