[Python-ideas] Fwd: Trigonometry in degrees

[Chris Barker]

On Sat, Jun 16, 2018 at 10:57 PM, Tim Peters <tim.peters at gmail.com> wrote:

Ya, decimal fp doesn't really solve anything except the shallow surprise
> that decimal fractions generally aren't exactly representable as binary
> fractions.  Which is worth a whole lot for casual users, but doesn't
> address any of the deep problems (to the contrary, it makes those a bit
> worse).
>

It's my suspicion that the story is the same with "degree-based" trig :-)

Which is why, if you want "nice-looking" results, it seems one could simply
accept a decimal digit or so less precision, and use the "regular" FP trig
functions, rounding to 14 or so decimal digits.

Though if someone really wants to implement trig in native degrees -- more
power to 'em.

However -- if this is really such a good idea -- wouldn't someone have make
a C lib that does it? Or has someone? Anyone looked?

-CHB


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Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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