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RE: Tangents, Sines, and Cosines...
Posted:
Apr 20, 2000 5:38 PM
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When I taught eighth and ninth grade (before the flood) I used to make up a
long story about how he came to be called Sohcatoa.
"The memory device is really based on the name of a great No. American
Indian mathematician who went on to do wonderful proofs in trigonometry. In
His tribe they did not name their children until they reached adult age,
then they would give them a name fitting with some aspect of their character
or development.. and as a young boy he seemed to have incredible intellect,
but a very short temper. When things did not please him he immediately
threw, kicked, swore... you know how tantrums are... One day during a math
lesson he grew frustrated with his inability to complete a proof and went
into one of his famous tantrums, and as luck would have it, he kicked a huge
rock, and broke his big toe.
From then on, he was a changed child. He became very patient, never threw a
temper fit, and resolved to use reason to work out his problems, and because
he was so bright, this method made him an excellent mathematician, in fact
he became the greatest mathematician in the history of the tribe.
When he became an adult, the tribe thought long and hard about a name that
would reflect his great mathematical ability, but one wise old squaw,
perhaps his grandmother, rose up to suggest that they name him for the one
behavior that was reflective on the event that changed him and made him a
better man, SO to symbolize the dramatic moment in his youth, they named him
for a regular even that would continue throughout his life. The constant
pain in his foot caused the brave to spend lots of time at the river cooling
the pain of his forever mangled foot in the river waters, and they named him
"SOHCAHTOA"
No they didn't like it either, and I'm not even sure it helped them remember
it, but I loved to tell it, and they were only eighth graders so they had to
sit through it...
Pat Ballew,
Misawa, Jp
"Statistics means never having to say you're certain."
Math Words & Other Words
http://www.geocities.com/paris/rue/1861/etyindex.html
The Mathboy's page http://www.geocities.com/paris/rue/1861
-----Original Message-----
From: Jennifer Johnson [mailto://johnsoj1@mail.clackesd.k12.or.us]
Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2000 12:31 PM
To: Guy Brandenburg
Cc: Ballew, Pat; 'Cliff De Graw'; geometry-pre-college@mathforum.com
Subject: Re: Tangents, Sines, and Cosines...
On Wed, 19 Apr 2000, Guy Brandenburg wrote:
> Never heard that last one, either. Just Sohcahtoa, the infamous Indian
Chief.
>
That's Indian Princess...the Indian Princess of Trigonometry.
Although neither are politically correct... :)
--Jennifer Johnson
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