Everything You Always Wanted To Know About: Explained by John Baber, A.B.,Cd.E

Everything you
always wanted to
know about trig*
Explained by
John Baber, A.B.,Cd.E.
*but were afraid to ask.
Any figure drawn on a piece of paper with straight edges can be split up into right triangles. Because of this, studying squares, rectangles, rhombi, trapezoids, and all other regular and irregular polygons,
can be seen as studying right triangles only. This is why there is a subject in school called trigonometry
(measurement of triangles).
To study a right triangle fully, we have six functions defined to relate its sides and angles.
opposite
hypoteneuse
adjacent
cos =
hypoteneuse
opposite
tan =
adjacent
sin =
hypoteneuse
opposite
hypoteneuse
sec =
adjacent
adjacent
cot =
opposite
csc =
Really, sin and cos contain all of the information, the others are just shorthand.
tan =
sin
cos
csc =
1
sin
sec =
1
cos
cot =
cos
1
=
sin
tan
You can memorize which is which by the old stand-by SOH-CAH-TOA*. i.e.
Cosine = Adj/Hyp
Tangent = Opp/Adj
Sine = Opp/Hyp
The fact that s = 1c and c = 1s , tan, and cot, youll just have to get used to.
Since these were defined with being a non-right angle in a right triangle, they only make sense when
0 < < 2 . The only thing you ever do with degrees is translate them into radians: ( = 180 30 =
180
6 = 6 etc.). So, graphs of sin and cos would look like
* Or you can use Silly Old Harry Carried A Horse To Our Apartment if it bothers you that Sohcahtoa
is meaningless aside from its similarity to Krakatoa. . .
Even though triangles with = 0 or = 2 dont make sense, by the graphs, we can tell what the values
should be. Heres an easy way to memorize all of the important values for sin, cos, and tan. Notice the
pattern in
/6
/4
/3
/2
0
30
45
60
90
p
p
p
p
p
sin p 0/4 p 1/4 p 2/4 p 3/4 p 4/4
cos p 4/4 p 3/4 p 2/4 p 1/4 p 0/4
0/4
1/3
2/2
3/1
4/0
tan
So
cos 4 =
2
4
1
2
1
2
2
2
To generalize these definitions so that can be any number, define sin and cos with a circle
Given an angle , find the point corresponding in the unit circle the x-coordinate will be cos and
the y-coordinate will be sin . This is very nice for solving problems like
3
sin =
2
All solutions to the problem are

, + 2,
+ 4,
...
2,
, + 2,
2,
4, . . .
+ 4, . . .
4, . . .
which is always shortened to

+ 2k and + 2k,
k Z
In our case, we can examine the same triangle moved to the I quadrant and figure out what is.
Looking at the table, see that is
3,
= 43 and = 2 = 2
= 35 . So

3
k Z. A calculator, when asked for sin1 2 3 only tells
so = + = +
all solutions would be these two angles +2k,

you one of these angles, namely 3 .
* means member of
Z means the integers, i.e. . . . , 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, . . .
So k Z means k in the set of integers i.e. k = . . . , 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, . . .
With the circular definition of sin and cos, we can have the graphs were more accustomed to
Notice that sin1 and cos1 would have to be (by flipping about the 45-degree line)
but these wouldnt be functions (since theyd fail the vertical line test), so a decision had to be made.
This is why sin1 and cos1 look like
These are the functions your calculator uses, which explains why it misses of the answers to a simple
question like:
Given
what is ?
3
,
sin =
2
Now, how do we memorize all of the trigonometric identities were expected to know? First memorize
the pythagorean identity
sin2 + cos2 = 1
Immediately, you can see that this means
sin2 = 1 cos2
cos2 = 1 sin2
Derive the two similar identities by dividing by sin2 on both sides of the pythagorean identity
1 + cot2 = csc2
and dividing by cos2 on both sides of the pythagorean identity
tan2 + 1 = sec2
Now memorize the angle addition formulae and you dont have to memorize anything else. The rest can
be derived. These are easier to understand when you say them out loud than when you read them on paper.
So, say out loud Sine sucks
sin(x + y) = sin x cos y + cos x sin y
(s
cos(x + y) = cos x cos y sin x sin y
(c
s =
succs =

sucks)
cicss =

kicks)
Cosine kicks
c
make sure to memorize which one has a minus sign in the middle and which doesnt.
Now you can derive every other identity anybody has ever expected of you
sin(2x) = sin(x + x) = sin x cos x + cos x sin x = 2 sin x cos x
cos(2x) = cos(x + x) = cos x cos x sin x sin x = cos2 x sin2 x
= cos2 x sin2 x = cos2 x (1 cos2 x) = cos2 x 1 + cos2 x = 2 cos2 x 1

= (1 sin2 x) sin2 x = 1 2 sin2 x
From the last two, you can also see that

1 cos 2x
2
1 + cos 2x
2
2
= 2 cos x 1 cos x =
2
cos 2x = 1 2 sin2 x sin2 x =
Work all of the above derivations out on a piece of paper yourself. Once youve done it once, you cant
help but be able to do them in the future.

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Everything you

is meaningless aside from its similarity to Krakatoa. . .

All solutions to the problem are

which is always shortened to

Looking at the table, see that is

all solutions would be these two angles +2k,

This is why sin1 and cos1 look like

cos(x + y) = cos x cos y sin x sin y

= cos2 x sin2 x = cos2 x (1 cos2 x) = cos2 x 1 + cos2 x = 2 cos2 x 1

From the last two, you can also see that

cos 2x = 1 2 sin2 x sin2 x =

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