BIG TRIG Contest Information

[rev. 5/16/2011]

BIG TRIG is an annual competition involving vintage 1983 laptop computers and randomly generated right triangles that need to be solved for a missing side or a missing angle. Prizes, as always, will be ridiculous.

Date	Friday, May 20, 2011 (day 5 of McDonald’s Week)
Time	7:15 a.m. (optional warmup*) 7:25 a.m. (competition start)
Prizes	Ridiculous
Required Equipment	Bring a scientific calculator that can compute sine, cosine, tangent, arcsine (sin^−1), arccosine (cos^−1), and arctangent (tan^−1). Set your calculator for degree mode, not radians. If you do not have such a calculator, one or two loaners will be available. Vintage laptop computers for the competition will be provided. Problems are randomly displayed on the vintage laptops. Using your modern calculator and your knowledge of trigonometry, you have to answer as many problems as possible in the time provided (normally 4 minutes).

* For students who cannot make the 7:15 a.m. warmup session, warmup computers will also be available for practice in Math Lab (MH-103) after school on Wednesday, May 18.