Pre-Calculus 0809

Over the last many weeks, we have been discussing Trigonometry.  Specifically the introduction to radians, right angle trig, graphs of trig functions, identities, formulas, and proofs.

Part 1

You are surfing the internet and run into a message board or forum similar to Yahoo Answers where a person is asking the following question:

HELP!  We are just now beginning to discuss trigonometry in my Pre-Calculus class and don’t get this entire use of radians.  What are radians?  Why are we measuring in radians rather than degrees?  Are they really that difficult all the time?  It just seems so confusing to use PI.  My teacher said that we are eventually going to use “special triangles” to solve trigonometric problems, what does this mean?  AND finally, he said that the graphs of sine and cosine will allow use to handle weird angles like 0, 90, 180, and 270, huh?  Sorry for my longwindedness, at least I didn’t use the word antidisestablishmentarianism!

Make an educated post reply to this person.

Part 2

Using your knowledge of factorials, how would you solve each of these problems?

1. 7 people take part in a panel discussion. Each person is to shake hands with all of the other participants at the beginning of the discussion. How many handshakes take place? List them all.

2. A basketball team has 11 players on its roster. Only 5 players can be on the court at one time. How many different groups of 5 players can the team put on the floor?

Part 3

Describe the mathematics involved in this picture of a Galton board to the best of your ability.

Part 4

How many faces can you find in the image seen below?  According to published reports, there are 11 faces.

This is Due on Monday, December 1st at 11:59 PM; however, I strongly recommend you get this done before thanksgiving.

Part 1: We have been studying periodic functions such as sin(x) and cos(x). Find an image that exhibits properties of periodic functions. Remember that periodic functions repeat. Post an image and give a description of HOW and WHY the image exhibits the properties of periodic functions. Use vocabulary words in your description.

Part 2: Create your own mnemonic device for “All State Teachers College”. For example, I often hear other teachers use “All Students Take Calculus.” If you wish, you can provide some sort of visual organizer as I have shown above this part of the assignment. Remember, you should be school appropriate.

Part 3: Do some research and find a math joke. Some will be very corny; however, it should be entertaining.

What did the number zero say to the number eight?

Nice Belt.