Name: Raven P.

Garcia
Grade and Section: 11 STEM - Proverbs
Assignment:

Unit circle
The unit circle is a circle with a radius of 1. This means that for any straight line drawn from the center point of
the circle to any point along the edge of the circle, the length of that line will always equal 1. (This also means
that the diameter of the circle will equal 2, since the diameter is equal to twice the length of the radius.)

Typically, the center point of the unit circle is where the x-axis and y-axis intersect, or at the coordinates (0, 0)

The unit circle, or trig circle as it’s also known, is useful to know because it lets us easily calculate the cosine,
sine, and tangent of any angle between 0° and 360° (or 0 and 2π radians).

As you can see in the above diagram, by drawing a radius at any angle (marked by ∝ in the image), you will be
creating a right triangle. On this triangle, the cosine is the horizontal line, and the sine is the vertical line. In
other words, cosine = x-coordinate, and sine = y-coordinate. (The triangle’s longest line, or hypotenuse, is the
radius and therefore equals 1.)

Why is all of this important? Remember that you can solve for the lengths of the sides of a triangle using
the Pythagorean theorem, or a2+b2=c2 (in which a and b are the lengths of the sides of the triangle, and c is
the length of the hypotenuse).

We know that the cosine of an angle is equal to the length of the horizontal line, the sine is equal to the length
of the vertical line, and the hypotenuse is equal to 1. Therefore, we can say that the formula for any right
triangle in the unit circle is as follows:
 Trigonometric Identities
I
In mathematics, an "identity" is an equation which
is always true. These can be "trivially" true, like
"x = x" or usefully true, such as the Pythagorean
Theorem's "a2 +b2 = c2" for right triangles. There
are loads of trigonometric identities, but the
following are the ones you're most likely to see and
use.

Notice how a "co-(something)" trig ratio is always the reciprocal of some "non-co" ratio. You can use this fact to
help you keep straight that cosecant goes with sine and secant goes with cosine.

The following (particularly the first of the three below) are called "Pythagorean" identities.

sin2(t) + cos2(t) = 1

tan2(t) + 1 = sec2(t)

1 + cot2(t) = csc2(t)

Note that the three identities above all involve squaring and the number 1. You can see the Pythagorean-
Thereom relationship clearly if you consider the unit circle, where the angle is t, the "opposite" side is sin(t)
= y, the "adjacent" side is cos(t) = x, and the hypotenuse is 1.

We have additional identities related to the functional status of the trig ratios:

sin(–t) = –sin(t)

cos(–t) = cos(t)

tan(–t) = –tan(t)
Notice in particular that sine and tangent are odd functions, being symmetric about the origin, while cosine is
an even function, being symmetric about the y-axis. The fact that you can take the argument's "minus" sign
outside (for sine and tangent) or eliminate it entirely (for cosine) can be helpful when working with complicated
expressions.

Angle-Sum and -Difference Identities

sin(α + β) = sin(α) cos(β) + cos(α) sin(β)

sin(α – β) = sin(α) cos(β) – cos(α) sin(β)

cos(α + β) = cos(α) cos(β) – sin(α) sin(β)

cos(α – β) = cos(α) cos(β) + sin(α) sin(β)

Double-Angle Identities

sin(2x) = 2 sin(x) cos(x)

cos(2x) = cos2(x) – sin2(x) = 1 – 2 sin2(x) = 2 cos2(x) – 1

Half-Angle Identities