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C3 trig

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Reply 20
Original post by davros


EDIT: beaten by Zacken while I was composing my essay :biggrin:


I jumped the gun a little there. :tongue:

But yes, for the most part, however easy/'stupid' (note the use of inverted commas) a question comes up on TSR, it's encouraging to see the student asking about it instead of just suppressing any curiosity and just going with it like the vast majority of students do nowadays. I agree with you on that aspect. :smile:
(edited 8 years ago)
Reply 21
Original post by davros
I don't want to drag the OP's thread off course with a minor dispute, but please note the word highlighted in bold above. The OP's clear intention was to refer to the specific problem which was actually attached in his second post!

You correctly pointed out that textbooks often gloss over the fact that we can only write tan x = sin x / cos x when tan x is defined, but you weren't correcting any of the previous posters because they explained that we needed cos x not equal to zero for the division to be valid, and this condition is precisely the same as saying 'tan x is defined' :smile:

Hopefully the OP has enough from all of us to have a better understanding of why the process was correct for the specific problem he attached. It's better to see students asking about this than blindly assuming we can divide by things all the time, which is the more common error!

EDIT: beaten by Zacken while I was composing my essay :biggrin:


I have no idea why you wish to dispute what I said nor why you seemingly want to quibble over the point.

Suffice to say, the misconception was caused by a misunderstanding of the relationship between tan, sin and cos; a point that I clearly clarified. The fact that others suggestions work in this case is of little to no consequence .. bad maths is bad maths; if you are happy with this approach to maths then that really is of no concern to me.
Reply 22
Original post by Zacken
It's not. Note the use of the word here that the OP explicitly used to refer to the problem that she posted in the second post.


as mentioned, the OP was seemingly happy with the accurate, all encompassing, explanation that I offered.
Reply 23
Original post by dpm
I have no idea why you wish to dispute what I said nor why you seemingly want to quibble over the point.

Suffice to say, the misconception was caused by a misunderstanding of the relationship between tan, sin and cos; a point that I clearly clarified. The fact that others suggestions work in this case is of little to no consequence .. bad maths is bad maths; if you are happy with this approach to maths then that really is of no concern to me.


The end is a little out of turn there, Davros is immensely helpful on this forum and rigorous, I've never seen him be "happy" with "bad maths", so I might want to revise that statement if I were you. :smile:
Reply 24
Original post by dpm
as mentioned, the OP was seemingly happy with the accurate, all encompassing, explanation that I offered.


OP being happy does not imply that you answered the exact question he/she posted. That's the point that you brought up, however minor, and Davros and I disputed it.
Reply 25
Original post by Zacken
The end is a little out of turn there, Davros is immensely helpful on this forum and rigorous, I've never seen him be "happy" with "bad maths", so I might want to revise that statement if I were you. :smile:


I really fail to see how it is so difficult to comprehend that the crux of the problem is solely concerned with an inappropriate approach to the relationship between the 3 basic trigonometric functions. A suggestion of "well it works in this case" fails to amend the underlying issue. Bad maths is bad maths.
Reply 26
Original post by Zacken
OP being happy does not imply that you answered the exact question he/she posted. That's the point that you brought up, however minor, and Davros and I disputed it.


I replied to the first post in the thread. The first post in the thread remains unchanged?
Reply 27
Original post by dpm
I replied to the first post in the thread. The first post in the thread remains unchanged?


Okay. I honestly have no time for such petty arguments. So, truce, agree to disagree and we both walk away civilly? :smile:
Reply 28
Original post by Zacken
Okay. I honestly have no time for such petty arguments. So, truce, agree to disagree and we both walk away civilly? :smile:


With all due respect, I answered points made, it was you who seemed to feel the need to argue and demand that bizarrely, I retract what I posted.
Reply 29
Original post by dpm
With all due respect, I answered points made, it was you who seemed to feel the need to argue and demand that bizarrely, I retract what I posted.


OK, enough is enough here!

You misunderstood what the OP posted, and insisted on dismissing the contribution of other posters, despite the fact that they addressed the OP's question perfectly accurately.

There hasn't been any "bad maths" here as you put it, only your "bad grace" in failing to acknowledge that other people answered the OP perfectly well, and your contribution, accurate though it was, was in no way "better" than theirs.

I haven't seen you post in this forum before, but please be careful in future when taking a 'superior' attitude towards other posters, especially experienced ones. We can all make mistakes, and all contributions are welcome here, but some of your posts have got dangerously close to rubbing people up the wrong way (easily done on the internet!).

Have a good evening :smile:
Reply 30
Original post by davros
OK, enough is enough here!



followed by a rant ....

I shall presume that the irony is not lost on you....

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