Angles

Degrees and radians are two different units for measuring angles.

Degrees divide a full circle into 360 equal parts.

  • A full circle = 360°
  • A half circle (straight line) = 180°
  • A right angle = 90°

Radians are based on the radius of a circle. One radian is the angle you get when you take the radius of a circle and wrap it around the circumference

s = r ( in radians).

  • A full circle = 2π radians
  • A half circle = π radians
  • A right angle = π/2 radians

trigonometric functions of an acute angle

trigonometric functions

When we use a unit circle (radius = 1), the trigonometric ratios become much simpler:

  • sin θ = y
  • cos θ = x
  • tan θ = y/x

This means the coordinates of any point on the unit circle are literally (cos θ, sin θ), which is elegant and easy to work with.

this also mean that

cos^2(θ) + sin^2(θ) = 1

cos(θ) = sin(θ+π/2)

Sine Sum Identities:

  • sin(A + B) = sin A cos B + cos A sin B
  • sin(A - B) = sin A cos B - cos A sin B

Cosine Sum Identities:

  • cos(A + B) = cos A cos B - sin A sin B
  • cos(A - B) = cos A cos B + sin A sin B