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Syllabus |
Notes |
Assignment 1 |
Assignment 2 |
Assignment 3 |
Assignment 4 |
Activities |
Questions |
Calendar |
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Talking about Trigonometry
| Why is this course important? Let us look at the history of trig. | ||
| Trigonometric tables were created over two thousand years ago for computations in astronomy. | The kind of trigonometry needed to understand positions on a sphere is called spherical trigonometry. | |
| The stars were thought to be fixed on a crystal sphere of great size, and that model was perfect for practical purposes. | Spherical trigonometry is rarely taught now since its job has been taken over by linear algebra | |
| Only the planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Moon, and the Sun) moved on the sphere. | Nonetheless, one application of trigonometry is astronomy. | |

Table: Values at special angles
| x | sin(x) | cos(x) | tan(x) | cot(x) | sec(x) | csc(x) |
| 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 2/3 | sqrt(3)/2 | -1/2 | -sqrt(3)/3 | -2 | 2 | sqrt(3)/3 |
| 3/4 | sqrt(2)/2 | -sqrt(2)/2 | -1 | -1 | -sqrt(2) | sqrt(2) |
| 5/6 | 1/2 | -sqrt(3)/2 | -sqrt(3)/3 | -sqrt(3) | -2 | -sqrt(3)/3 |
| 2 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 1 |
Questions
| Note: Questions in red are OPTIONAL | A | B | C | D | E |
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Question #1 How would this table be altered if the figure was flipped so that Q was on right of the top of the circle? |
The length of the hypotenuse would change. | The altitude QR would change. | The center O of the circle would move. | The sign of the cosine would change. | All of the above. |
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Question #2 In the table the sin never has a negative sign. Why not? |
Because sin(x) is always => 0. | Because cos(x) is used when values <0 are needed. | Because the square root can't be used for negative numbers. | Because the headers of the table should be in alphabetical order. | None of the above. |
Question #3 X labels the included angle in the figure and the table. This angle is measured in: |
Degrees | Radians | Minutes | Congruential factoids | Liters |