Donut math - How donut.c works • Hacker News Board

Re: Donut math - How donut.c works

#21

Post by zkan » Thu, Jul 21, 2011, 1:20 PM UTC

a1k0n wrote: post #4

In a highly technical post like this I'm never sure how well I'm explaining it. I tried to keep things at the high school trig/algebra II level for this one. I've proofread it a billion times now but is there anything I can clarify?

Congratulations. In my opinion, math is not easy to explain, but you did it very well. :)

Re: Donut math - How donut.c works

#22

Post by lachenmayer » Thu, Jul 21, 2011, 1:59 PM UTC

a1k0n wrote: post #4

In a highly technical post like this I'm never sure how well I'm explaining it. I tried to keep things at the high school trig/algebra II level for this one. I've proofread it a billion times now but is there anything I can clarify?

I think I discovered a tiny problem in your 'relative proportions' formula picture. you have

    y'   y
    -  = -
    z'   z'

in the first line. The z' on the bottom right should be just a z, right? Other than that, this is perfectly clear, and I understood it even though I just came out of high school and haven't started college yet! Absolutely fantastic work!

EDIT: Fraction format

Re: Donut math - How donut.c works

#23

Post by a1k0n » Thu, Jul 21, 2011, 2:31 PM UTC

lachenmayer wrote: post #22

a1k0n wrote: post #4

In a highly technical post like this I'm never sure how well I'm explaining it. I tried to keep things at the high school trig/algebra II level for this one. I've proofread it a billion times now but is there anything I can clarify?

I think I discovered a tiny problem in your 'relative proportions' formula picture. you have y' y - = - z' z' in the first line. The z' on the bottom right should be just a z, right? Other than that, this is perfectly clear, and I understood it even though I just came out of high school and haven't started college yet! Absolutely fantastic work! EDIT: Fraction format

Oops. Actually it's not a z' in the denominator in the second fraction, but a comma following the fraction bar. That's confusing; I have removed it. Thanks!