I really don't know why, but Karens' comment brought to mind an incident in
my precalc/trig class this week. (I guess it's because, as you will see, we
would like to make sure they memorize correct things, if they memorize
anything.)
I have a student who is a good kid and seems reasonably intelligent. He
"took" trig in high school, but apparently it didn't "take." I teach trig
from the unit circle approach, referring to it as "your friend." When you
get to know him well, you can call him "Uni." This student refuses to use a
unit circle. He insists he can figure out all problems by drawing
triangles. We are in the second chapter of trig, and were starting on
solving trig equations. Some of the homework was to check and see if given
values for X were solutions of the given equation. He asked for help.
While working a problem here was the conversation:
Me: What is tan(pi/3)?
Him: Well, it's in the first or third quadrant.
Me: What?
Him: pi/3 is positive, so tan(pi/3) has to be in the first or third quadrant.
Me: Explain what you mean.
Him: Well the sine is pi and the cosine is three or they are both negative
because the tangent is positive, so tan(pi/3) has to be in the first or
third quadrant.
Bret Taylor Lake-Sumter Community College Leesburg FL
"It matters not the subject taught, nor all the books on all the shelves.
What matters more, yes most of all, is what the teachers are themselves."
John Wooden
John 3: 3^3 + 3
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