Talk:Trigonometry

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Outline expanded from an old study guide I have. I'll be writing here for a bit as a review for my TRIG CLEP test. Notes are boring ... code is not. Yay, study via Wiki Code. --Dbroadwell 02:11, 22 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Looks fairly compleat to me. Just added a simi-stub of an entry for the Law of Sines (my first attempt at TeX so it took me a few trys :P ) --Grimm 01:27, 11 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Diagrams and figures, and "Advanced" subject?

Is there a standard method of inserting diagrams and figures? Also, I wanted to ask - is trig really considered a subject for *advanced* HS students? In my experience, it's often the first level of honors classes Senior year, but not really *advanced* (note, this is based on my knowledge of the American educational system). --magefile 02:27, 13 May 2004 (UTC)

At my highschool (in the united states) I took a formal class on trig in my junior year, and got advanced placement credit for two calculus courses in my senior year. However I did hear that other schools in the area were too afraid to teach real calculus and the students only went as high as trig. --bananaclaw 09:04, 25 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Most states' high school curriculum, advanced average or basic, typically require up to Algebra II (Pre-Algebra, Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II) to be completed. However, all high schools attempt to motivate the kids to take up to Pre-Calculus/Trigonometry and the advanced kids to take Calculus. So, for normal/basic students they would reach Trigonometry. For advanced, they'd reach Calculus. At least, that's how it is in Florida, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, and Michigan. Probably more states too. --Jaden Mathos 04:23, 12 July 2006 (UTC)
"Is there a standard method of inserting diagrams and figures?" Yes, see: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Images and http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Images_and_other_uploaded_files.
"is trig really considered a subject for *advanced* HS students?". This will differ between places and some school systems don't parallel particularly well with the (standard?) US one. I say we drop the reference and replace it with some text about the prerequisits. Wikibooks are neither aimed at one cultural group, nor restricted to some predefined school curriculum. Any objections? --Swift 04:09, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Problems from a precalculus book

Robinson0120 Hey, all. I have a Precalculus textbook at the moment and I noticed that there weren't any problems in this Wikibook. Should I take a few out of the textbook and put them on the page with answers and explanations? I haven't really contributed anything yet and it looks like something I could do. If there's a heads up, I'll go ahead and do it. Thanks!

Problems are a good idea, but the ones in your book are probably copyrighted. See Wikibooks:Copyrights for details. --Swift 04:09, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Robinson0120 That's not a problem, I could just change a few of the numbers and alter a few of the situations. They can't have a copyright on the concept, right? I'll go ahead and get started.

I'd be very careful here. Textbook authors usually include examples that have proven to work on their students. That involves a lot of work. Let's not show them the disrespect of leaching off their work. Copying them in any way is a violation of their copyright.
These problems are very simple to make up (I'll help you if you'd like) but if there are a number that look simlar to a book, then we might be in trouble. I recommend you not to use the book for anything more than glancing through to get ideas. --Swift 01:40, 18 October 2006 (UTC)
Very well, Swift. I don't have the book anymore anyways; I'm going to go ahead and think some up right now. I need some help in deciding how to implement the problems though. Should we have a separate page with problems and answers, or add it to the wikibook page?Robinson0120 00:43, 25 December 2006 (UTC)
Depends on the number. There is no need for a seperate page if there will only be a few of them. As the number grows, split the page up by moving them to a seperate page. --Swift 06:17, 25 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Navigation

I created {{Trigonometry:Navigation}} template, you can use it in the chapters. See example in Trigonometry:Sum and Difference Formulas.

BTW, I think it would be nice to make print version of this book. --Derbeth talk 09:58, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] High School Class interested in helping/using

Hello, I am a teacher in a small high school and would like to use this text next semester and perhaps have my students help edit or add illustrations. We are an alternative school and the class will focus on practical applications and fun activities. If we wish to add these activites to the book should they be a separate section or integrated into existing chapters?--Forrestbrinker 19:11, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

I'm not the general community here, but I would recommend just making a new page for it. What exactly do you intend to add? Projects, diagrams, questions and solutions? Robinson0120 02:55, 25 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Standardized Problems and Solutions

Hey all. I just found a great template that I think we should standardize and use for all questions and solutions. The template looks like this:

 |{| class="navbox collapsible collapsed" style="text-align: left; border: 0px; margin-top: 0.2em;"
 |-
 ! style="background-color: #B4CDCD;" | 
 |-
 | style="border: solid 1px silver; padding: 8px; background-color: white;" |
 |}

Just disregard the first |; I put that in so that I could put lines around the text. In any event, it looks like a great way to present problems. Here's one I made:

(NOTE: To see the way it actually looks on the page, follow this link to my talk page and look at "Template Example": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Robinson0120)

http://www.december.com/html/spec/color.html has a number of hexadecimal colors to choose from for the question and answer background, too.

So, what does everybody think? Robinson0120 03:13, 25 December 2006 (UTC)

Sure, it looks like a good way to display problems and solutions. --Swift 06:20, 25 December 2006 (UTC)
Looks fine and all, but having the problem immediately followed by the solution could be very annoying for a student who's actually trying to apply their mind to the problem, the answer waving in their face and all. I have a statistics self-study book like that, and it's my least favorite of all the math book I've ever used. In fact, I despise it. I do think that providing extensive problem sets for each topic is an invaluable addition that we really need to work on. It's the difference between a sketchy summary and a useful textbook, IMO. --Fyedernoggersnodden 19:20, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Diagrams?

Someone had asked about the standards for inserting diagrams, and I would say that some pictoral representation of the concepts herein would be great, at least for people who tend to learn from visuals vs. words. Rhetth 15:23, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Reference to "Elements" and euclid.

Is it possible that for instance, when talking about radians, or measures within a circle, that we provide the logic for how euclid and other came to the conclusions they did? This would provide a small background of how the ideas were originally concocted, but also provides a good background for the foundations of geometric thinking :-) James.Spudeman 22:39, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

I like that idea. It would be good to give a little more depth into the what and wherefore of the ideas, instead of the "you have to learn this for class so don't ask important questions" approach I see my textbooks taking.--Fyedernoggersnodden 19:21, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Front cover created for this book

OpenTrigonometry.png

I'm planning to expand this book quite significantly and then make an actual book from it, which looks like an actual textbook. Here's the front cover, thus far. Careful, the file is gigantic :-P James.Spudeman 01:20, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

I like the idea, but I must comment that (a) this is the same background image being used at the head of the Calculus wikibook, and (b) while the nautilus is a wonderful and elegant example of the beauty of mathematics, it's doesn't really scream "Trigonometry" to me. I could, however, go for an illustration of waves (Lots of artistic potential there!) or even, if we must be ordinary, triangles.
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