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Obsolete trig functions and why we don't use them anymore (2013)

blogs.scientificamerican.com

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Re: Obsolete trig functions and why we don't use them anymore (2013)

#3
"goobledegook = e + 5.6. Wow you didn't know about goobledegook? Let me teach you about this revolutionary concept."

I majored in mathematics and can say I've never heard of versine and have probably used it many times without knowing. I don't think everything needs a name.

Re: Obsolete trig functions and why we don't use them anymore (2013)

#7

atan2() is incredibly useful in game development. You can use it to determine the angle between objects, calculate the angle of a 2d vector, and other useful things. https://ryankubik.com/blog/atan2/

Yup, I felt incredibly stupid about six months ago finding out about atan2 for the first time, given the number of times I've made stupid errors using atan, and then correcting those errors by manually checking what quadrant I was in.

Re: Obsolete trig functions and why we don't use them anymore (2013)

#9

"goobledegook = e + 5.6. Wow you didn't know about goobledegook? Let me teach you about this revolutionary concept." I majored in mathematics and can say I've never heard of versine and have probably used it many times without knowing. I don't think everything needs a name.

I think the point of these was for when they read low-precision values out of a printed table and then multiplied them using slide rules. Even though the article doesn't say it, I can't think of any other practical reason to multiply by adding logarithms.

Re: Obsolete trig functions and why we don't use them anymore (2013)

#10

"goobledegook = e + 5.6. Wow you didn't know about goobledegook? Let me teach you about this revolutionary concept." I majored in mathematics and can say I've never heard of versine and have probably used it many times without knowing. I don't think everything needs a name.

It kind of helps a non Mathie like me doing trig. But I'll ask fof one better:

I would love an application that lets me plug in what I have (coords and angles), what I want, and for it to show me how to get it.

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