AN INTRODUCTION TO TRIGONOMETRY

MATTHEW BABBITT

1. An Introduction to the Introduction You may have heard horror stories oating around your Middle or High school about the dreaded Trigonometry class. I may not be able to defeat those fears, but what I am going to do is try to teach it. To teach Trigonometry (which people abbreviate to trig from time to time), its probably a good idea to know what it is, rst. Trig is the study of the relationships between the lengths of the sides of triangles, and the angles between the sides of triangles. Now the best way to start the rst lesson of trig is to start with right triangles, which I will do in the next section. 2. Right Triangles 2.1. Denitions! Lets say you have a right triangle ABC , where A = 90 . Then lets say that the measure of B is . We now dene the sine of B to be sin = of B to be cos =
AB BC . AC BC ,

and the cosine

sin and cos are universally accepted terms; if you write them on a

blackboard in front of a mathematician from any country, that mathematician will immediately understand what you are saying they are. Note that you can also write sin = sin B = sin B = sin ABC , that is a valid mathematical statement. Its easy to mix up the sine and cosine, but with enough practice theyll become second nature to you. Enough with the explanation of terminology, lets get down to what this means. Lets say your triangle ABC is so that B = = 36 . Therefore
AC BC

= sin 36 , and

if you whip out your scientic calculator, switch it to degrees mode and punch that in, you would get that
AC BC

0.587785. This means that for any triangle ABC with A = 90 and
AC BC

B = 36 , you know for certain that

0.587785. This in itself is incredible, but you are

probably thinking How on earth could a calculator compute a good approximation of the sine of 36 degrees? Unfortunately that question goes beyond the scope of regular Trigonometry, so I shall not answer it here. However, there are some sines and cosines that you are able to nd.

MATTHEW BABBITT

2.2. Nice angles. In Figure 1, we have square ABCD and diagonal AC . Its not hard to see that BAC = BCA = 45 . Now we wish to calculate the sin 45 , which is equal to sin BAC =
BC AC .

Note that BC is the

side length of the square. We should be able to nd AC in terms of BC . We know from the Pythagorean The orem that AC = AB 2 + BC 2 , but we also know that AB = BC , since ABCD is a square. Therefore AC = BC 2 + BC 2 = 2BC 2 = BC 2, and therefore sin 45 = nd cos 45 = cos BCA =
BC AC

Figure 1

BC AC

BC BC 2

1 2

2 2 .

We can also

2 2 .

In Figure 2, we have regular triangle ABC , and height AD. Its not hard to show that BAD = 30 and ABD = 60 . Now here is where we start to be tricky. ABC is an isosceles triangle with base BC , so BD = DC =
1 2 BC .

Therefore BD =

1 2 AB .

This

implies that sin 30 = sin BAD =

BD AB 1 = 2 . Also note that cos 60 = 1 2.

Now if we wanted to nd cos 30 = sin 60 , we would need to nd the ratio

Figure 2
AD AB .

Luckily, we can do that with

the Pythagorean Theorem. We know

2 3 2 4 AB .

that AB = BD + AD , so AB = cos 30 = sin 60 =

3 2 .

AB 2 + AD2 , 2

or AD =

Therefore AD =

3 2 AB ,

and

AN INTRODUCTION TO TRIGONOMETRY

It is also possible to nd the sine and cosine of 15 , as well as the sine and cosine of 18 with this method, but these problems are more challenging than the others. The hardest part is drawing your diagram and making additions (note that in the squares diagram, we drew a diagonal, and in the equilaterals triangle, we drew a height). I encourage you to try these problems yourself, but I will give you a hint for nding the (co)sine of 18 . That problem, like the (co)sine of 30 , has you starting with an isosceles triangle whose vertex angle is double your goal, but you dont draw a height. You do draw an angle bisector, but not a height. You may have noticed that sin 45 = cos 45 , sin 30 = cos 60 , and sin 60 = cos 30 . This leads us to the fact that the sine of one of the acute angles of a right triangle is equal to the cosine of the other. In mathematical terms, sin = cos (90 ). If you draw a right triangle with angles , 90 , and 90 , you can see why this fact is true. 2.3. Pythagorean Identity. We all know the Pythagorean Theorem, but there is another way to express it. In a right triangle ABC with A = 90 , AC 2 AB 2 AC 2 + AB 2 = + =1 BC 2 BC 2 BC 2 Note that
AC 2 BC 2

= (sin B )2 , and

AB 2 BC 2

= (sin C )2 . Also note that C = 90 B , so

(sin C )2 = (cos B )2 . This means that

sin2 B + cos2 B = 1 (Before we go on, Id like to note that I wrote sin2 B . This is to remove confusion, because when someone writes sin B 2 , they either might (sin B )2 or sin (B )2 . sin2 B is, like sin B , a universal convention.) This is a very important fact, and it gives motivation for a denition of the sine and cosine for angles greater than or equal to 90 .

