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The Three Stooges and Your Trigonometry Class

Robert Davidson and Bob Gardner Department of Mathematics and Statistics East Tennessee State University

Spring 2012

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The Three Stooges

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The Three Stooges

  1. As a group, they were in show business for almost 50 years.
  2. Made 190 “shorts” with Columbia Pictures.
  3. Had their third short, Men in Black (1934), nominated for an Academy Award.
  4. Had 4 different people in the role of “the third Stooge.”
  5. Were the first to lampoon Adolph Hitler, in You Nazty Spy (1940).

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From: http://www.threestooges.net/

Moe Howard

(June 19, 1897 – May 4, 1975)

  1. The Alpha Stooge - “the boss.”
  2. Was the dominant and aggressive Stooge in the shorts.
  3. His character on screen was completely different from his off-screen character
  4. He was an excellent businessman and tried hard to treat everyone fairly.

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From: http://www.threestooges.net/

Larry Fine

(October 5, 1902 – January 24, 1975)

  1. The most underrated Stooge.
  2. Starred in the first Stooge short Woman Haters.
  3. “The Stooge in the middle.”
  4. One side of his face was calloused because of the constant barrage of slaps.

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Curly Howard

(October 22, 1903 – January 18, 1952)

  1. The most popular Stooge.
  2. Onstage persona was completely different from his offstage persona.
  3. His life was a mess because of his marriages (four of them), drinking, and over eating.
  4. Curly’s last short was “Hold that Lion.” It was a cameo with Shemp, Larry, and Moe.

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Curly from: http://www.stoogeworld.com/_Biographies/Curly.htm

Hold That Lion from: http://www.threestooges.com/news/article.asp?intNewsID=85

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Do You Know the Three Stooges?

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Source: http://www.zogby.com/Soundbites/ReadClips.dbm?ID=13498

Zogby International conducted a poll of 1,213 American adults by telephone in July 2006.

One question asked for the names of the Three Stooges and another asked for the names of the three branches of government.

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Those able to name the Three Stooges: 73%

Those able to name the three branches of government: 42%

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20th Century Fox will release The Three Stooges movie on April 13, 2012.

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A Bird in the Head

The 89th Columbia Pictures Three Stooges film; this was released in 1946. This short is classic Stooges and has the boys wall-papering a room. We watch from the beginning to 1:08 and 2:36 to 5:51 (4:23 total).

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Now for Some Trigonometry

We want to find the length of the board which hit Moe in the head. We’ll then use this length and some other information to calculate an angle and some trig functions.

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a

b

c

Rotate the Triangle Around

The length of the board is the length of side c, so the question has become “What is c?”

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“…like Moe, Larry was only five-feet-four-inches tall.” (page 10)

Stooges Among Us

edited by Lon & Debra Davis

BearManor Media (2008)

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a = 5’4’’

b

c

You Know the Length of One Side of the Triangle

With a scaling factor you can find the lengths of the other sides.

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Suppose the board hits Moe on the head at a point 6 inches from the end of the board.

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A Schematic

What is the angle, θ, the board makes when it hits Moe in the head?

θ

What are the six trig functions of θ?

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From: http://www.collider.com/dvd/reviews/article.asp/aid/5899/tcid/3

Now, you will use this information to fill out a study sheet and determine some of the parameters mentioned above.

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So You Think This Is Too Easy?

From the short Violent is the Word for Curly. Source: http://www.threestooges.net/episode.php?id=33

The Pendulum Equation relates the length of the board L, the gravitational constant g, and angle θ. It is a nonlinear differential equation and hence cannot be solved by conventional methods.

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Any Questions Before You Start?

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From: http://www.lunkhead.net/