here’s a chapter from a book that redefines trignometry so you don’t need to use Sine, Cosine and Tan. Apparently it’s also more accurate. Wonder if it runs any quicker in flash?
Anyhow here’s a link that explains more:
http://physorg.com/news6555.html
M
Hey Mounty ... very intersesting concepts, indeed ... thanks for the link!
A Pythagorean dilemma
The Pythagoreans believed that the workings of the universe could ultimately be described by proportions between whole numbers, such as 4 : 5. This was not necessarily a mistake¨Cthe future may reveal the utility of such an idea. After early successes in applying this principle to music and geometry, however, they discovered a now famous dilemma. The length of the diagonal to the length of the side of a square, namely ˇĚ2 : 1, could not be realized as a proportion between two whole numbers.
Unfortunately, this difficulty was something of a red herring. Had they stuck with their original beliefs in the workings of the Divine Mind, and boldly concluded that the squares of the lengths ought to be more important than the lengths themselves, then the history of mathematics would look quite different.
That statement should be reason enough to purchase a copy of this text, without fear of being burned at the stake!
The reality is that the trigonometric functions are overrated, and their intensive study in high schools is for many students an unnecessary complication.
I’m curious to find out their approach to support the intricate formulae of trigonometric identities, that is, unless their approach makes these identities redundant ... can’t wait to get the book!
Richard
- 19 September 2005 05:04 PM
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I’m open minded, but worry this could be like those Charles Atlas ads in the oldschool comic books..
http://www.antville.org/img/quadernet/1c.jpg
...if so an advertisement for sea monkeys would compliment it.
- 19 September 2005 05:38 PM
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Well I think it’ll be interesting but I have a feeling it won’t improve computation speeds.
Computers “calculate” sin, cos, tan, etc by using Taylor approximations. It’s not an exact number but an approximation. If this new method requires implementing new formulas for each sine/cosine/tan function it’ll probably be simpler and faster using Taylor. Then again it might be based on ratios.
I’d be interested in this though since I think it could make mental math a lot simpler.
- 19 September 2005 05:50 PM
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Wow, that looks right up my street! Must remember to place an order when i get paid
- 19 September 2005 06:21 PM
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