Chapter 6
The Trig Tango
In This Chapter
Socking it to ’em with SohCahToa
Everybody’s got an angle: 30°, 45°, 60°
Circumnavigating the unit circle
Graphing trig functions
Investigating inverse trig functions
Many calculus problems involve trigonometry, and the calculus itself is enough of a challenge without having to relearn trig at the same time. So, if your trig is rusty — I’m shocked — review these trig basics, or else!
Studying Trig at Camp SohCahToa
The study of trig begins with the right triangle. The three main trig functions (sine, cosine, and tangent) and their reciprocals (cosecant, secant, and cotangent) all tell you something about the lengths of the sides of a right triangle that contains a given acute angle — like angle x in Figure 6-1. The longest side of this right triangle (or any right triangle), the diagonal side, is called the hypotenuse. The side that’s 3 units long in this right triangle is referred to as the opposite side because it’s on the opposite side ...
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