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I had a professor that loved to make simple substitutions to values in questions, where the original question would be incredibly difficult, but if you spotted
by mywittyname 7y ago
I had a professor that loved to make simple substitutions to values in questions, where the original question would be incredibly difficult, but if you spotted the substitution, the amount of work you had to do was dramatically reduced. Think something like integrate cos x + i sin x dx, if you spot that cos x + i sin x = e^(ix), and perform substitution, the problem becomes trivial.
Deriving information from facts is a vital skill. But recalling facts is also incredibly important as well. Having knowledge immediately available for use allows a person to apply that knowledge in real-time, which is important for problem solving and thinking on your feet.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- 0xffff2 7y agoEvery college math class I took gave me a sheet with those kinds of identities on it. If I was doing the kind of work where I actually had to do calculus involving trig functions, you can bet I'd pull up a similar sheet while I was working. Sure having it memorized would be a bit faster, but that's true for far more things than I can actually memorize.
- yaccz 7y agoProblem is you need to remember the patterns first to be able to think "hey I know this pattern. Maybe if I look up what the identity is it will be usefull"