7 Jun
2013
7 Jun
'13
2:11 p.m.
I was threatened with violence because I asked a
math question. That was
1975. Fortunately, I think we mostly got over her.
Early 1960s, in fifth grade, I was "sent to the Principal's office" for
discipline for insisting that PI was NOT exactly 22/7, inspite of the
textbook stating, "PI is about 3.1416 or 22/7", which the teacher
interpreted as meaning exactly 22/7.
Life would be simpler if it was a rational number! Then we could all
learn trig in base 7!
I've recently been working on a calculator which has a Degrees / Greads
(not Radians) switch. The reason, of course, is that a circle is an
interger number of degrees and grads, so that the trig have an integral
period. It's a lot easier to reduce the arguemtn mod 360 or mod 400 than
to do the same thign with 2*$\pi$.
-tony