5 ms·

Touch Trigonometry - a visual representation of the trig functions

84 points by redthrowaway 16y ago

iwwr 16y ago
Nice, is there something similar for hyperbolic trig?
- redthrowaway 16y ago
  Not sure. I came across this on r/math and figured HN might like it. I just found the visual correspondence between the unit circle and the resulting graph to be great. I sent Matthew Trost, the creator, a comment asking if he could implement cosh et al. Apparently, he decided to make this after taking Calc II at a community college and realizing his trig was pretty fuzzy. He's also just learning to program. Pretty impressive. http://www.touchtrigonometry.org/about.html http://www.touchtrigonometry.org/about.html
rflrob 16y ago
Pretty cool! There's a bug at 315 degrees: cos is listed as -1/sqrt(2), when it should be +1/sqrt(2).
- redthrowaway 16y ago
  I submitted the bug as feedback. It looks like he hard-coded all of the main identities, so it's likely a pretty easy fix. Nice catch.
anigbrowl 16y ago
Love this. There used to be an interactive geometry program for Linux called Dr. Geo - is anyone aware of something similar, preferably on Windows?
- iwwr 16y ago
  There is a nice app called Archimedes Geo 3d: http://raumgeometrie.de/drupal/ http://raumgeometrie.de/drupal/ It allows you to play with geometrical constructions, intersections etc.
  - anigbrowl 16y ago
    Oh, very nice - this is just the kind of thing I was looking for. Mathematica is more power than I need, and sometimes I just want to explore without pursuing a solution to any particular problem.
mturmon 16y ago
Really beautiful. Everyone's a critic, though -- I can't see secant (purple) because it overlaps the x axis. I wonder if the axis could be in gray?
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
cellurl 16y ago
what language is this written in?
CurrentB 16y ago
Very awesome, I wish I had this when I was taking college math classes.
Vivtek 16y ago
Just recommended this to my wife, a physics instructor at IU East; some of her local engineering hopefuls are good at tech but definitely fuzzy on math, and this should help a lot. I love it.
derleth 16y ago
Is this not loading for anyone else?
- redthrowaway 16y ago
  Between Reddit and HN frontpages, it could have been /.'d.
xutopia 16y ago
This is an example of a great tool to complement an already existing understanding. As someone who is not trained in Maths I'm confused as to what I'm seeing and where I should look. Perhaps there needs to be a toggler for the six things you display. I have the feeling that if I played with just 2 or 3 of these I'd probably get it faster.
raffi 16y ago
This is awesome. I wish there was something like this when I was in school. At one point I had planned to start a blog showcasing educational hacks like this. I may have to get that started. This is a wonderful find.
TeMPOraL 16y ago
Awesome! We need more tools such as this one to help people get the feel of different concepts in mathematics and physics.

84 points by redthrowaway 16y ago

iwwr 16y ago

Nice, is there something similar for hyperbolic trig?

redthrowaway 16y ago
Not sure. I came across this on r/math and figured HN might like it. I just found the visual correspondence between the unit circle and the resulting graph to be great. I sent Matthew Trost, the creator, a comment asking if he could implement cosh et al. Apparently, he decided to make this after taking Calc II at a community college and realizing his trig was pretty fuzzy. He's also just learning to program. Pretty impressive. http://www.touchtrigonometry.org/about.html http://www.touchtrigonometry.org/about.html

rflrob 16y ago

Pretty cool! There's a bug at 315 degrees: cos is listed as -1/sqrt(2), when it should be +1/sqrt(2).

redthrowaway 16y ago
I submitted the bug as feedback. It looks like he hard-coded all of the main identities, so it's likely a pretty easy fix. Nice catch.

anigbrowl 16y ago

Love this. There used to be an interactive geometry program for Linux called Dr. Geo - is anyone aware of something similar, preferably on Windows?

iwwr 16y ago
There is a nice app called Archimedes Geo 3d: http://raumgeometrie.de/drupal/ http://raumgeometrie.de/drupal/ It allows you to play with geometrical constructions, intersections etc.
- anigbrowl 16y ago
  Oh, very nice - this is just the kind of thing I was looking for. Mathematica is more power than I need, and sometimes I just want to explore without pursuing a solution to any particular problem.

mturmon 16y ago

Really beautiful. Everyone's a critic, though -- I can't see secant (purple) because it overlaps the x axis. I wonder if the axis could be in gray?

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

cellurl 16y ago

what language is this written in?

CurrentB 16y ago

Very awesome, I wish I had this when I was taking college math classes.

Vivtek 16y ago

Just recommended this to my wife, a physics instructor at IU East; some of her local engineering hopefuls are good at tech but definitely fuzzy on math, and this should help a lot. I love it.

derleth 16y ago

Is this not loading for anyone else?

redthrowaway 16y ago
Between Reddit and HN frontpages, it could have been /.'d.

xutopia 16y ago

This is an example of a great tool to complement an already existing understanding. As someone who is not trained in Maths I'm confused as to what I'm seeing and where I should look. Perhaps there needs to be a toggler for the six things you display. I have the feeling that if I played with just 2 or 3 of these I'd probably get it faster.

raffi 16y ago

This is awesome. I wish there was something like this when I was in school. At one point I had planned to start a blog showcasing educational hacks like this. I may have to get that started. This is a wonderful find.

TeMPOraL 16y ago

Awesome! We need more tools such as this one to help people get the feel of different concepts in mathematics and physics.