TOPICS IN ALGEBRA AND TRIGONOMETRY XVII.

More Elementary Trigonometry We now consider some more complicated examples: (1) What about sin /4 and cos /4? Since the circumference of the unit circle is 2 , the length of a semi-circle is , so /4 is 1/8th of a circle. So look at the following picture.
y=x

2 2 Since y = x and x + y = 1, both coordinates on the unit circle will be , so sin /4 = cos /4 = . 2 2 From this, the other trig functions for /4 can be computed. Now, what about 5/4, etc.?
2 2

(2) Now consider /3. The length of a semicircle will be so /3 will be a third of a semicircle. In fact, /3 and 2/3 will divide a semicircle into thirds.

The triangle in the above gure will be an equilateral triangle with the length of each side equal to one. The y -axis will bisect the topside of this triangle so the x-coordinate of the point of intersection with this side and the unit circle will be 1/2. Using the Pythagorean Theorem, we get the y -coordinate to be 3/2. Therefore, we have the following: cos /3 = 1/2 and sin /3 = Now what about 2/3? 5/3? Etc.
c Copyright 2002 by Dennis McGavran

3/2.

(3) Finally, /6. Take the above picture and rotate clockwise a quarter of a turn (or, alternatively, lie on you side and look at the picture).

From this, we can see that cos /6 =

3/2 and sin /6 = 1/2.

What about 5/6? 11/6? Exercises: 1. Estimate without, using a calculator, sin 1 and cos 1. Keep in mind how the trig functions of numbers are dened and that 3.14 so /2 1.57. 2. Estimate without, using a calculator, sin 2 and cos 21. Once we know the sine and cosine of a number, we can compute all the other trig functions of the number because they are dened in terms if sine and cosine. ANGLES Start with the angle = ABC . BA is the initial side and BC is the terminal side. Set the angle on a coordinate system so that the vertex B is at the origin and the initial side is along the positive x-axis. Then draw the unit circle x2 + y 2 = 1.

The angle determines an arc on the unit circle of length . We say that the measure of the angle is radians: m() = radians 2

We can then dene the trig functions of the angle as sin = sin , cos = cos , etc.

Now suppose we have another circle of radius r. We then have similar circular sectors so, as with triangles, sides are proportional.

r s s s = = m() = radians, 1 r r i.e. the radian measure of an angle is the arc length divided by the radius. This also tells us a formula for the measure of an arc on a circle. If the arc determines a central angle with radian measure , then the arc length is given by: s = r

So we have

Finally, suppose we have a

ABC . We draw a unit circle and another similar triangle

U BV

From this we get:

|BU | |BA| adjacent = = 1 |BC | hypotenuse |U V | |AC | opposite sin = |U V | = = = 1 |BC | hypotenuse |U V | |AC | opposite tan = = = |BU | |BA| adjacent etc. cos = |BU | =

Degree Measure of Angles For some reason or other, a long time ago, someone divided a full rotation into 360 equal parts and called each part one degree, 1 . So we have 360 = 2 radians 1 = radians 180 180 1 radian =

radians = 90 2 x x = radians 180 180x x radians = x 2 If m() = x , then sin = sin so that sin 45 = sin = , etc. 180 4 2

You should note that the pictures we drew to compute the values of the trig functions for /3, /4 and /6 lead to two special types of right triangles: 30 60 right triangles and 45 right triangles. Exercises: 3. What do you know about a 45 right triangle? 4. What do you know about a 30 60 right triangle? Compute the exact values for the following without using your calculator, 5. sin(7/3) 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. tan(7/6) cos(13/4) sec(37 ) cos(270 ) sin(495 ) tan(330 ) cot(600 )

Graphs of the Trig Functions The sine and cosine functions both have period= 2 . Also, from the unit circle: sin(x) = sin x and cos(x) = cos x so the cosine is an even function and the sine is an odd function. Also, for any quantity u, we have 1 sin u 1 and 1 cos u 1 . y = sin x y = cos x

Amplitude: The amplitude for y = A sin x is A since A A sin x A The following is the graph of y = 3 sin x:

Phase Shift A phase shift is simply a horizontal translation. The graph of y = sin(x /4), shown below, is the graph of y = sin x translated /4 units to the right.

Changing The Period Consider y = sin(2x). In order for sin(2x) to go through one complete period of the sine function, 2x must change by 2 units. For instance, if 2x goes from 0 to 2 , sin(2x) will go through one period. In order for 2x to go from 0 to 2 , we must have x go from 0 to , so the period for sin(2x) is . Following is the graph.

Consider y = cos(x/2). If x/2 : 0 2,

x : 0 4 , so the period for cos(x/2) is 4 .

Finally, consider y = 3 sin(2x (/2)). We rst write this as y = 3 sin[2(x (/4))]. This is y = 3 sin(2x) translated /4 units to the right. So the amplitude is 3 and the period is .

The Other Trig Functions 1 Consider y = sec x = . The secant is undened at odd multiples of /2 since, at these values for cos x x, cos x = 0. At multiples of , cos x = 1 so sec x = 1. If x is close to an odd multiple of /2, cos x is close to zero, so sec x will be large positive or large negative. Below is the graph of y = sec x and y = cos x on the same coordinate system.

sin x Now look at y = tan x = . As for the secant, tan x will be undened at odd multiples of /2 and cos x tan x = 0 at multiples of . If x is close to an odd multiple of /2, sin x is close to 1 and cos x is close to 0, so tan x is large positive or large negative. tan x is positive in quadrants I and III and negative in quadrants II and IV. Below is the graph.

The graphs of the cotangent and cosecant functions are similar to these.