Graphing

Trigonometric
Functions

Introduction
Trigonometry is a subject that every
student will have to encounter in
advance math. Therere many lessons
in trig and graphing is one of them. Its
not horribly difficult but its actually
very easy if you understand the
concept clearly.
Lets get started!

Quadrant angles
All the coordinates you
see on the graph
represents (cos, sin)
and from here you can
create a table that
match up the angles.
*Hint: tan= sin/cos*
0

90

180

270

360

Sin

-1

Cos

-1

Tan

undef

undef

Reciprocal trig functions

Csc = 1/sin
Sec = 1/cos
Cot = 1/tan

Reciprocal functions are the

reciprocal form of the
quadrant angle. Follow the
formula on the left and look
back at the table weve
done to get the points down.

90

180

270

360

Csc

undef

undef

-1

Undef

Sec

undef

-1

undef

Tan

undef

undef

undef

Inverse functions
You dont have to worry too much about inverse function
because they rarely appear on graphing, they mostly show
up in equation solving.
Its really easy to graph these because the only thing you
need is switch the input and output.
For example:
y= sinx (look back at quadrant
angles table if you have to)
y= arcsin x
x
Y
x
y
0

90

180

270

-1

360

Switch
the x
and y

90

180

-1

270

360

Basic forms

Arctan x

Amplitude
Amplitude decide how much your y-axis will
expand. For example:
Y= 2sinx (the number in front of your identity is
how much your graph will expand vertically)
y= sinx
y= 2sinx (multiply your
y by 2)
x

90

180

270

-2

360

 This is how the graph of y=2sinx will look like

when you pluck the points in

Period
Period will change your domain (x-axis), decide
the range of your graph horizontally. Sin and
cosine will have the period of 2pi while tan, csc,
sec, and cot have the period of pi because thats
long far itll took them to finish 1 revolution.
Y= cos2x
Period = 2pi/2 = pi = 180 (180/4 = 45)
Y=cosx
y=cos2x
x (period
y of 2pi)
x
y
360-0 =
360=
2pi

90

180

-1

270

360

1800=180
Add 45
until you
reach
180

45

90

-1

135

180

This is how the graph will look like with period of 180

Vertical shift
It decides how many unit will your graph move up
or down
Ex: y=sinx+1 (your graph will move 1 unit up)
Y=sinx
y=sinx+1
x

90

180

270

360

Add 1 to
your y
values

Itll look something like this

Horizontal shift
Itll move your graph left or right
Y= cos (x-pi/2)
The graph will shift to the right pi/2
Y=cosx
Y= cos (x-pi/2)
x

90

180

270

-1

360

450

This is how the graph will look like after you shift pi/2 to
the right

Lets put all of the things we just learn into 1

example
Graph y=3-2sin2(x+pi/2)
Amplitude: 2 (for the negative just flip the graph
or you could multiply the graph by -2 to save
time)
Period: 2pi / 2 = pi, pi/4 = 45
Vertical shift: +3
Horizontal shift: -pi/2
x
Y
Create a table
-90

-45

45

90

Itll look something like

this

THE END