fodders Posted September 18, 2005 A University of New South Wales academic, Dr Norman Wildberger, has rewritten the arcane rules of trigonometry and eliminated sines, cosines and tangents from the trigonometric toolkit. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-09/uons-nti091305.php 0 Share this post Link to post
Fredrik Posted September 18, 2005 Basically, this shows how to simplify some calculations involving triangles by replacing angles and lengths with their respective squares. The downside is that some other calculations get more difficult, and that there is an abstraction cost to using the fairly unintuitive concepts of "quadrance" and "spread". As far as I can tell, he makes no attempt to replace sines in complex and Fourier analysis, for example. Anyway, there isn't much new here. Mathematicians already know how to simplify formulas by cancelling out trigonometric functions and square roots by their inverses, and programmers who've tried to write efficient geometry code already know about these tricks as well. This book might be an excellent reference for such tricks, and would be interesting to read, but the only "revolution" here is in the marketing. 0 Share this post Link to post
insertwackynamehere Posted September 18, 2005 i read this on slashdot. it makes me really happy because I cant stand trigonometry for that reason, SOHCAHTOA ugh I'm sick of it >_< 0 Share this post Link to post
Fredrik Posted September 18, 2005 Well, the problem seems to be that in high school you define the trigonometric functions in terms of ratios between sides of triangles. The first thing I was taught about trigonometry in college was to forget that crap and define the functions in terms of the unit circle instead. Much easier, no mnemonics required, and the triangle definitions are trivial to derive when you need them. 0 Share this post Link to post
insertwackynamehere Posted September 18, 2005 thats good to know, but why do they teach it wrong all the time? I mean not just this, but back in first grade they said there were no negative numbers, even when I asked if there were because I heard about them. Then they say "forget that, there are". It makes no sense why they teach like that 0 Share this post Link to post
DOOM Anomaly Posted September 18, 2005 Aww, but Sine, Cosine and Tangent were one of the few things I was remotely good at in math around here. :P 0 Share this post Link to post
baronofhell Posted September 18, 2005 Sines, cosines, tangents? What are these things you speak of? 0 Share this post Link to post
Janderson Posted September 18, 2005 To be honest I was expecting you guys (Fredrik at least) to be mourning. 0 Share this post Link to post
Scuba Steve Posted September 18, 2005 Psyonisis said:Math Sucks Damn Straight. 0 Share this post Link to post
Ralphis Posted September 18, 2005 insertwackynamehere said:thats good to know, but why do they teach it wrong all the time? I mean not just this, but back in first grade they said there were no negative numbers, even when I asked if there were because I heard about them. Then they say "forget that, there are". It makes no sense why they teach like that They don't teach it wrong, but you probably wouldn't understand the unit circle at a younger age as easily as you understand SOHCAHTOA. I learned the unit circle in precalc and it helped a lot. 0 Share this post Link to post
Bashe Posted September 18, 2005 DOOM Anomaly said:Aww, but Sine, Cosine and Tangent were one of the few things I was remotely good at in math around here. :P Same here, although I hated Trig. 0 Share this post Link to post
insertwackynamehere Posted September 18, 2005 Ralphis said:They don't teach it wrong, but you probably wouldn't understand the unit circle at a younger age as easily as you understand SOHCAHTOA. I learned the unit circle in precalc and it helped a lot. i'm in precalc now, hopefully we'll learn it this year 0 Share this post Link to post
ducon Posted September 18, 2005 How can you draw a beautiful pentagram in a WAD without maths and trigonometry? 0 Share this post Link to post
SulfurOccult Posted September 18, 2005 somewhere, there is a dead greek who gives a damn :p 0 Share this post Link to post
exp(x) Posted September 18, 2005 This guy seems to be a bit off his rocker. 0 Share this post Link to post
Fredrik Posted September 18, 2005 ducon said:How can you draw a beautiful pentagram in a WAD without maths and trigonometry? Indeed. From the authors' description of HR map29:The pentagram was designed with precise calculations of sines and cosines to create a perfect pentagram, so please appreciate the effort. 0 Share this post Link to post
pritch Posted September 21, 2005 Most subjects are simplified, or basically, you're taught a pack of lies, at pre-university and even at undergraduate level, because you wouldn't have a hope in hell of passing anything otherwise. it's one of those controversial things abotu education I debate about quite frequently. Some bits of Maths, and lots of biology, chemistry and physics are all basically lies at school. Take the old atom and electron thing you're taught at school. Essentially, it's wrong. The arts are also simplified so that quite often, opposites are in fact true when a highschool class discusses, for example, literary criticism. The onus appears to be on how good a data retrieval system a child can be, and how much vague iffy knowledge they can assimalate, rather than actually educating them. 0 Share this post Link to post
Udderdude Posted September 21, 2005 As a game programmer, I can say that math sucks hairy horse cock. I want to write games, not turn into a math nerd. Thanks. 0 Share this post Link to post
Kristian Ronge Posted September 21, 2005 Programming and math more or less go hand in hand (depending slightly upon type of programming). 0 Share this post Link to post
ducon Posted September 21, 2005 DooMBoy said:I hate math and don't give a damn. You hate maths or maths teachers? ;-) 0 Share this post Link to post
Kristian Ronge Posted September 21, 2005 He hates you, ducon! He hates you! ;-) 0 Share this post Link to post
Use Posted September 21, 2005 I love math and want Fredrik to teach me math 0 Share this post Link to post
fraggle Posted September 22, 2005 Kristian Ronge said:Programming and math more or less go hand in hand (depending slightly upon type of programming). Not really, in my experience. There is very little relation except that you sometimes want to perform mathematical calculations in programs. 0 Share this post Link to post
Kristian Ronge Posted September 23, 2005 As I said, it depends on the type of programming you're involved in. People have different experiences of it, as it's such a broad concept. For example, in the programming work I do (AI, Machine Learning at university) mathematics, mathematical statistics, mathematical logic and discrete mathematics are all essential. Even outside of the academic world, there are numerous examples of when mathematics is important in programming. For instance, good luck coding a modern 3D engine without the use of mathematics. 0 Share this post Link to post
Ringman Posted September 23, 2005 Ok, this babysteps stuff is utter bullshit! You don't need baby steps. A child can learn ANYTHING that you cram in their little heads. ANYTHING! All you'd have to do is speak in algebraic equations and do them in front of them and they'd learn it. Because their brains are at a developmental state, where they will mimic anything around them to survive in their environment. That's why you simply need to talk to a child for them to learn to speak. And you can teach them 5 different languages (even more then that) and they'd still know it all with litte to no trouble. So screw baby steps dammit! 0 Share this post Link to post