3. The Unit Circle 3.1. General Denition of the (Co)Sine. The formal denition of a circle is the locus of points that are a specic distance from a specied point. Well need this formal denition to actually do neat stu with trig. Now recall that a unit circle is a circle with radius 1.

MATTHEW BABBITT

The equation of the unit circle centered at the origin is x2 + y 2 = 1. This looks a lot like the Pythagorean Identity! In Figure 3, we take a point C on the circle, in the rst quadrant. If we let B be the projection of C onto the x-axis, and A be the origin, we get that ABC is a right triangle. Now we let BAC = . We know that sin =
BC AC ,

but AC

is the radius of the circle, which is 1. Therefore BC = sin . Similarly, AB = cos . Therefore the coordinates of C are (cos , sin ). Now we are inspired to dene the sine of any angle, but to do that,
Figure 3

we need a new diagram.

In Figure 4, let A be the origin, B be the point (1, 0), and C be an arbitrary point on the unit circle. Let be the emphdirected angle BAC (this allows for negative angles!) Then C has coordinates (cos , sin ). At rst sight, this denition doesnt look to useful, but if you play around for a while, you will nd a bunch of useful identities; sin (90 + ) = cos , cos (90 + ) = sin ,

sin (180 ) = sin , and many other neat equalities with that
Figure 4

AN INTRODUCTION TO TRIGONOMETRY

form. I wont go over all of them here, but you can try to nd them all! 3.2. Radians. Thinking about the sine and cosine with respect to the unit circle actually inspires the use of radians. Lets say that angle in Figure 1 is x radians. Then directed arc BC (counterclockwise!) has a directed length x. This means that if x = 2 , then directed arc BC has a length equal to the circumference of the circle. Therefore 2 = 360 , or = 180 . Radians are extremely important in Calculus and Physics, people make some nasty problems using radians, and many graphing calculators are switched to radian mode automatically (some online calculators cant be switched into degree mode), so knowing what radians are is useful. I will be using radians in all of my graphs (and in the discussions of those graphs), while direct calculations will switch between degrees and radians depending on which is more convenient to use. 3.3. Graphs of f (x) = sin x and f (x) = cos x. You may be wondering why I put this under the Unit Circle section. Take a look at the graphs below.

Figure 5. The Graph of the Function f (x) = sin x, in Radians

Figure 6. The Graph of the Function f (x) = cos x, in Radians

In the graph of f (x) = sin x, x corresponds to the measure of BAC in Figure 4 in radians, and y corresponds to the y -coordinate of C . In the graph of f (x) = cos x, x again corresponds to BAC , but this time y corresponds to the x-coordinate of C .

MATTHEW BABBITT

Also note that the functions are periodic, with period 2 . This is because 2 is a full revolution around the circle, and rotating B around the origin by 2 doesnt change its position. 4. One more ratio... Well, in reality, there are four more ratios, but three of them come immediately from the three others. The third ratio is entirely dierent form the (co)sine, which related the hypotenuse to the legs. The tangent relates the legs directly. Given right triangle ABC with A = tan ABC =
AC AB . 2,

Note that this is equal to

sin x cos x .

AC BC AB BC

sin ABC cos ABC .

This brings us to the general

denition of the tangent: tan x = of f (x) = tan x is below.

Note that this is not dened when cos x = 0. The graph

Figure 7. The Graph of the Function f (x) = tan x, in Radians

The tangent function itself is necessary for expressing the ratio of the legs of a right triangle eciently (you wouldnt want to write the expression sin x/ cos x over and over again, would you?). You probably wont have any epiphanies when you explore trigonometric identities, but this notation is very useful for some of the more complicated problems.

