The Three Stooges and Your
Trigonometry Class
Robert Davidson and Bob Gardner
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
East Tennessee State University
Spring 2010
The Three Stooges
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).
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 offscreen character
4. He was an excellent
businessman and tried hard to
treat everyone fairly.
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.
From: http://www.threestooges.net/
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.
Curly from:
http://www.stoogeworld.com/_Biographies/
Curly.htm
Hold That Lion from:
http://www.threestooges.com/news/article.
asp?intNewsID=85
Do You Know the
Three Stooges?
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.
Those able to name the Three Stooges: 73%
Those able to name the three branches of government: 42%
Source: http://www.zogby.com/Soundbites/ReadClips.dbm?ID=13498
Sony Pictures
released the
seventh volume
of Three
Stooges shorts
on November
10, 2009.
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).
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.
Rotate the Triangle Around
The length of the board
is the length of side c,
so the question has
become “What is c?”
c
a
a b  c
2
2
2
b
Stooges Among Us
edited by Lon & Debra Davis
BearManor Media (2008)
“…like Moe, Larry was
only five-feet-fourinches tall.” (page 10)
You Know the Length of One
Side of the Triangle
With a scaling factor you
can find the lengths of the
other sides.
a = 5’4’’
c
b
Suppose the board hits Moe on the head at a
point 6 inches from the end of the board.
A Schematic
What is the angle, q,
the board makes when
it hits Moe in the
head?
What are the six trig
functions of q?
q
Now, you will use this information to fill
out a study sheet and determine some of
the parameters mentioned above.
From: http://www.collider.com/dvd/reviews/article.asp/aid/5899/tcid/3
So You Think This Is Too Easy?
The Pendulum Equation relates the length of the board L, the gravitational constant g,
and angle q. It is a nonlinear differential equation and hence cannot be solved by
conventional methods.
dq g

sin
q

0
2
dt
L
2
From the short Violent is the Word for Curly. Source:
http://www.threestooges.net/episode.php?id=33
Any Questions Before You Start?
From: http://www.lunkhead.net/