I haven’t had to do anything with sin, cos or tan in over 20 years and even back then it’s a miracle I managed to pass my advanced math course considering I never understood what they were because it was so badly explained to us…
Cos and Sin just return the X or Y values respectively around a circle of radius 1. So if my line starts at 0 degrees, X=1 Cos(0)=1 Sin(0)=0. I’ll leave it to the reader to try 90 degrees.
See, I was taught this, but no one could every answer why sine and cosine worked the way they did.
This definition just explains how they work with triangles. What’s the actual definition of each, and how was that derived? I can apply them all day long yet I still can’t tell you what either one means.
I had the same issues with different kinds of equations, no one ever explained why you’d do a certain thing in a given step (e.g. Quadratic) even when I asked, repeatedly. The answer was always “you just do”. Well that doesn’t help with knowing when to apply a rule.
And that was my experience with any math, right through college (3 universities). Most teachers suck, but holy shit math teachers are down right moronic. They can’t understand why students don’t get it. Well, try actually teaching something for a fucking change.
so you don’t understand sin anymore? or division?
I don’t sin anymore.
You should sin more, 'cos you’ll go to hell and there you can get a tan
I haven’t had to do anything with sin, cos or tan in over 20 years and even back then it’s a miracle I managed to pass my advanced math course considering I never understood what they were because it was so badly explained to us…
Cos and Sin just return the X or Y values respectively around a circle of radius 1. So if my line starts at 0 degrees, X=1 Cos(0)=1 Sin(0)=0. I’ll leave it to the reader to try 90 degrees.
…
Lulz
sin(x) and cos(x) return the side lengths of a triangle with hypotenuse 1 and angle x, like so:
I also was never taught this, which sucks because it’s such a useful concept.
But why?
See, I was taught this, but no one could every answer why sine and cosine worked the way they did.
This definition just explains how they work with triangles. What’s the actual definition of each, and how was that derived? I can apply them all day long yet I still can’t tell you what either one means.
I had the same issues with different kinds of equations, no one ever explained why you’d do a certain thing in a given step (e.g. Quadratic) even when I asked, repeatedly. The answer was always “you just do”. Well that doesn’t help with knowing when to apply a rule.
And that was my experience with any math, right through college (3 universities). Most teachers suck, but holy shit math teachers are down right moronic. They can’t understand why students don’t get it. Well, try actually teaching something for a fucking change.
Look up a diagram of a cosine and sine functions as they relate to a rotating circle.
E.g.: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Circle_cos_sin.gif