MySTEMNotes

Tag: trigonometry

  • 5.2 Verifying Trigonometric Identities

    Verifying trigonometric identities is demonstrating that one side of an equation is equal to the other side of the equation. There are seven steps to this process. These are not necessarily black and white rules. These are the steps that were taught to me, and they are as follows. Examples 1. a) b) c) d)…

  • 5.1 Trigonometry Fundamental Identities

    Trigonometric fundamental identities are really fun stuff. We can use them to rewrite equations and make them simpler for us to solve, and I will illustrate this further along in this post. Let’s get into the Pythagorean identities first. Pythagorean Identities Now that we have our three Pythagorean identities written out, let’s also make note…

  • 4.4 How to Graph Secant and Cosecant Functions

    Now that we have covered how to graph sine and cosine, and how to graph tangent and cotangent, it’s time to learn how to graph the secant and cosecant functions. In order to do this, you HAVE to know how to graph sine and cosine. If you do not comfortably know how to do this,…

  • 4.3 How to Graph the Tangent and Cotangent Functions

    Now that we know how to graph the sine and cosine functions, we can learn how to graph the tangent and cotangent. In this post, I will go over the basic graphs for the tangent and cotangent and the ways that we can manipulate them. How to Graph the Tangent Function Let’s take a look…

  • 4.2 How to Graph Sine and Cosine Functions with Horizontal and Vertical Shifts

    In my last post, I dove into the graphs of sine and cosine and the basic ways that we can manipulate them. If you are unfamiliar with the basic graphs of sine and cosine, I highly recommend going back through my last post before diving into this one. In this post, we are going to…

  • 4.1 Graphs of Sine and Cosine Functions

    In this post, we are going to get into graphing the functions of sine and cosine. While this may seem daunting at first, it’s actually quite simple one you understand what the base graphs of these functions look like. The graphs of sine and cosine are periodic functions, which means that repeat over a certain…

  • 3.4 Linear and Angular Speed

    Linear speed and angular speed are both used to measure the motion of objects, but they refer to different types of motion. Linear speed refers to the speed that an object moves in a straight path along a trajectory. For example, linear speed could refer to a car driving along a straight road. Angular speed…

  • 3.3 The Unit Circle and Circular Functions

    Meet your best friend – the unit circle! The unit circle is an integral part to helping you succeed in trigonometry. Memorize every part of it (it’s not as overwhelming as it would appear at first glance), and use it to your advantage. During my college trigonometry class, I drew the unit circle on the…

  • 3.2 Applications of Radian Measure

    Before we can get into the applications of radian measure, first we must define what exactly a radian is. In simple terms, a radian is a unit of measurement, similar to degrees but relating primarily to circles; however, we do use radians in trigonometric functions. A radian is an angle whose corresponding arc in a…

  • 2.3 How to Find Trig Function Values Using a Calculator

    So far, we haven’t had much use for a calculator with our math operations. Going forward, we might want to check what exactly the value of a certain function is, or find it’s inverse. Using a calculator to find trig function values is important to be able to check our work and for various applications.…