Circular Trigonometric Functions - CHAPTER 9@ {XJ TRIGONOMETRIC RATIOS 10.1.1 THE UNIT CIRCLE ‘We saw in Chapter 9 that we were able to find the sine, cosine and tangent of acute angles contained within a right-angled triangle. We extended this to enable us to find the sine and cosine ratio of obtuse angles. To see why this worked, or indeed why it would work for an angle of any magnitude, we need to reconsider how angles are measured. To do this we start by making use of the unit circle and introduce some definitions. From this point on we define the angle @ as a real number that is measured in either degrees or radians. So that, an expression such as sin(180°— ) will imply that @ is measured in degrees as opposed to the expression sin(x°-@) which would imply that @ is measured in radians. In both cases, it should be clear from the context of the question which one it is. From the work in §9.7 we have the following conversions between degrees and radians and the exact value of their trigonometric ratios: Note that tan90° is undefined. We will shortly see why this is the case. By convention, an angle @ is measured in terms of the rotation of a ray OP from the positive direction of the x-axis, so that a rotation in the anticlockwise direction is described as a positive angle, whereas a rotation in the clockwise direction is described as a negative angle. yh Let the point P(x, y) be a point on the circumference of the unit Poxy) circle, x2 + y? = 1 ,with centre at the origin and radius 1 unit. | ‘With OP making an angle of 8 with the positive direction of the Ot E x-axis, we draw the perpendicular from P to meet the x-axis at M. This then provides the following definitions: MP _ y-coordinate of P _ sin@ = t= = cos) = MP = x:coordinate of P _ ~ OP OP tang = MP _ y-coordinate of P _ ‘coordinate of P ~ 315 OL HA.LdWHDMATHEMATICS - Higher Level (Core) Note that this means that the y-coordinate comesponds to the sine of the angle @ . That the 2-coordinate corresponds to the cosine of the angle @ and that the tangent,... . , well, for the tangent, let’s revisit the unit circle, but this time we will make an addition to the diagram. Using the existing unit circle, we draw a tangent at tangent | the point where the circle cuts the positive x-axis, Q, yh Next, we extend the ray OP to meet the tangent at R Using similar triangles, we have that That is, tan@ = RO —which means that the value of the tangent 0 of the angle @ corresponds to the y-coordinates of point R cut off on the tangent at Q by the extended ray OP. PM _y _ sin® Also, it is worth noting that tan@ = S“* = 2 (as long as cos6 = 0) OM x That is, fap One geG) cos) From our table of exact values, we note that tan90° was undefined. This can be observed from the above diagram. If @ = 90° ,P lies on the y-axis, meaning that OP would be parallel to QR. and so, P would never cut the tangent, meaning that no y-value corresponding to R could ever be obtained. Using a table of values for tan@ on the TI-83, we see how the tangent ratio increases as @ increases to 90° and in particular how it is undefined for 8 = 90°. 10.1.2 ANGLE OF ANY MAGNITUDE From the unit circle we have seen how the trigonometric ratios of an acute angle can be obtained — i.e., for the sine ratio we read off the y-axis, for the cosine ratio, we read off the x-axis and for the tangent ratio we read off the tangent. As the point P is located in the first quadrant, then x > 0, y= Oand 2 20,x#0., Meaning that we obtain positive trigonometric ratios. So, what if P lies in the second quadrant? We start by drawing a diagram for such a situation: From our diagram we see that if P lies in the second quadrant, the y-value is still positive, the x-value is negative and therefore the y ratio, ~ is negative, x This means that, sin@ > 0, cos@ <0 and tan8 <0 316Circular Trigonometric Functions - CHAPTER 9@ Ina similar way, we can conclude that if 180° <@ < 270°, yh ice., the point P is in the third quadrant, then, y-value is negative = sin® <0, x-value is negative = cos@ <0 6 rm and therefore the ratio value is positive = tan6 >0 POY) For the fourth quadrant we have, 270 < 0 < 360 , so that y-value is negative => sin@ <0, x-value is positive > cos® > 0 and therefore the ratio ; -value is negative = tan® <0 | x 8 po 7 Pay) So far, so good. We now know that depending on which quadrant an angle lies in, the sign of the trigonometric ratio will be either positive or negative. In fact, we can summarise this as follows: » All rdfios are 1d posit | s A\ This may be usefly recalled jz fom be following diagram, o \r Cc si Five bY se ofamnemonic sentence si sini is e nis —ve All Stations To City However, knowing the sign of a trigonometric ratio reflects only half the information. We still need to determine the numerical value. We start by considering a few examples: Consider the value of sin 150° . Using the unit circle we have: By symmetry we see that the y-coordinate of Q and the y-coordinate of P are the same and so, sin 150° = sin30°. 1 Therefore, sin 150° = 5 Ze = 3% and 30° = © , so that in Note that 150° = 150 x 180 = 6 z . Sn xl radian form we have, sin2= = sin = >. sing = sing = 5 In other words, we were able to express the sine of an angle in the second quadrant in terms of the sine of an angle in the first quadrant. In particular, we have that 317