HP Forum Archive 21

[ Return to Index | Top of Index ]

Trig Functions Message #1 Posted by Howard Owen on 14 Sept 2013, 5:57 p.m. This from the Onion, and this from Scientific American .

Re: Trig Functions Message #2 Posted by Pier Aiello on 14 Sept 2013, 6:25 p.m., in response to message #1 by Howard Owen Nice :)

Re: Trig Functions Message #3 Posted by Namir on 14 Sept 2013, 7:28 p.m., in response to message #1 by Howard Owen Cute but I would not write home about it!!! I was dabbling with DEFINING NEW TRIG FUNCTIONS recently, and I tell you that coming up with zinger functions IS NOT EASY!!! Namir

Re: Trig Functions Message #4 Posted by Garth Wilson on 14 Sept 2013, 7:41 p.m., in response to message #1 by Howard Owen How did our space program ever get going without them?! Idiotic.

Re: Trig Functions Message #5 Posted by Namir on 14 Sept 2013, 8:14 p.m., in response to message #4 by Garth Wilson Very idiotic!!!!

OT: Re: Trig Functions Message #6 Posted by Katie Wasserman on 14 Sept 2013, 9:09 p.m., in response to message #5 by Namir Yeah, but they have fun names! My favorite semi-obscure mathematics terms are 'subtrahend' and 'minuend'. I think everyone from my generation learned them in grade school in the USA but most promptly forgot them since they were never used again. I always thought that they would make excellent names for a pair of small dogs. Edited: 14 Sept 2013, 9:10 p.m.

Re: OT: Re: Trig Functions Message #7 Posted by Pier Aiello on 15 Sept 2013, 2:02 a.m., in response to message #6 by Katie Wasserman Obscure? I filled entire pages of subtrahend and minuend in my firsts grades, just to memorize those terms. Damn teacher. Edited: 15 Sept 2013, 4:34 p.m. after one or more responses were posted

Re: OT: Re: Trig Functions Message #8 Posted by Gerson W. Barbosa on 15 Sept 2013, 10:59 a.m., in response to message #7 by Pier Aiello Here (in Brazil) we call them minuendo and subtraendo. I've just correctly guessed what the latter should be in Italian: sottraendo. This makes for a nice mnemonic. From Wikipedia: -------------------------------- Per fare una sottrazione in colonna bisogna prima scrivere il minuendo, e sotto, il sottraendo: 86 - 34 = 52 86- 34= -- 52 -------------------------------- These were taught in first or second grade, I think. Good old days when memory was always fresh and neurons worked at full speed :-)

Re: OT: Re: Trig Functions Message #9 Posted by Massimo Gnerucci (Italy) on 15 Sept 2013, 12:19 p.m., in response to message #8 by Gerson W. Barbosa Well done Gerson, A+ or, as we were used here, 10+ :)

Re: OT: Re: Trig Functions Message #10 Posted by Gerson W. Barbosa on 15 Sept 2013, 5:37 p.m., in response to message #9 by Massimo Gnerucci (Italy) Grazie, Massimo! :-) Numeric grades are used here as well, but for a while we had alpha grades in high-school, which I disliked.

Re: Trig Functions Message #11 Posted by Eddie W. Shore on 15 Sept 2013, 8:21 a.m., in response to message #1 by Howard Owen LOL. I loved the Onion article.

Re: Trig Functions Message #12 Posted by Fred Lusk on 16 Sept 2013, 2:53 p.m., in response to message #1 by Howard Owen Some of those "new" trig functions were used by surveyors in the pre-computer days and may still be used by them from time to time. I was introduced to them when I took Surveying I & II in college. But, since I'm a civil engineer and I have a computer, I have no need for them any more.

[ Return to Index | Top of Index ]

Go back to the main exhibit hall