AN INTRODUCTION TO TRIGONOMETRY

I said before that there were three other ratios. These are csc x, sec x, and cot x, which are read cosecant, secant, and cotangent. They are dened to be csc x = and cot x =
1 tan x . 1 sin x ,

sec x =

1 cos x ,

Even though these seem redundant, some people tend to use these instead of

the reciprocals of the other three functions. You may also be wondering why the cosecant isnt the reciprocal of the cosine. No one will ever know, but you should never dene the cosecant to be the reciprocal of the cosine; the denition listed above is universally accepted. Note that I will never use these three functions, but you can if you want to. 5. Inverse trig functions
1 What happens when you are asked to calculate tan1 3 ? This is not the reciprocal of 1 tan 1 3 ! This is actually the real number x such that tan x = 3 . However, there are innitely many

values of x that satisfy that equation! If you were really asked to nd that, then you would list every x that satises that equation. However, sometimes people want only one value x. This
1 1 is called the principle value of tan1 1 3 , and it is denoted by T an 2 . The principle value is the

value that lies in the rst period of the function, which is from /2 to /2. Therefore we will
1 always have T an1 x in the interval ( is called arctan, and the principle 2 , 2 ). Sometimes, tan

value is called Arctan.

1 If you try to use the rst period for nding arcsin 2 , you will nd that there are two values 1 of x such that sin x = 2 . Instead, well use the rst half-period where sin x covers its whole range. Here well use ( 2 , 2 ) again. Weve used this interval twice, so you may be tempted to use it

for arccos x. However, cos x is positive in this interval, so we cant use it. Instead, we use the interval (0, ). 6. Why are they useful? 6.1. Areas! You probably know that the area of a triangle is half of the product of the length of one of its sides and the length of the height dropped down to that side. Now Ill show you how to calculate the area of a triangle given the length of two sides and the angle between them! First, take triangle ABC . Assume that BAC = is acute (this proof can be extended to obtuse triangles, and the right-triangle case doesnt

MATTHEW BABBITT

need trigonometry to prove). Now let D be the base of the height from B to AC . It is clear that BD = AB sin , so the area of the triangle ABC is
AC BD 2

AB AC sin . 2

This may not

seem brilliant, but it is extremely useful in problems that involve area. Sometimes you can use them in problems that dont involve area!

6.2. Addition formula. By now, you have probably wondered how to nd the (co)sine of exotic angles such as 36 . Unfortunately, I do not know how to ne the sine of that angle and have it come out to be a pretty formula (nested square roots For The Lose), and the cosine involves nding the sine of 18 , which I mentioned back in 2.2 (thats the only way I know of for nding sin 18 !) However, it is possible to nd the sine and cosine of 75 without constructing it geometrically! Note that 30 + 45 = 75 . Now all we need to do is nd sin 30 + 45 . This is, by itself, impossible to do. However, there is a way to calculate sin x + y for any real x and y . The following proof only works when x and y are both less than 90 . However, the proof can be algebraically extended to when at least one of them is at least 90 . Take triangle ABC , let D be the projection of A onto BC , and let BAD = x and CAD = y . Note that the area of ABD is area of ACD is ABC is
CDAD , 2 BDAD , 2

the

and the area of Therefore BD

AB AC sin (x+y ) . 2

AD + CD AD = AB AC sin (x + y ). Without loss of generality, let AD = 1. Therefore AB =

Figure 9
1 cos x ,

AC =

1 cos y ,

AN INTRODUCTION TO TRIGONOMETRY

BD = tan x, and CD = tan y . Therefore tan x + tan y =

sin (x+y ) cos x cos y .

Multiply-

ing both sides by cos x cos y gives sin x cos y + sin y cos x = sin (x + y )! We can now nd the sine of 75 ! You probably want to nd sin (x y ) now. There are two solutions; one using geometry, and one not using geometry. I encourage you to nd both. However, I should probably give it to you now, since the next example uses it. sin (x y ) = sin x cos y sin y cos x. We now have sin (x + y ), but what about cos x + y ? Well, we know that sin (90 x) = cos x, so cos (x + y ) = sin (90 x y ) = sin ([90 x] y ) = sin (90 x cos y cos (90 x) sin y = cos x cos y sin x sin y Now what is cos (x y )? Ill also let you nd tan (x + y ) solely in terms of tan x and tan y ; this formula has been used multiple times in the AIME, once near the beginning of the AIMEs existence, and once in a fairly recent year!

