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Math Forum » Discussions » Education » math-teach

Topic: Why trig?
Replies: 21   Last Post: Apr 3, 1997 4:17 PM

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Ralph A. Raimi

Posts: 326
Registered: 12/3/04
Re: Why trig?
Posted: Mar 31, 1997 1:02 PM
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On Mon, 31 Mar 1997 hessnesh@hugse1.harvard.EDU wrote:

> You are teaching a group of skeptical high school students trigonometry and
> they need to know "Why do we learn Trigonometry?"
>
> Unacceptable answers:
> 1. It's the next unit in the book.
> 2. The curriculum committee says you have to.
> 3. It's on the SAT.
> 4. Mathematicians find it "elegant."
> 5. In case you ever need to know the height of a flag pole.

I found no trouble understanding (whatever that means) why Answers 1,2,3,
and 4 are unacceptable, but I had to think a while about # 5. I guess it
must be because we can always use a barometer instead.

Ralph A. Raimi Tel. 716 275 4429, or (home) 716 244 9368
University of Rochester Fax 716 244 6631
Rochester, NY 14627 Homepage: http://www.math.rochester.edu/u/rarm





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