Bill Riley—Dude, Like We Totally, Like Salute You and Stuff, Man
Friday, September 15, 2006
Bill Riley was my 11th grade trigonometry teacher. From him I learned the mathematical fundamentals of two dimensional objects: a2 + b2 = c2 and tan θ = opposite / adjacent have both stuck with me for sum (pun intended) reason. (“If variety is the spice of life, then consistency is the meat of mathematics” has also stuck with me, but it isn’t some grand proof of the perfection of the universe. Or is it?) He had a very dry sense of humor, that my brother and I still remember fondly.
Well, it all finally became useful this week. I'm working on a program in Excel that will allow a person to select two cells, click a button, and then create arrows from each cell that points to the other. (Don’t ask why I’m doing it. It’s an auditor thing.) In order to figure out the coordinates of the arrow, I actually had to use tan and cos and sin. Amazing! Math applied in real life.
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