Topic: You may gasp in disbelief...

[ahluka]

....as I tell you I failed GCSE Maths. Well, the first time I did. I'm terrible at it. I don't like numbers - not comfortable with them. If you had to ask me I wouldn't have a clue why.

Anyway this really bothers me and I really, really want to understand it. I mean I look through all the other threads in this forum and understand absolutely nothing about anything you're talking about.

I'm not starting one of those "where to start" threads, but I do have some questions, well, one right now and inevitably more very soon since I'm reading this article: http://www.devmaster.net/articles/software-rendering/part1.php

I've understood everything so far up until vertex rotation. The problem? sin() and cos(). I've heard of tan() too. I remember when I was revising for my GCSE re-sits this time last year I learnt very basic trig and had no trouble holding onto it for about a week. Lost it now. I think it was probably because they drum this stuff into you without telling you why something in Maths is like it is and what specifically it is for. Over here they just said "use this for this" without any details. Stoopid lerning sistem.

So, what are sin, cos and tan all about? Why?

You're probably wondering why I don't look this up myself - I have and every article I find is littered with mathematical jargon. The first paragraph of wikipedia's definition may as well be written in Slovakian.

Oh, bitchslap away if you feel the need.

[ober]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigonometric_function

Read the first paragraph and study the table.  Then skip all the bullshit until you get to Right triangle definitions.  That's actually a pretty good description.  And the rest of that is a VERY good reference, especially for when you get into things like Calculus II and III.

[ahluka]

Thanks I'll give it a read and see if I understand it ok;

[Sang-drax]

I guess that article is quite good, but I think they overcomplicates a few things, like using set notation, {nx|x€Z}, for the zeros of sinus.

ahluka, buy a book if you can afford it.