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New trigonometry is a sign of the time
physorg.com ^ | September 16, 2005

Posted on 09/18/2005 8:41:47 AM PDT by cloud8

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To: 4mer Liberal

math ping


241 posted on 09/19/2005 6:05:01 AM PDT by T Minus Four (Some assembly required.)
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To: MikeinIraq
thankfully I had some very good math teachers. I just looked through my Calc book and it's full of this Trig crap. I hope I can get it right.

LOL!

Trust me -- the "trig crap" is invaluable in the real world. (At least, in my real world....)

242 posted on 09/19/2005 6:25:21 AM PDT by r9etb
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To: r9etb

hehe I know...

when I was an FO in the Army, we used RT factors all the time. Which was Trigonometry in a simple form.

Fun stuff. I barely remember it hehe :)


243 posted on 09/19/2005 6:36:44 AM PDT by MikefromOhio (Hey Fox News, MORE MOLLY, LESS Greta van Talksoutthesideofhermouth)
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To: TheHound

Right, but in standard geometry the basic unit is the angle, not the cosine of the angle, and there is no way to go numerically between the two without a calculator or tables. This reformulation avoids having any angle variable in any formula, so you can always calculate the answer in terms of the initial data without having to use calculators or tables and without the inevitable inexactness that results.

(You may end up at the end with some square roots, but they are very easy to calculate by hand to many decimal places, unlike sines and cosines.)


244 posted on 09/19/2005 9:22:07 AM PDT by VeritatisSplendor
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To: Graymatter
"I taught myself math, so I like it. But you have to spend a lot of time looking for the right books."

Could you list the "right" books. I am always looking for good books. I dabble in math study and would love to find something that could actually re-teach me math.

245 posted on 09/19/2005 9:30:58 AM PDT by Mad Dawgg ("`Eddies,' said Ford, `in the space-time continuum.' `Ah,' nodded Arthur, `is he? Is he?'")
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To: Mad Dawgg

Most of the books I learned from are at least forty years out of print. There was a Modern Algebra Book One, and a Book Two just as good, one of the authors was Dolciani, but later editions or works by Dolciani I can't recommend---and the Geometry in the same series was crappe.
My favorite math book was written in the 1920's, my grandfather passed it on to me.
Ooh! There was the four-part World of Mathematics, sort of a math encylopedia. Not something that you read cover-to-cover, but it certainly helped relate math to the rest of human life! :) It was printed in the 1950's.
Also "The Mathematical Experience" by Phil Davis and Reuben Hersh was great.
My kid uses several math books, around an 8th-10th grade level. Heath Mathematics is excellent, authors Rucker, Dilley and Lowry, c 1987. And Pre-Algebra Mathematics by Gerald S. Lieblich, c 1973 by Bell and Howell. Great book, but none of the pretty pics you find in more recent works. Heath Mathematics is more colorful and touchy-feely.
And, in my opinion, math students should learn how to use an abacus and a slide rule. Also, nowadays hardly any math books give due attention to computation of degrees-minutes-seconds. For that matter, they give too little attention to computation in general. Math is like music, you have to practice.
And like with music, it is only an ordeal if you're practicing near an unappreciative audience. If you have a teacher who finds math fascinating, you will find math fascinating.
I had no teachers. But it would have been nice. My kids take learning like they were being handed precious gems, because that's the spirit in which I convey it, but I was a lone prospector in my time. :)


246 posted on 09/19/2005 11:50:09 AM PDT by Graymatter
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To: Who dat?

Joe Berland was my math teacher at Newbridge in Los Angeles and in fact he told me that he was the keyboardist for the MNOB... I am not sure but it kind of looks like him on the gong show at the very start...


247 posted on 10/20/2010 4:56:17 AM PDT by docgef
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To: elfman2

Forget the receipt, you better sell now...


248 posted on 10/20/2010 5:14:41 AM PDT by shotgun
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To: dr_who_2

6 significant digits


249 posted on 10/20/2010 5:18:19 AM PDT by shotgun
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To: Paladin2

I laughed everytime someone said they took some “new math” teaching style. Because the second they take a REAL math course in college, and it doesn’t matter if it bonehead Math 91 (intro),the Prof or TA would drag them back to the tried and true methods developed throughout math history...


250 posted on 10/20/2010 5:25:44 AM PDT by shotgun
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To: Who dat?

Joe Berland was my math teacher at Newbridge in Los Angeles and in fact he told me that he was the keyboardist for the MNOB... I am not sure but it kind of looks like him on the gong show at the very start...


251 posted on 10/22/2010 6:46:39 PM PDT by docgef
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This topic was posted 9/18/2005, thanks cloud8.

252 posted on 03/26/2024 3:47:35 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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