The History Of Trigonometry

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However, when calculating the chords of arcs, he unintentionally. developed a theory for plane trigonometry. “Trigonometry was created for use in …

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The History Of Trigonometry
Tara Adamek, Kaitlyn Penkalski, and Gina Valentine
01:640:436 - History of Mathematics
May 11, 20052
Trigonometry is often a source of difficulty and grief for students at both the high
school and collegiate level. The usefulness of trigonometry in the real world, in surveying,
land measure, mensuration, and navigation, insured the importance of the subject in
colonial times (Allen 71). High school students in modern times have their first
experience in trigonometry in 10th or 11th grade using the concepts of sine, cosine, and
tangent, to measure the angles of a right plane triangle in courses like pre-calculus or
trigonometry. The emphasis in the study of plane trigonometry in the high school is
changing from the study of measurement to the study of functions. The problem is that
even when simply using these concepts to measure angles of a triangle, many students do
not see the connections to real life, or understand where these concepts came from. Rather
than incorporating trigonometric ideas with algebra and geometry, its predecessors, it is
often introduced as a separate entity in the mathematical world of knowledge. As a result
of having no connection to previously acquired mathematical learning, students are
baffled by the intricacies of the subject and question the purpose it fulfills, not only in…