Education, politics, and anything else that catches my attention.
Saturday, September 17, 2005
New Trig?
Trig has been around for 2500 years or so, and this guy thinks he's rewritten it without sines, cosines, and tangents. If he sends me a free copy I'll read the book :-)
I'll tell you what I don't understand. What these cable TV comments have to do with the New Trig.
As for Dr Wildberger's New Trig, it sounds like the stuff I teach in my high school physics classes. If students are going to analyze and add vectors, they need to be able to do basic trigonometry, but nothing beyond the understanding that each trig function is a ratio. Once my students know SOH-CAH-TOA, I am done teaching them trig. If they take a trig class in math, they get the sinusoid graph and unit circle etc, but for my class it's just algebra. The fact that your link is to physorg.com strengthens my belief that there is nothing new about this guy's methods. Just something mathematically incomplete, and therefore more utilitarian, which is exactly what a physics student would want.
Though I will also be happy to read and even review the book if sent a free copy. :)
2 comments:
I'll tell you what I don't understand. What these cable TV comments have to do with the New Trig.
As for Dr Wildberger's New Trig, it sounds like the stuff I teach in my high school physics classes. If students are going to analyze and add vectors, they need to be able to do basic trigonometry, but nothing beyond the understanding that each trig function is a ratio. Once my students know SOH-CAH-TOA, I am done teaching them trig. If they take a trig class in math, they get the sinusoid graph and unit circle etc, but for my class it's just algebra.
The fact that your link is to physorg.com strengthens my belief that there is nothing new about this guy's methods. Just something mathematically incomplete, and therefore more utilitarian, which is exactly what a physics student would want.
Though I will also be happy to read and even review the book if sent a free copy. :)
My point exactly, Wulf. I never turn down a free copy of a book.
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