Hi,
If you would like to learn about a new and much more sensible way of thinking about geometry and trigonometry, you might like to have a look at a series of YouTube videos that I am posting, that will hopefully explain Rational Trigonometry from an elementary point of view.
Despite all the huffing and puffing of modern mathematics, geometry is actually in quite a sad state---the logical foundations are just not there, and entire generations have pretended that things make sense, when in fact they don't. I want to encourage others---including you---to start thinking much more clearly about basic issues. Here is a good place to start.
Below you can find links to the first three of fourteen videos I have posted so far, under the YouTube name: njwildberger. For mathematically oriented people, they are quite easy, but nevertheless you will find new ideas in them. I hope to extend the series to include introductions to elliptic geometry, hyperbolic geometry, inversive geometry and `chromogeometry'.
Is YouTube the future of education? I'm not sure, but in any case, it has to be more interesting than the cricket.
Cheers,
Norman Wildberger
WildTrig1:
Why trig is hard
WildTrig2:
Quadrance via Pythagoras and Archimedes
WildTrig3:
Spread, angles and astronomy
WildTrig4:
Five main laws of rational trigonometry
WildTrig5:
Applications of rational trigonometry
WildTrig6:
Heron's formula viewed rationally
WildTrig7:
Solving triangles with rational trigonometry
WildTrig8:
Centers of triangle with rational trigonometry
WildTrig9:
The laws of proportion for a triangle
WildTrig10:
Geometry of circles with rational trigonometry
WildTrig11:
Applications of rational trig to surveying (I)
WildTrig12:
Cartesian coordinates and geometry
More on rational trigonometry
More videos on the School's work