re: Malapropism in Windows Calculator Accessory
Monday, March 11, 2002 at 5:54 am
Windows 98 Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by Michael
(2800 messages posted)
I won't comment further on the existence of gradients, as there is enough quoted
here already, but in addition to the gap in your mathematical knowledge, I think
you should look up the meaning of malapropism - as what you have tried to describe
as a malpropism isn't one...
On Sunday, March 10, 2002 at 12:56 pm, Sundar Narayan wrote:
>The Calculator can be found under Programs/Accessories. It lets you calculate,
among
>other things, trigonometric functions of angles. When you choose the menu item
"View"
>and "Scientific", it allows you to input the angle in degrees, radians and "gradients".
> Actually, there is no such unit called "gradients" for measuring angles. Microsoft
>undoubtedly means "grades", which is a rarely-used unit for measuring angles --
proof
>of this can be easily obtained by typing in "100", choosing "gradients" (sic) and
>pressing "sin"; the Calculator gives the answer as 1, which is correct since sin(100
>grades) = sin(90 degrees) = 1. A circle can be divided into 360 degrees or 400
grades
>(not gradients!). I once read that the French liking the metric system wanted angular
>measures to be also metric. Therefore, they came up with grades - a right angle
>equals 100 grades, 100 being a nice "metric" number, unlike 90 degrees.
>
>Evidently, the Microsoft employee who wrote the code for the Calculator did not
know
>much about the history of mathematics. Anyway, he must be dead and his position
>never filled - the Calculator has remained the same since Windows 3.1.
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All messages in this thread [show all]
 |  | | |  | re: Paul (Mrs. Bagley: Sun, Mar 10, 2002, 6:55 pm) |
| | |  | Paul (Mrs. Bagley: Mon, Mar 11, 2002, 6:30 am) |
| | | | | re: Paul (Colin: Mon, Mar 11, 2002, 8:49 am) |
| | re: Malapropism in Windows Calculator Accessory (Michael: Mon, Mar 11, 2002, 5:54 am) |
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