John Rumm coughed up some electrons that declared:


I did GCE O level maths in '83 or '84, and don't recall trig getting
much beyond basic right angle triangle stuff, with a possible
requirement to be able to use the sine or cosine rules. I was not
sufficiently a fan of maths (at the time) to take it at A level.

The AO-level maths did cover a bit more of this sort of thing, also in 83
for me. A level maths covered a lot more and definately was the level
physics at uni assumed.

I do remember having quite a nasty shock when doing maths at university
to find there was a whole world about trig identities and equivalents
that I knew absolutely nothing about! (Much of the difficulty stemming
from the fact that there were several maths groups one could be in, and
I happened to get the one where 95% of the students who had done A level
maths, and the very obtuse Welshman teaching, thought he could race
through it all as a "quick bit of revision"). After a few weeks of that
I decided to switch groups and found that the alternative was a running
at a much more sensible pace (the first group had almost finished course
in the first four weeks!)

Wave mechanics and associated maths blew my mind - never did get the hand of
that stuff.

Never used any of it since, being a sysadmin and programmer.

I fused a braincell trying to do 3d-trig on my roof last month. Fortuanately
the basics were still there but I had to work lots of things out the hard
way, starting from the beginning.

Cheers

Tim