PRECALCULUS PREPARATION

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SPRING SEMESTER 2015 - PRECALCULUS

Course: Precalculus w/Trigonometry

Instructor: Mr. Carlos Ortiz
Student: ALAIN VILLASECA

Delivered: Friday, January 16, 2015

TBCB: Friday, January 16, 2015
ETTC: 120-150 min

ANON

Alain, these identities were formulated many years ago during the time
when the Greeks at the peak of their curiosities and they began to ask
many questions about specific relationships. Lets consider these two right
triangles that contain some angles that should be quite familiar to us:
A 45o-45o-90o right
triangle is simply half
of a square.
If the original side of
the square is a, then
the diagonal of the square (which would
be the HYPOTENUSE Of the right
triangle created when you cut it IN
HALF) can be found by using the
Pythagorean Theorem:
2
h a 2 a 2 Since h represents the
SIDE OF A TRIANGLE,
2
2
we ignore the negative
h 2a
answer and so we
have:

A 30o-60o-90o
right triangle is
a bit different.
If the shorter
LEG is a, then
the longer leg
is will be a MULTIPLIED by 3 and the
hypotenuse will be TWICE a: 2a. NOW,
we didnt find these using the
Pythagorean Theorem, but we can
verify them:

h 2a

h 2a a 2
BIG DEALSO WHAT?
PRECALCULUS PREPARATION 1/16/2015
Mr. Carlos Ortiz | ALAIN VILLASECA

( hyp) 2 short leg long leg

2

2a

a a 3
2

4a 2 a 2 3a 2
4a 2 4 a 2

TOPIC = TRIGONOMETRIC FUNCTIONS

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Copyright 2015 Carlos Ortiz

BIG DEALSO WHAT?

Well, it turns out that ANY RIGHT TRIANGLE that has
LEGS THAT ARE THE SAME, will ALWAYS HAVE A
HYPOTENUSE THAT IS 2 TIMES LONGER!

TWO

AND

ANY RIGHT TRIANGLE that has ONE LEG THAT IS

LONGER THAN THE OTHER, will ALWAYS HAVE A
HYPOTENUSE THAT IS 2 TIMES LONGER!

AND SO THE GREEKS figured that if this was true, then certain RATIOS
would ALWAYS HAVE THE SAME VALUE:
EXAMPLE 1: For the 45o-45o-90o right triangle, the ratio of the SIDE
OPPOSITE THE 45o angle to the hypotenuse would ALWAYS BE be:

opposite
a
a
1
2

0.707
hypotenuse a 2
2
a 2
2

It turns out that specifically for 45o, the ratio of the SIDE ADJACENT
THE 45o angle to the hypotenuse would ALWAYS BE be:

adjacent
a
a
1
2

0.707
hypotenuse a 2
2
a 2
2
CONCLUSION: They decided to call the ratio of OPPOSITE OVER
HYPOTENUSE the sin of the angle and the ratio of the ADJACENT
OVER HYPOTENUSE would be called the cos of the angle.

PRECALCULUS PREPARATION 1/16/2015

Mr. Carlos Ortiz | ALAIN VILLASECA

TOPIC = TRIGONOMETRIC FUNCTIONS

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Copyright 2015 Carlos Ortiz

sin an angle in a right

length of side opposite the angle

length of the hypotenuse
AND

cos an angle in a right

PRACTICE
P1
a. 64 m
b. 17 m
c. 15 m
d. 225 m

length of side adjacent to the angle

length of the hypotenuse
P4 Consider the work the Greeks
completed with the 45o-45o-90o right
triangle. If they had done similar work
with the 30o-60o-90o right triangle, what
sin and cos values would they have
calculated for
a) 30o ?
For sin:

For cos:

b) 60o ?
For sin:

For cos:

P2
a.
b.
c.
d.

1
0.707
2
1.414

P3
a.
b.
c.
d.

4m
2m
3.464 m
1m

TOPIC = TRIGONOMETRIC FUNCTIONS

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Copyright 2015 Carlos Ortiz

CONCLUSION: The sin and cos values for 30o, 45o, and 60o WILL ALWAYS
BE THE SAME, EVEN IF THEY ARE NOT PART OF A RIGHT TRIANGLE (this
can be confirmed with any calculator).
An angle can be represented in math with ANY VARIABLE and GREEK
VARIABLES tend to be pretty popular. If we call our ANGLE theta (here is
that Greek letter: ), then we can SUMMARIZE our results so far with this
table:

= 30o

= 45o

= 60o

sin

1
0.5
2

2
0.707
2

3
0.866
2

cos

3
0.866
2

2
0.707
2

1
0.5
2

ALAIN, notice anything interesting about the values in this table?

PRECALCULUS PREPARATION 1/16/2015

Mr. Carlos Ortiz | ALAIN VILLASECA

TOPIC = TRIGONOMETRIC FUNCTIONS

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Copyright 2015 Carlos Ortiz

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PRECALCULUS PREPARATION 1/16/2015

Mr. Carlos Ortiz | ALAIN VILLASECA

TOPIC = TRIGONOMETRIC FUNCTIONS

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Copyright 2015 Carlos Ortiz

PRECALCULUS PREPARATION 1/16/2015

Mr. Carlos Ortiz | ALAIN VILLASECA

TOPIC = TRIGONOMETRIC FUNCTIONS

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Copyright 2015 Carlos Ortiz

PRECALCULUS PREPARATION 1/16/2015

Mr. Carlos Ortiz | ALAIN VILLASECA

TOPIC = TRIGONOMETRIC FUNCTIONS

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Copyright 2015 Carlos Ortiz

PRECALCULUS PREPARATION 1/16/2015

Mr. Carlos Ortiz | ALAIN VILLASECA

TOPIC = TRIGONOMETRIC FUNCTIONS

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Copyright 2015 Carlos Ortiz

PRECALCULUS PREPARATION 1/16/2015

Mr. Carlos Ortiz | ALAIN VILLASECA

TOPIC = TRIGONOMETRIC FUNCTIONS

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Copyright 2015 Carlos Ortiz