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Originally Posted by Quick Thanx
is there an equation to solve for theta? it seems to me like no mathematician (especially you) would be willing to do trial and error until they found the answer. |
It seems to me that many people do not accept trial and error as a solution, why? You guess a solution and then you know it is true, proved. Yes, you cannot solve it in finite number of steps. Which is why solutions to equations are used. But the basic angles are 0, 30, 45, 60, 90 and larger and all other can be build from their sum and diffrences, halves and thirds. This is one of those angles you need to have memorized.
You can use a calculator feature called "arc-tangent" basically it is opposite of tangent like square root is opposite of squaring. But then you gonna ask another question how can do it without calculator? There really is no way to do it, (in fact most math problems are like that). You can, however, approximate solutions as close as you want (as I am writing this I came up with a way I might show it to you).
What I said before, "In fact most math problems are like that". Let me explain, mathematicians are not mostly concerned about finding what satisfies a certain equation rather they are mostly concerned about prooving that a solution exists. For example, the fundamental theorem of algebra guarenntes the existence of a solution for any non-constant polynomial yet it does not provide a way to find it (in fact it is impossible to have such a method!) Yet, it never bothered mathematicians all they needed to know that such a solution exists.
Knowing you you will probably ask much about what I just wrote, but it is okay. I would love to have you as a student.