There are some very
important (or, perhaps, infamous) triangles in the world. Love triangles
and the Bermuda triangle come to mind. There are equilateral triangles,
isosceles triangles, and the ever-popular scalene triangles. There is the
percussion instrument of the same name, which even I have a chance of mastering.
Let’s not forget the all-important tripod, whose feet make a triangle upon the
ground. For the mathematically inclined there is Pascal’s Triangle. How about
the Sierpinski Triangle (yeah, I had to look it up too)?
In fact, we can thank the triangle (via Pythagoras) for
giving us a entire branch of mathematics – trigonometry. I know many of you
will be deeply grateful to Pythagoras. I know how many of you longed to hear
the next episode of trigonometry’s story. Remember that night, the night after
you learned about sines and cosines? How you longed to hear about tangents the
next day! Hypotenuse, adjacent, opposite – pure poetry.
Of course, the triangle’s claim to fame is really due to its
famous cousin, the circle. Those of you who have followed this blog for a while
will have come across circles before. What do those sharp, pointy things
(triangles) have to do with those smooth round things (circles)? Angles. The
concept of an angle only makes sense in the context of the circle. Degrees – we
are talking fractions of a circle. π (as in The
Life of...), radians – these building blocks of trigonometry are so very
circular.
I am not a mathematician, and I know that the sight of
numbers, let alone Xs and Ys (how
very triangular), sends some people into anaphylactic shock. Nevertheless,
mathematics is beautiful and astonishing. It never ceases to amaze me how these
concepts hold together. They are like conceptual snowflakes.
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