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What everyday situations can trigonometry be useful in?

• bigger_cheese 9y ago
  If you want to work in Engineering knowledge of trig is a must have. For instance calculating the deflection of a structural beam as you load it with weight (a discipline known as statics), depends heavily on trig. Anything involving rotation and angular momentum (such as gears and axles) require knowledge about trig. Other than that triangulation- computing the distance between points is a useful practical application.
• webnrrd2k 9y ago
  You rely om the results of trigonometry in the thousands of engineered object you encounter every day. Almost anything having to do with physics will have a fair amout of trig underlying it, and a lot of calculus relys on trig. So if you want to understand a lot of what's going on, you'll need trig. It's like asking "what everyday situations is addition useful in".
  • JadeNB 9y ago
    > a lot of calculus relys on trig This seems like an exaggeration, at least from the point of view of calculus in the classroom, where the prevalence of trigonometric functions reflects only their convenience as examples. Did I misunderstand? Perhaps more apposite is differential equations, where trigonometric functions (or exponentials more generally) are ubiquitous.
  • gdubs 9y ago
    I think that’s like saying one “uses” advanced physics every day because they use a cell phone. The OP question was probably asking more about what practical uses are there for normal people to actually use trig, the way you use arithmetic to calculate a tip at a restaurant. To that I’d say: finding the height of something only knowing the length of the base and an angle. Or triangulating your position, surveying your property to make a garden, etc.