[bkerrins]

I don't have a need for it, although it would be cool to have. I'm just happy that I didn't forget ALL of my math and was able to remember that Cos 0=1

[bkerrins]

I don't have a need for it, although it would be cool to have. I'm just happy that I didn't forget ALL of my math and was able to remember that Cos 0=1

[intre]

As long as I remember cos (0) = 1 I intend to use it to help me solve a lot of Calculus problems from my studies. And also to learn some math on Spacetime's forums.

[WhiteStarLine]

Hi Darius,

Using the SOHCAHTOA mnemonic and the back of an envelope, as the adjacent and opposite sides of the right angled triangle are now of equal length, the ratio of the adjacent to hypotenuse is 1, hence the cosine = 1.

My hobby is satellite observation and I've been doing this all my life - my father was involved in tracking Sputnik in 1957 and I seem to have inherited the interest. A few years ago I started working through the mathematics of orbital prediction and it's great to be able to put in the basic orbital elements as described by Kepler so long ago and generate a prediction that lets you look up and see the International Space Station hurtling at 7 kilometres a second above you!

With SpaceTime I want to graph these different orbits over time and follow satellites with widely different trajectories: Molniya orbits come within a few hundred kilometres of the southern hemisphere and reach 40,000 kilometres abve the northern hemisphere, while geostationary satellites appear to hover above you. The Space Station executes an almost perfect circle. It'd be fascinating to use SpaceTime on this.

Cheers,

Bill

[JPD6825]

I have a high schooler currently in Algebra 2. He needs all the help he can get.

Cos(0) = 1

WinMo version please

[camelback147]

Since you brought up trigonometric functions, one of the ways SpaceTime could be used in the classroom is in assisting students to understand how amplitude, frequency, and time shifting impact sin and cos. Though most students can quickly remember how to graph

f(x) = sin(x),

it takes a while (and a lot of graphing) for them to quickly remember how to graph

f(x) = 2 * sin(3 * (x + pi/2)) - 0.5

or

f(x) = 2 * sin(3 * x + pi / 2) + 0.5

SpaceTime would allow students to interactively adjust the amplitude, frequency and time offset to learn how they affect the graph of f(x).

Similarly, I have seen students struggle to understand how offsets impact simple functions like

f(x) = x ^ 2

What happens when it becomes

f(x) = (x + 3) ^ 2

or

f(x) = (x ^ 2) + 3

Does the parabola shift up or down? Left or right? And even more importantly, why? SpaceTime would make all of these things quickly visible to students adn they could experiment with other changes as well (e.g. what if I change the exponent).

SpaceTime's 3-D graphing capabilities would prove very helpful for those times when a student struggles to "see" the three dimensional drawing that's been rendered on the whiteboard. (Sometimes whiteboard markers just don't provide adequate shading.)

Also, there are those times when I have encountered a problem in a Calculus textbook and I'm almost positive the answer the book is providing is incorrect, but there's certainly a chance I've worked something incorrectly. SpaceTime would serve as a nice check to confirm the textbook is wrong.

The Windows version of SpaceTime could be used during class and shown through a classroom projector or students could use the program after the lesson has been taught to reinforce concepts. The PocketPC version would be handy for using those little bits of down time throughout the day to prepare examples for the next day's class or for answering those questions that come from students in the hallways or lunchroom.

These are just the examples of how I could use SpaceTime that come most immediately to mind. No doubt, there are many others.

Finally, cos(0 degrees) = sin(90 degrees) = tan(45 degrees) = 1.

Neal

[fb2007]

cos(0)=1!

I'm working on my diploma of mechanical engineering, and some calculations I do can not be done by ordinary calculator. I own a pda (asus a730w) with wM2003SE and it would be easier if I could do some of the calculation on my pda, instead of doing it on ordinary PC. If there's a program which works on PC and PDA the better!

Regards f.b.

[yledu]

Hello,

I recently discovered Spacetime, after looking for a Matlab implementation on the Pocket PC, and then fell upon this thread. Spacetime is an amazing software, because it makes the whole experience of mathematical explorations much more exciting. I teach a course on numerical methods for undergrads, and showing some examples of algorithms, illustrated by figures, on Spacetime would enliven my course for the following reasons :

1/ Possibility to interact with graphs, plots and images with the stylus, which makes the whole experence radically different than the mouse or the keyboard.

2/ Spacetime is cute and fast, you don't have to wait a long time to see some very impressive stuff. It makes it "cool" !

3/ It makes it possible to explore, use, show examples of numerical methods everywhere, anytime : no need for a clumsy-to-carry-around laptop.

4/ Make mathematical explorations as easily accessible and as captivating as games on handhelds : students can show each other exciting examples right on their mobile/pda, because Spacetime runs on nearly any advanced handheld device.

5/ Possibility to transfer the scripts to another platform, especially Windows and Linux (those I use in my course) so that explorations can be pursued elsewhere with the same software.

I use Octave/Matlab for my course, with computers running Windows and Linux, and Spacetime would thus complement my course quite efficiently.

Yann

P.S. As for the number crunching :

[Darius Wey]

Thanks to all who entered. Winners will be announced shortly.

[bigmobilefan]

This would be very useful in the educational field.