Re: Veritas

In article <Xns9907AC30148B5taustingmail@xxxxxxxxxxxx>,
No 33 Secretary <terry.notaniceperson@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
djheydt@xxxxxxxxxxx (Dorothy J Heydt) wrote in
news:JFy3vt.3Jz@xxxxxxxxxxx:

I don't know what I'd do if I were trying to go to college
nowadays, where they want (I believe) two years of algebra plus
geometry and trig.

Geometry is at least worth studying for entire semesters at a time.
I had a lecture from a math professor once, in which he
demonstrated that you can learn all the trig you'll ever need in
real life in an hour, using the unit circle.

I took a year of geometry, and it was a lot of fun, because of
course it isn't math in the narrow sense of advanced arithmetic.
And the teacher was fun; what he wound up teaching us was about
one part plane geometry, one part general science, and two parts
the life and times of Dee Casey, eccentric genius.

He was absolutely correct. Everything else you'll ever need to
know, you'll learn in another class, as it is all application of
the principles of the unit circle.

Excuse me? All I ever *needed* to know in that realm was
Pythagoras's 3-4-5 right triangle, pi-r-squared, and pi-D. I
still remember "corresponding parts of congruent triangles are
equal," but I've never had a use for it.

And with all due respect to your math professor, I very much
doubt he could have taught me any trig, unit circle or other, in
an hour. I also doubt he could have taught me any trig in a
whole semester. The deficiency is not his, but mine.

Dorothy J. Heydt
Albany, California
djheydt@xxxxxxxxxxx
.

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