Posts Tagged ‘trig’
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
How to Calculate the Angle of Depression
Description
A detailed tutorial on calculating the angle of depression. Step by step tutorial including several examples of the angle of depression for reference.
Overview
The angle of depression is the angle at which a person must be looking in order to see an object that is lower than the observer. Typically, the angle of elevation is a term used in trigonometry, when calculating angles of a right triangle. In a right triangle, the angle of elevation is the angle between the hypotenuse and the base, when the base of the triangle is actually located at the top of the figure. It can be calculated by using SOHCAHTOA and solving for the sine, cosine, or tangent.
Tags: angle, calculate, cosine, depression, horizontal, line, lower, object, point, right, sine, SOHCAHTOA, tangent, triangle, trig, trigonometry
Posted in Trigonometry | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
How to Calculate the Angle of Elevation
Description
A detailed tutorial on how to calculate the angle of elevation. Step by step tutorial including several examples of the angle of elevation for reference.
Overview
The angle of elevation is the angle at which a person must be looking in order to see an object that is higer than the observer. Typically, the angle of elevation is a term used in trigonometry, when calculating angles of a right triangle. In a right triangle, the angle of elevation is the angle between the hypotenuse and the base. It can be calculated by using SOHCAHTOA and solving for the sine, cosine, or tangent.
Tags: angle, calculate, cosine, elevation, higher, horizontal, line, object, point, right, sine, SOHCAHTOA, tangent, triangle, trig, trigonometry
Posted in Trigonometry | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
How to Find the Opposite and Adjacent Sides of a Triangle
Description
A detailed tutorial on how to find the opposite and adjacent sides of a triangle. Step by step tutorial including several examples of finding the opposite and adjacent sides of a triangle for reference.
Overview
When using SOHCAHTOA, you will often see something such as “find the opposite side” or “find the adjacent side.” Unlike the hypotenuse, the opposite and adjacent sides change depending on what angle you are working with. The right angle is found opposite the hypotenuse and you will never be working it. Tip your triangle so that your right angle is balanced across the bottom and left, and your hypotenuse crosses the right. You will be working with the angles on the top and on the bottom right. The adjacent side is one of the sides that forms your angle – one of which is the hypotenuse, so it is the other side. And to find the opposite side, draw a straight line from your angle. The line it crosses should be the one directly across from your angle, and it is the opposite side.
Tags: adjacent, angle, cosine, hypotenuse, opposite, pythagorean theorem, side, sine, SOHCAHTOA, tangent, trig, trigonometry
Posted in Trigonometry | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
Plotting Points in the Polar Coordinate System
Description
A detailed tutorial on plotting points in the polar coordinate system. Step by step tutorial including several examples of how to plot points on the polar coordinate system for reference.
Overview
By this point, everyone should know how to plot points on a normal graph. But what about a circular graph? This circular graph is called the polar coordinate system or the polar plane. Instead of using the points (x, y), the polar coordinate system uses the points (r, theta). Theta is a greek letter that looks like a zero with a horizontal line drawn through the center. Most of the points you will be finding for the polar coordinate system will be used with trigonometric functions – sine, cosine, and tangent. Graphing occurs in about the same way as it would on a normal graph – just match up the points, even if they are on a circle.
Tags: Calculus, circle, coordinate, cosine, function, functions, graph, Math, points, polar, r, sine, system, tangent, theta, trig, trigonometric, x, y
Posted in Calculus | No Comments »
Thursday, September 17th, 2009
How to Graph the Cosine Function
Description
A detailed tutorial on the solving of the graph of the cosine function. Step by step tutorial including several examples of how to solve the graph of the cosine function for reference.
Overview
Graphing the cosine function is not difficult, but there are a few steps you need to follow. The first is, you need to find all the different points on the graph. You do this by taking a unit circle and using radians and reference points to find all of your coordinates. Then plot your points on the graph, and “connect the dots”. The graph of the sine function should resemble a “wave” That simply goes down once in a big loop and comes back up again.
Tags: coordinates, cosine, function, graph, graphing, intercepts, Math, reference angle, trig, trigonometry, unit circle, wave, x, y
Posted in Trigonometry | No Comments »
Thursday, September 17th, 2009
How to Graph the Sine Function
Description
A detailed tutorial on the solving of the graph of the sine function. Step by step tutorial including several examples of how to solve the graph of the sine function for reference.
Overview
Graphing the sine function is not difficult, but there are a few steps you need to follow. The first is, you need to find all the different points on the graph. You do this by taking a unit circle and using radians and reference points to find all of your coordinates. Then plot your points on the graph, and “connect the dots”. The graph of the sine function has points at (0, 0), (pi/2, 1), (pi, 0), (3pi/2, -1), and (2, 0). The x-coordinates are all the main points around the circle while the y-cooridnates are your reference points. The graph of the sine function should resemble a “wave” that starts at the origin and travels in curves going both up and down.
Tags: coordinates, function, graph, graphing, intercepts, Math, reference angle, sine, trig, trigonometry, unit circle, wave, x, y
Posted in Trigonometry | No Comments »
Thursday, September 10th, 2009
Trigonometric Identities Explained
Description
This video is a review of all the important trig identities. It provides several examples of different trig identities and shows when and how you would have to use them. This video provides content in an organized manner.
Overview
Trigonometric identities, or trig identities, are equations dealing with trig functions that should be memorized. The most common trig functions are sine, cosine, and tangent. Trig identities will help you when you need to simplify equations with trigonometric functions in them. There are a few very important trig identites. Two of these are the Pythagorean trig identity and the Ratio identity.
Pythagorean Trig Identity: 
Ratio Identity: 
From the Pythagorean trig identity, another identity can be found. This is 
. There are a few other identities, that are not so much trig identities as factoring for trigonometric functions.
sin(a + b) = [sin(a) * cos(b)] + [sin(b) * cos(a)]
cos(a + b) = [cos(a) * cos(b)] – [sin(a) * sin(b)]
sin(2a) = 2 * sin(a) * cos(a)
cos(2a) = [cos(a)]^2 – [sin(a)]^2
There are many more trig identities, but these are the most important. With these, you will be able to find almost every other trig identity.
Tags: cosine, Math, pythagorean, pythagorean trig identity, ratio identity, sine, tangent, trig, trig identities, trigonometric equations, trigonometric function, trigonometric identities, trigonometry
Posted in Trigonometry | No Comments »
Friday, September 4th, 2009
How to Solve Derivatives with Trigonometric Functions
Description
This video shows the basic trigonometric functions and their derivatives. Content is laid out in an organized and easy to follow manner.
Overview
Trigonometric functions, also known as just trig functions, are very common – they are sine, cosine, tangent, secant, cotangent, cosecant. These are derivatives that you should have memorized, because there is no good way to solve for them.
d/dx sin(x) = cos(x)
d/dx cos(x) = -sin(x)
d/dx tan(x) = sec^2(x)
d/dx sec(x) = sec(x) * tan(x)
d/dx csc(x) = -csc(x) * cot(x)
d/dx cot(x) = -csc^2(x)
Tags: Calculus, cosecant, cosine, cotangent, derivative, derivatives, differentiation, Math, secant, sine, tangent, trig, trig functions, trigonometric, trigonometric functions, trigonometry
Posted in Calculus | No Comments »
