## Monday, February 19, 2007

### TIM BOB

Circular Functions. Quite the unit. This unit was like most units that you learn in math. It may take time to soak into your head and understand the concept. However, once you've seen enough examples, heard enough lectures, and had enough practice, it's .. less complicated (let's put it that way). It's kind of like learning how to ride a bike, if you know what I mean.

I believe that I have a good understanding of the unit. I will admit that at times I was puzzled until I seen how it was done. I'm trying to think of a specific topic that I struggled with, but I can't seem to pull one out. Overall, each lesson included struggles for me; finding the right path that will lead you to the final answer. I have pulled through and out of the tangle often enough though and so I think I'll be fine.

What I found to be interesting was mainly the radian angle measurements. It was something completely new to me and made me think. Now understanding radians, I know what that "radian mode" in my calculator means =). Also, I like the fact that converting to radians and backwards, finding arc length and all of that stuff was quite interesting. They all have to do with proportions like Mr. K stated earlier and that's something that definitely helps me understand things (quite logical if you think about it).

Blogging Prompt:
Now, thinking about how I could relate radians and degrees, I can generally say that.. (thinking of the right words) they both can identify specific angles and the relationships between them, such as coterminal angles, number of rotations, related angles, and all that fun stuff.

Thinking about the differences, the first obvious difference would probably be the fact that radians usually consists of fractions and often have something to do with the value of "pi", whereas degrees are whole numbers + decimals and include the degree unit. They have different values that determine the same point?

Well those were off the top of my head.. I think I'll end this here.