I try to do a couple of very simple trigonometric problems every day. These are so simple that if I had a math professor he would chastise me for doing work way below my estimated competence level. I have always had the temptation to do this anyway, as I have never, ever been confident of my competence in any academic subject. I can always get a minuscule boost by doing a simple problem right. It has been a long, long time since I got a complex problem right.

I just reviewed co-terminal angles, spinning the unit circle's dial round and round finding angles which are 360 degrees apart from each other, and finding equivalents to these in both negative and positive angles. I have worked through elementary trigonometry twice and have never quite gotten this concept, as well as positive and negative sines and cosines.

Trigonometry is very much connected with calculus, so I do hope someday to really master trigonometry and return to calculus. I feel that I need to be so familiar with my sines, cosines, and trigonometric identities that I can recognize it and work with it at any moment. Only then will I "deserve" to go back to calculus. Another thing that I need to review is sequences, progressions, and sums of these progressions, which will become important later as well. It's also possible that I will never get beyond all this, and make no progress, because I forget it as soon as I've learned it, as I've already done two times.

Posted at 4:20 am | link