Thread: sadistic calculus professor

  1. #1
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    Posts
    4,912

    sadistic calculus professor

    We're doing volumes of rotated functions. I've got most of them done, but I just have to solve for x in this equation, and NO identities are coming to mind... and I can't find any that apply in my lists or on the internet. Can anybody see a way to solve for x here? (Algebraically, not graphically...)

    Code:
    9     cos(x)
    --  = -------
    16    sin(2x)

  2. #2
    and the Hat of Guessing tabstop's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    14,336
    NO identities are coming to mind? You can't find an identity for sin(2x)?

  3. #3
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    Posts
    4,912
    Wow I'm stupid... It's been 3 years since my last math class.

  4. #4
    Ethernal Noob
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Posts
    1,901
    dude I hear you. I took prob and stat last semester after roughly 2 or three years of not taking any math courses and felt like an idiot because I couldn't do integrals or basic stuff. I remembered quickly with the power of google and the like.

  5. #5
    Registered User Kernel Sanders's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Posts
    61
    sin(2x) = 2*sin(x)*cos(x)

    9/16 = cos(x) / (2 * sin(x) * cos(x))
    9/8 = 1/sin(x)
    sin(x) = 8/9
    x = arcsin(8/9)

  6. #6

    Join Date
    May 2005
    Posts
    1,042
    Quote Originally Posted by sean View Post
    Wow I'm stupid... It's been 3 years since my last math class.
    Don't worry about it man, once you get back into the swing of things *pushes up glasses...pockets calculator* this math stuff will be nothing but a reflex for ya.
    I'm not immature, I'm refined in the opposite direction.

  7. #7
    The superhaterodyne twomers's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    Ireland
    Posts
    2,273
    It's worse when they give you something like:

    x + sin( x ) = 0.3

    or something. Can't solve it analytically and it drives me mad!

  8. #8
    Registered User OnionKnight's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Posts
    555
    When you have to integrate sin(x)^8 dx is when I go SCREW YOU

  9. #9
    Malum in se abachler's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Posts
    3,195
    Quote Originally Posted by sean View Post
    We're doing volumes of rotated functions. I've got most of them done, but I just have to solve for x in this equation, and NO identities are coming to mind... and I can't find any that apply in my lists or on the internet. Can anybody see a way to solve for x here? (Algebraically, not graphically...)

    Code:
    9     cos(x)
    --  = -------
    16    sin(2x)
    -X / 2 dX

    they should have covered the relation between sine and coine as derivatives of each other.

  10. #10
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    Posts
    4,912
    Yes, sine and cosine have a relationship as derivatives, but when one is a function of x and the other is a function of 2x, it's a more complex relationship. The way to simplify it was to use sin(2x) = 2sin(x)cos(x), and therefore the whole expression simplifies to 1/2sin(x).

Popular pages Recent additions subscribe to a feed

Similar Threads

  1. Using calculus w/o knowing it
    By VirtualAce in forum A Brief History of Cprogramming.com
    Replies: 21
    Last Post: 12-26-2005, 11:11 AM
  2. I like calculus
    By Silvercord in forum A Brief History of Cprogramming.com
    Replies: 34
    Last Post: 05-11-2004, 07:38 PM
  3. calculus problem: motion
    By Silvercord in forum A Brief History of Cprogramming.com
    Replies: 8
    Last Post: 10-10-2003, 09:56 AM
  4. help with a calculus problem: toothpaste
    By Silvercord in forum A Brief History of Cprogramming.com
    Replies: 19
    Last Post: 09-28-2003, 08:23 PM
  5. I want nothing more than to take calculus
    By Silvercord in forum A Brief History of Cprogramming.com
    Replies: 61
    Last Post: 06-20-2003, 04:23 PM