mastodon.xyz is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
A Mastodon instance, open to everyone, but mainly English and French speaking.

Administered by:

Server stats:

837
active users

#trigonometry

2 posts2 participants0 posts today

Problem: You want the midpoint of two angles. Or just the difference. Or to select between an angle range from a #database You don't know if the angles could be negative or over 360.

It's a big hassle every time.

F I N A L L Y realized this morning that the "angle difference" #trigonometry identities are perfect for this! (The cos form seems easiest to remember)

cos(a-b) = cos(a)cos(b) + sin(a)sin(b)

Order doesn't matter. Between *any* two angles, this gives you the difference "the short way". That is, a=180, b=90 gives the same answer as a=90, b=180 (thanks, commutativity and the domain of cos!)

trig functions are often lookup tables in #software and seem to be available in #sql, so this isn't even necessarily much slower than the logic surrounding having to mod, check quadrants or whatever your "more obvious" way works

Used the laser cutter to make a holder for my class set of spirographs — for the lessons I like to do my students need to know how many teeth the gears have. They write a program that produces the same curve using turtle. (with older students we do the trig, which I just call “magic circle functions” for the grade fives)

This will make it all go much smoother!
This is 8 sets packed into one box!
#math #mathEducation #teaching #spirograph #mathematics #k12 #hypotrochoid #trigonometry

Two teenagers have once again proved an ancient math rule.

From Science News: “Some people have the impression that you have to be in academia for years and years before you can actually produce some new mathematics,” says mathematician Álvaro Lozano-Robledo of the University of Connecticut in Storrs.

flip.it/_48RXz

Science News · Two teenagers have once again proved an ancient math ruleNe’Kiya Jackson and Calcea Johnson have published 10 trigonometric proofs of the Pythagorean theorem, a feat thought impossible for 2,000 years.