Q: Why is it useful to learn about geometry, and trigonometry?
Textbook answer: Knowledge of sines and cosines is useful if you want to ensure measurements for parts of a house match. This is great if you're an architect.
Biological answer: Do you see "ringing" or "jiggling" in your time course data? Do you wonder whether it comes from within or from outside of a molecular circuit you are studying? We cover sine and cosine now, and we will continue to develop these ideas as we study calculus in modules soon to come, so that we will be able to figure out whether a putative molecular circuit has components that generate oscillations, i.e. in protein level.
