Editing Talk:809: Los Alamos

How does trigonometry come into it?

[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 00:40, 26 January 2015 (UTC)

:This is a really good question. If someone wanted to dive the paper I'd be about 99% sure they'd find some underlying physics that relied on trig, though. It tends to show up a lot through physics and chemistry. [[User:Singlelinelabyrinth|Singlelinelabyrinth]] ([[User talk:Singlelinelabyrinth|talk]])

I think the joke of the title text lies in the word "spoiler alert".--[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.169|199.27.128.169]] 02:32, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

Removed the following sentence from the explanation.  ''Also, Steve says that he is 99% sure that it is "SOH CAH TOA, or COH SAH TOA," he is asking a question that doesn't work, since you can't be 99% sure that it is SOH CAH TOH or COH SAH TOA.''
It seems to stem from the explainer not understanding the comic.  The "Although I'm 99% sure" is not a part of the question that follows, although it is part of the same sentence.  Dashes are used to insert one sentence into another--like this--without changing the original sentence's meaning.
Steve's comment could be rephrased as "I have a question, although I'm 99% certain that I know the answer.  Is it SOH CAH TOA, or COH SAH TOA?  [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.97|173.245.48.97]] 08:29, 28 May 2015 (UTC)

The comic also might be referencing a legend about how Trinity scientists came to Oppenheimer with their concern that the bomb might explode the world. He told them to run the math and if probability of destruction was under 1% they should still do the test (it was.) The comic implies then that the 1% probability has nothing to do with physics and is simply based on Steve's certainty about what Sine is.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.224|141.101.88.224]] 12:57, 1 June 2015 (UTC)

I feel that the comment is both about Steve being "99% sure" of the SOHCAHTOA, and the test being "99% sure" of not destroying the world, since Steve seems to be a mathematician behind the explosion size and effects of "The Gadget". [[User:Drcrazy102|Drcrazy102]] ([[User talk:Drcrazy102|talk]]) 00:09, 3 June 2015 (UTC)

I'd say that destroying the world is more of a 'make us as god' action than just making a big bomb.  [[User:Danshoham|Mountain Hikes]] ([[User talk:Danshoham|talk]]) 23:10, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

This comic really made me think that "soh cah toa" is a bad mnemonic, since "coh sah toa" sounds just as natural and is a mistake. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.26.221|172.68.26.221]] 13:22, 14 April 2017 (UTC)

I always used an individual mnemonic for each function, so cosine is rendered 'cos-adj-hyp'; sine as 'sin-opp-hyp'; and tangent as 'tan-opp-adj'. I haven't done any trigonometry for about 30 years, and nor have I checked the mnemonics are correct, so if they are, they've worked pretty well.

Achoo hats [[Special:Contributions/172.68.141.80|172.68.141.80]] 23:48, 12 July 2020 (UTC)

The mnemonic I always used was "Sir Oliver's Horse Came Ambling Home To Oliver's Arms", which is just silly enough to be unforgettable.