Question 933599
Can someone explain to me how the right triangle trigonometric functions are related to the unit circle trigonometric functions? I am finding this very confusing and the textbook is complicating things for me, not helping. Thank you so much in advance!
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Draw a circle.
Let the radius be 1.
Pick a point on the circle somewhere between 0 and 90 degrees
Let the coordinates of that point be P(x,y)
Draw a vertical line segment from P to the x-axis
You now have a right triangle with base = x, height = y, hypotenuse = 1.
The angle at the origin is "t".
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sin(t) = opp/hyp = y/1 = y
cos(t) = adj/hyp = x/1 = x
tan(t) = opp/adj = y/x
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csc(t) = hyp/opp = 1/y
sec(t) = hyp/adj = 1/x
cot(t) = adj/opp = x/y
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Note: All above applies no matter when P is on the circle.
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Cheers,
Stan H.
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