Harold writes: << I once got into very hot water (fired, in fact) for showing a similar derivation to a *college* trig class.
I once got into very hot water for teaching my college calculus students the definition of a limit (limit as x -> c of f(x)) in my supposedly autonomous class. At least with one influential colleague -- a prof who had successfully kept Complex Variables from being a required course for an undergrad math major, on the stated grounds that they had earned a Ph.D. without ever taking such a course. Oh, yeah -- a few months later this very same math dept. was (re-)accredited by the Western States Accreditation Commission, who managed this task without ever once visiting the math dept. or interviewing even one student. --Dan _____________________________________________________________________ "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that certain je ne sais quoi." --Peter Schickele