Wednesday, September 19, 2012

The trig functions at perpendicular angles and at the opposite side of the circle (the antipode).


If you know the values of sine and cosine at some angle, call it alpha, you also know all the other trig values at that angle

tangent (a.k.a tan) = sine/cosine
cotangent (a.k.a cot) = cosine/sine
secant (a.k.a sec) = 1/cosine
cosecant (a.k.a csc) = 1/sine

More than that, we know the values of sine and cosine at alpha+90°, alpha+180° and alpha+270°. Here are the rules for sine and cosine, and from those all the rest fall into place.

perpendicular clockwise
sin(alpha+90°) = cos(alpha)
cos(alpha+90°) = -sin(alpha)

antipodal (going the opposite direction on the same line)
sin(alpha+180°) = -sin(alpha)
cos(alpha+180°) = -cos(alpha)

perpendicular counter-clockwise
sin(alpha+270°) = -cos(alpha)
cos(alpha+270°) = sin(alpha)

These rules will answer all the questions about the trig values at the angles listed on this homework. Make sure to give the answers in exact values with no square roots in the denominators.

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