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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Spherical Trig
From: David C
Date: 2024 Mar 16, 13:50 -0700
From: David C
Date: 2024 Mar 16, 13:50 -0700
Frank I think that there is an intermediate step. Find a document that derives the cosine formula. Scan the article to satisfy yourself that the cos formula can be derived. Then think " i am not sitting the extra master's exam so I do not need to know that." Finally memorise the cos formula and that is that.
In my case I did just that. I have no difficulty remembering the cos formula but I do not have a clue how to derive it. The latter does not worry me. When I drive my car I do not spend the journey worrying that Otto made a mistake in deriving his cycle. I just kow that it works.
David C
