Can you solve the 50 cent question?

[Fugus]

Deleted.

/10char

[Puupi]

Anyway, thanks for making this thread, OP, it gave me some ideas as to how explain children trigonometry in a more understandable way.

I hate trigonometry.

How can something so super simple end up so fucking mind bogglingly hard when you delve deep enough in it.

"Here is a triangle."
"The angles add up to 180 degrees"
"Pythagoras theorem"
....

5 years later



ARRRRGHHHH!

[Auxora]

Someone's probably already answered it, but whatever.

It's a pretty simple question. Honestly it's a bit easy for year 12.

First, find the interior angle of the shape: (n-2) × 180° / n where n is the number of sides (here: 12) So 150 degrees for interior angle. The formula is pretty simply derived from looking at other shapes: triangles have a total inner angle of 180, quadrilaterals 360, pentagon 540, hexagon 720. Students are taught as early as year 8 (probably earlier, even) how to drive an equation from a linear series like that.

Then find the exterior angle. This is just 180 - interior angle (straight line; angles add up to 180). 180 - 150 = 30.

OR: Just skip the above steps and note that exterior angles add up to 360, so divide that by 12.


Then since θ is made up of two external angles, just double it. 60 degrees.

This probably explained it most clearly. Although doing it in my head quickly I just skipped past the interior angle to the exterior angle and then doubling it, but basically the same steps.

[Crackleslap]

I saw it this morning and solved it very quickly. Like, I wasn't even the best mathematician in school. It is really simple. I really don't believe the label "High-school students baffled over question" I saw on Facebook. If it is the case, the education system is failing.

[Amerrol]

I came expecting a thread about the rapper 50 Cent. Am disappoint.

[Repefe]

Rotate vertical line equally 3 times to get horizontal line. By how many degrees minimum do you need to rotate the line each time ? Now multiply that by two.

[Deleted]

360/12 = 30
30*2 = 60

[Fortydragon]

360/12 = 30
30*2 = 60

Oooooooh! Bro that's how it's done!

[Very Tired]

50¢ * 2 = $1.

[Deleted]

Oooooooh! Bro that's how it's done!

You want me to explain it?

Think of every side of one of the two coins as coming from the same point. You'd get something like a clock: 12 lines all meeting in the middle. (I'm assuming that the 12-sided coin has equal angles.) The angle between two lines is of the clock is [ 360 degrees (a full circle, the entire clock) divided by 12 (the 'clock circle' is divided by the 12 lines) = 30 degrees ].

Thus the angle between the 6 o'clock and 7 o'clock line, also, is 30 degrees. Now imagine the centerpoint of the clock being the lower point where the two coins meet; the point just above the Ø. You can see that the angle Ø consists of two 'clock spacers' at the bottom; to be precise, the angle between 5 o'clock and 7 o'clock. This angle is 2 'clock angles', or 2 * 30 degrees = 60 degrees.

So there's your answer. With a nice clock analogy to boot.

[Mistame]

I squinted and saw boobies. Now the thread's interesting.

[Deleted]

I'd have said 60 from an estimated guess, no idea how to calculate it...or rather it doesn't jump to mind instantly and can't be bothered to give it more than 5 seconds of thought.

[Life-Binder]

if someone in Year 12 didnt solve this in ~under 60 seconds then I have bad news for them =/


frankly even if you cant - 60 degrees is quite intuitive here