6.3. Double angle formulas. If I only gave you the value of sin 30 , could you calculate sin 60 ? It turns out that you can without using sin (90 x)! You can rst use the pythagorean identity to get cos 30 , and then you can do this: sin 60 = sin 30 + 30 = sin 30 cos 30 + cos 30 sin 30 = 2 sin 30 cos 30 = 3 2

This method can be used to prove that, in general, sin 2x = 2 sin x cos x. This identity is sometimes helpful in hard problems, such as those involving angle bisectors. We can also nd that cos 2x = cos2 x sin2 x. Ill let you nd tan 2x. Taking a look at cos 2x, we see that it looks a lot like the Pythagorean Identity! We can use that identity to get two more nice formulas: cos 2x = 2 cos2 x 1 = 1 2 sin2 x. We can actually use these two formulas to nd more neat things.

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MATTHEW BABBITT

x 6.4. Half angle formulas. We rst take the identity cos x = 1 2 sin2 x 2 , and solve for sin 2 .

Using a little algebraic manipulation, we get that sin x = 2 1 cos x 2

Similarly, we can use the other identity we got in section 6.3 to get cos x = 2 1 + cos x 2

Note that the signs come from taking the square root of both sides. We can gure out which sign to use given the context; the sine of 15 is positive since 15 is between 0 and 180 , so sin 15 =
1cos 30 . 2

It is possible to nd multiple expressions for tan x 2 only in terms of the sine and cosine, with no square roots. Try nding one!

6.5. Miscellaneous identities. The Pythagorean Identity looks a lot like 1 + tan2 x = sec2 x and 1 + cot2 x = csc2 x, both of which are true, and which you should be able to show easily. These two identities are used a lot in calculating tricky integrals, so it might be a good idea to remember these, or at least remember how to derive these, once you start learning calculus. There is one last set of tricky formulas that Im going to throw at you before we get to the problems. What happens when you add cos (x + y ) and cos (x y )? If you expand them using our sum/dierence formulas, you get that the products of sines cancel, and youre left with cos (x + y ) + cos (x y ) = 2 cos x cos y ! Now letting x + y = and x y = , we have cos + cos = 2 cos + cos 2 2

We can nd similar formulas for cos cos and sin sin using similar methods. There are other various identities, such as the Law of Sines and the Law of Cosines, but I wont clutter your head with these right now. Ill put them in the next lecture, where well be exploring such fun stu as proving the Angle Bisector Theorem, Stewarts Theorem, and Herons Formula!

AN INTRODUCTION TO TRIGONOMETRY

11

7. Problems 7.1. Section 2 Problems. 1. Triangle ABC has the property that ABC = 60 , ACB = 45 , and BAC = 75 . What is
AB AC ?

2. Right triangle ABC has ABC = 30 , and ACB = 90 . Point D is on BC such that BA = 45 . What is
AD BD ?

3. Calculate the exact value of sin 5 12 . Use this to nd the exact value of sin 12 .

4. Calculate the exact value of sin 18 . 5. Find the value of sin2 10 + sin2 20 + sin2 30 + sin2 40 + sin2 50 + sin2 60 + sin2 70 + sin2 80 + sin2 90 . 7.2. Section 3 Problems.
6. What is cos 23 ?

7. If sin x = cos 2x and x is between 0 and 90 , then nd x. 8. In problem 2, nd sin ADB . 9. You are given that there are exactly two values of x in the interval [0, 2 ] such that | cos x| = y , for some real number y . What is the sum of the values of y that have this property? 10. You are now given that there are exactly four values of x in the interval [0, 2 ] such that | sin x| = y , for some real number y . you are given that the least of those four values is . What are the other three values in terms of ? 7.3. Section 4 Problems.
11. What is the value of tan 34 ?

12. In problem 2, nd tan ADB . 13. You are given that tan x = y , and you now want to calculate sin x. Unfortunately, there is more than one value of sin x! How many possible values of sin x are there? 7.4. Section 5 Problems. 14. Evaluate arccsc 1, Arcsin 2/2, and Arctan 3/3. 15. Evaluate tan1 (2 + 3).
1 16. What is csc Arcsin 1 2 Arccos 2 ?

17. Given that Arcsin(x) = y , nd tan y in terms of x.

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MATTHEW BABBITT

7.5. Section 6 Problems. 18. Suppose that the area of triangle ABC is 10 3, the length of AB is 8, and the length of AC is 5. Find all possible values of CAB . 19. Prove that sin 20 sin2 30 = sin 10 sin 40 sin 50 . 20. Calculate sin 123 .