Math! Angles! Finals! Oh NO!
tomorrow is the last day of my first semester of school. i did well on all my finals so far, and while I don't have high hopes for the exam tomorrow, it doesn't matter because I'm just thrilled that I got an A in math!
because of my busy schedule, i planned out my studying time very carefully. but on the day of the test, i felt like i suddenly didn't know anything! i guess that's a normal panic response, though.
as i was taking the test, i was struggling and thinking so hard for every problem. with math there is so much to remember, however, i am lucky i'm pretty good at memorizing formulas. one problem on the second page i initially skipped: "find the x and y component of a vector with a magnitude of 415 lbs and an angle of 145°." i was like, oh shit, i know i did these just fine in the homework but i didn't brush up on it during my study session earlier in the day! i continued through all the other problems until the vector problem was the only one left! at that point i was so tired from doing so much math that i thought i was going to cry. but i also was determined not to leave one problem blank just because my mind went blank. so i stared at the problem, rubbing my head and taking some deep breaths, and waiting for my memory machine to dredge up a memory associated with this type of problem. finally i was able to recall this image i remembered finding on google:
which i now know comes from this source: https://www.google.com/amp/s/slideplayer.com
i was able to use the formula) Acosϴ = 415cos(145
and then i guessed that since the formula to find A-sub-x had cosine in it, the formula for A-sub-y had sine in it. so i banged those out quickly on my ti-84 and the answers looked reasonable, so I went with it.
it occurs to me now that i should have used the reference angle (35°) for theta, not the 145. but i'm more proud of myself for remembering the formula at all than whether i got the problem exactly right. like i said, math is a remembering game, and i can't remember every single painstaking step and tiny detail. using math in real life, if you make a mistake you'll eventually realize that something (literally) doesn't add up. that's when you go back and figure out what step you skipped. i like the logic of math that way.