Similarity and Trig Ratios (Discover a Relationship) Michael Buhler Objective: Understand that by similarity, side ratios in right

triangles are properties of the angles in the triangle, leading to definitions of trigonometric ratios for acute angles. Lesson Plan: Stage 1: Experimenting After several lessons on similarity of triangles, I will assign the attached worksheet as homework for the students. The goal is that students begin to inductively discover trig ratios. Stage 2: Reflecting and Explaining The next day in class, I will break the class up into groups of 4 or 5 and have them discuss what they discovered and especially their conjectures. Next I will have each group report on what they discovered to the whole class, and when necessary to clarify or advance the discovery process of an important topic, we will stop to examine an aspect of the discussion more deeply. Stage 3: Hypothesizing and Articulating Next we will continue the discussion and I will guide it so that students come to discover that for a given angle measure, the ratios between sides are always the same. I will also lead them to consider the reciprocals of the 3 ratios they discovered in the worksheet. As they come to this conclusion, Ill then inform students of the names for each of the 6

trig ratios. Then I will have students create a mnemonic device for remembering the ratios. Then I will tell students the following explanation of how Sine was named: 1. In Sanskrit, the term "jiva" means half-chord.
2. Arab mathematicians made use both of Greek and Hindu sources; in particular, they retained the term "jiva" from Sanskrit. 3. In Arab writing, one ignores vowels, so that in Arabic texts, the technical term "jiva" is written in the same manner as the common word "jaib" that means..."fold/pocket" 4. Thus, when Arab works were transcribed into Latin, the transcriber naturally thought he should insert "sinus(the latin word for fold or pocket)" where "jiva" was standing.

And thus, the trigonometric function gained its strange name..

Stage 4: Verifying and Refining After creating the class version of the trig ratios, I will have the students work 20 problems from the textbook to help them become familiar with the ratios. The following day, Ill engage them in a discussion session in which theyll reflect on their homework and lead them to accept what they have learned about the ratios.

Mini-experiment(s)
Prompt: Given that the blue right triangle is similar to the green triangle, please find, in terms of a, b, and c: Sin D, Cos D, Tan D. Then in a paragraph explain how we can use the information from the blue triangle to tell us about the trig ratios in the green triangle.

c a D b

Rubric: 1pt for Sin D=a/c 1pt for Cos D=b/c 1pt for Tan D=a/b 1pt for writing a coherent paragraph 2pts for explaining that since the two right triangles are similar, the trig ratios of corresponding angles are the same since the ratios of corresponding side lengths are equal.

Worksheet

Consider the Following Similar Triangles:

B D

10

3 6 A

Fill out the following table of the lengths of the sides opposite to, adjacent to, and the hypotenuse for each given angle and then calculate the given ratios:

Angle A B C D

Opposite

Adjacent

Hypotenuse Opp/Hyp

Adj/Hyp

Opp/Adj

What do you notice about the ratios in A &C? B&D? How can you explain this in based on what you know about similar triangles? Make a conjecture about these ratios: