Question

Can someone explain sine, cosine, and tangent to me please? I looked at the lesson and I really don't get it and I have a project on them now!

Answer 1

What are you doing with sines and cosines at this time? Solving for items in a right triangle?

Answer 2

Do you want me to post the instructions for the project os you can see?

Answer 3

That would be good, yes. There is quite a bit to talk about with trig functions, so knowing what we need to go over specifically would be good! :)

Answer 4

Robbie the Robot is on a weather satellite orbiting Earth about 3600 km above the surface. The Earth’s radius is about 6400 km. He has had a malfunction in his output device, and the satellite is traveling without communication. His last report was only in terms of trigonometric values and was only partially received. It said, sin Θ < 0….. and then he was lost again.
Part 1: Create a set of coordinates that would be reasonable for Robbie’s position in space and satisfy his last, partial report. Using complete sentences, describe Robbie’s location and your reasoning.

Part 2: What are the values of the sin Θ, cos Θ, and tan Θ using your coordinate point?

Answer 5

I think this may make the most sense using the unit circle as an example. Have you used that before? The circle where the x-values are values for cosine, and the y-values are for sine.

Answer 6

Kind of but I was also having trouble on that. I am having trouble with this module completely.

Answer 7

I'll draw a picture of the unit circle first.

We know the unit circle works because it follows a trig identity: sin^2 t + cos^2 t = 1. This is also in the equation of a circle with x,y = cos t, sin t; and radius = 1.
I also call theta, t, because it is easier to type!

But you at least get that part? Or should I elaborate on it?

Answer 8

I get that so far

Answer 9

Theta is this right?\[\theta\]

Answer 10

Yep, that is theta. \(\theta\)

Answer 11

Any value on that circle can be represented by a particular value of t, between 0 and 2pi. Starting with t=0, the point is (cos 0, sin 0) = (1, 0). Then as t gets bigger, we travel counter-clockwise about the circle.