<p>Well, maybe not that extreme. I guess I should post on HSL, b/c I don't really know where else to post this, except maybe in the AP forums, but there's close to no one there at the moment, so, yeah.... </p>
<p>Anyways, I thought I was done with my precalc/trig self-studying, but looking back through my textbook and notes, I realized that I don't even remember half of what I learned this summer. Now I'm going back and reviewing, but I just realized that I'm not done with memorizing the harder trig identities (half-angle, power-reducing, product-to-sum, sum-to-product). I've looked at how they're derived and copied them down over and over again, but I still mix them up, especially product-to-sum and sum-to-product. For those of you who have taken precalc/trig, how did you memorize these ** things?? Do you even need them for Calculus?** Thanks and sorry for having to post this pointless thread...</p>
<p>You really don’t need them for calculus unless your calculus class is really advanced and difficult. For us, we just looked them up when necessary. It is useful to know the Pythagorean identities though, as you may need to be familiar with those to do substitutions and such. However, it’s a waste of time trying to memorize those. To this day, I still don’t know them and I’m through Calc 1.</p>
<p>I agree, they are difficult to memorize. Half-angle and power-reduction are pretty useful for some AP Calculus problems, but I don’t remember seeing any involving product-to-sum or vice versa. I’ve memorized the double-angle and half-angle formulas, but not so much for power reduction or product-to-sum.</p>
<p>You do need the Pythagorean identity, but that’s trivial. It’s basically the same as the Pythagorean theorem.</p>
<p>It may help to note that sine is an odd function and cosine is an even function. For a short while, I occasionally confused the Taylor series for sine and cosine, but realizing that sine is odd and cosine is even, I never do that anymore.</p>
<p>Just finished AP Calc AB… yep, I don’t know those. The only ones I memorized are the sin^2+cos^2 = 1 (and then just derive a lot of them from there) and the double angle formulas, but I haven’t used the rest you listed since pre-calc.</p>
<p>The only times I’ve really used them since pre-Calc were when I took my college’s math placement exam and when we did trig integration in Calc BC (though that’s not even in the curriculum and my teacher just threw it in for fun).</p>
<p>Thanks guys! I’m glad I won’t have to tear my hair out to memorize these. </p>
<p>Another thing: Which topics in precalc should I pay close attention to for BC Calc (I’m reviewing precalc right now). Please be somewhat specific. Thanks :D</p>
<p>I think they were rarely used in my calculus class. </p>
<p>Pythagorean identities are a must. It’s easy to get everything down if you know SOHCAHTOA. I do remember using the double/half angle formulas to simplify integrals sometimes. </p>
<p>One thing I’ve learned as a math major is that the unit circle pops up everywhere. I’ve actually considered getting a tattoo of it.</p>
<p>Honestly, Calc 2 is just a lot of integration and information thrown at you. I’d be sure to remember how to use/what partial-fractions are from pre-calc.</p>
<p>Oh, I hated that crap! I failed the test (my teacher let me re-take it) on it, but once you work with them for a while, you kind of memorize them. I’m going into Calculus, so I don’t know if you need them, but yeah…</p>
I failed the test (my teacher let me re-take it) on it, but once you work with them for a while, you kind of memorize them. I’m going into Calculus, so I don’t know if you need them, but yeah…</p>