Cosine and sine rule discussion. In the course or not?

[Special At Specialist]

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[brightsky]

lol give it up mate
I'm pretty sure there was one question in the multiple choice section that required the cosine rule on this year's exam paper (it was vector related), or maybe I'm confusing it with a question on one of the trial exams I did
Plus, if you're using Lami's theorem, the sine rule isn't enough
and no, you don't need to memorise every single formula for the volume and areas of certain shapes - they give you these formulas, just like they give you the sine and cosine formulas on the formula sheet
If there is something on the formula sheet, you would be an idiot to not go over it and understand it well enough to be able to apply it

and fyi, you do need to know similar triangles for methods and spesh for some of the questions in the related rates section...

You can "thumbs down" my comments as much as you want, but it won't change the truth. The cosine rule is only slightly more useful to know than the circle theorems, and if the circle theorems are useful to know, then you are just as wrong as I am.

i see absolutely no point in arguing about this. the original question was "I was reading through the essentials specialist book and was wondering which chapters were absolutely essential?", which is quite pointless in itself, the simple answer to which is, frankly, 'everything'. we can rank every single chapter in the essentials textbook according to its usefulness by observing trends in past papers, but the bottom line is that you'll need to have a genuine understanding of everything in the book, because all concepts there have a chance of popping up in the exam. solely from a pragmatic point of view, i see little point in neglecting certain chapters if you actually care about doing well in the subject, and one arrives at the same conclusion approaching the question in a less close-minded manner - that is, understanding that knowledge should never be acquired exclusively for the purpose of exams.

[Mr. Study]

Thanks for all the input.

I do realise that everything in the book is worth knowing but I probably should've rephrased my question as being 'What topics should I start off with?', or something on those lines.

It just seemed the book was a little overwhelming and I needed a little guidance.

Any chance a mod can lock this?

[pi]

Any chance a mod can lock this?

I've split topics, with all the relevant posts on this topic in that one (only one post unfortunately). I've tried to continue constructive discussion in that thread.

I won't lock this unless this petty argument persists. To summarise and speak for the majority of those who have actually COMPLETED spesh, a firm grip of the cosine/sine rules is always handy as it opens up more pathways into solving any problem. Hence, they are on the formula sheet.

[jane1234]

Speaking as someone who has done spesh, an understanding of the sine and cosine rules is essential.

It is kind of hard to "prove the cosine rule using vectors" if you don't know what the cosine rule is . And yes, I have seen that question a number of times.

[Special At Specialist]

Wtf I never posted this topic? You took what I said completely out of context. I would never post a topic like this.

[paulsterio]

It's on the formula sheet, so it's on the course, end of story

[Bhootnike]

yaa, think the conclusion was reached a while ago!

/lock please!

[b^3]

Yes it is in the course, as provided by the above examples.

Now so that this thread doesn't continue dragging on and going in circles, I'm going to lock it.