Since becoming an adult it has become increasingly obvious to me that early high-school level stuff is impossibly complex for a significant chunk of the population.
It’s unfortunate that you are correct. However, when it comes to memorization, trig seems pretty tame. That one mnemonic just about covers it all. Even multiplication tables seem like a larger memorization effort to me.
The reason they drill it in to the extent that they do is so that you have a foundational understanding of the underlying math on which to build new knowledge. If you show up in calc 1 in college without remembering even the basic concepts you were previously taught in things like trig…that can really bite you in the ass. My teacher LOVED pulling out classic substitutions for Secant, Cosecant, and cotangent (No, i didnt outright remember them from Trig, but I had seen them, and that made refreshing much easier). Also these concepts then form the basis of many other fields such as physics (electricity/magnetism, kinetic motion, optics, etc.), chemistry (quantum, MO theory, and things relating to the physics side of why chemistry occurs), and many of the graphing concepts used in engineering/stem only make sense if you have the foundational understanding of what integration/derivation are. Those stem from understanding how to graph complex functions by hand (like we did in trig) so that when you are doing it later with assistance, you still GRASP what is going on.
Yes its not perfect, and yes for people who never need that later in life it can suck. However, I would make the argument it is better to have more of your population educated to a higher standard than what is needed in daily life, than to only give that to those who are aware enough at a young age to actively seek said education
And guess what? You found it out without having to memorize the process until you knew it by heart.
Apparently, they didn’t know it by heart. If they had, they wouldn’t have had to spend all that time searching.
The point being that memorizing complex math is pointless unless you’re using it for some sort of day to day.
Complex? It’s just Sohcahtoa my friend
I thought this was early high-school level stuff.
Since becoming an adult it has become increasingly obvious to me that early high-school level stuff is impossibly complex for a significant chunk of the population.
It’s unfortunate that you are correct. However, when it comes to memorization, trig seems pretty tame. That one mnemonic just about covers it all. Even multiplication tables seem like a larger memorization effort to me.
Instructions unclear. Toe is still dry, dick stuck in super soaker.
The reason they drill it in to the extent that they do is so that you have a foundational understanding of the underlying math on which to build new knowledge. If you show up in calc 1 in college without remembering even the basic concepts you were previously taught in things like trig…that can really bite you in the ass. My teacher LOVED pulling out classic substitutions for Secant, Cosecant, and cotangent (No, i didnt outright remember them from Trig, but I had seen them, and that made refreshing much easier). Also these concepts then form the basis of many other fields such as physics (electricity/magnetism, kinetic motion, optics, etc.), chemistry (quantum, MO theory, and things relating to the physics side of why chemistry occurs), and many of the graphing concepts used in engineering/stem only make sense if you have the foundational understanding of what integration/derivation are. Those stem from understanding how to graph complex functions by hand (like we did in trig) so that when you are doing it later with assistance, you still GRASP what is going on.
Yes its not perfect, and yes for people who never need that later in life it can suck. However, I would make the argument it is better to have more of your population educated to a higher standard than what is needed in daily life, than to only give that to those who are aware enough at a young age to actively seek said education