What are the uses of trigonometry in schools?

Answer 1

There are few uses for trigonometry is schools just as there are few uses for languages or history or geography or, in fact, most subjects. There are three main objectives in teaching most subjects at school:

• one is to give you a taster of that subject. If you had never come across it you would never know whether or not you wanted to study it.
• a second is to provide you with enough of the basics so that, if you do choose to study a related subject at a later stage, you would not have to start from scratch. For example, if they did not teach you any mathematics, you could never be a scientist or, alternatively, your first year of studying proper science, you would have to learn basic addition!
  
• the third aim, is to provide you with enough basic skills to be able to perform effectively as a productive citizen in society. Despite being a mathematician, and someone who loved trig at school, for most people, this argument does not work.