Chapter 5

Trigonometry

The standard trigonometric functions, sin, cos and tan are first encountered in calculations applications. For example, a process which involves repeated patterns (such as the heartbeat) can be modelled using combinations of such functions. This chapter is a general introduction to these functions, though not to such applications.

We expect that the reader is familiar with these functions and with many of their properties, but may not have met the associated functions cosec, sec and cot. We consider the relationships between these six functions and obtain their graphs. We investigate the relations between the values for related inputs. For example, sin 2θ = 2 sin θ cos θ. The reader should be aware that more complicated ...

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