Trigonometry

Introduction Surprisingly most students who have participated in any math contest agree that some of the question on the test appear to be completely different from what they really are. Most of the questions that are designed for these contests require the ability to combine different math topics or even link them to more than one category. For instance, the following radical equation looking problem that appeared in a 1970 math contest was testing student ability to apply algebra identifies in radical format. Later on, we use this principal to show how this can be linked to trig Identities. Forgot trigonometry? What has happened to trigonometry? Where and how is it being taught, and how much is being taught in high school? The subject seems to be gradually disappearing from secondary curricula (Markel, 1982).

H.12.A.1 Prove that

We chose this question because it is a clear example of not being able to eliminate the radicals by bringing them to one side of the equation, which is usually the only method that we show students. We generally teach students the squaring method to get rid of radicals; however squaring may not help us as the right side is still written in radical form. So, what is would be an alternative? Why are we stuck here, and what do we do next? Did we tell students what to do in case the squaring method does not lead us to the answer? We would like to share some unspoken strategies that only those students who are fortunate enough to get extra help (either from their private tutor or have been selected to be in a preparation team for math contest) have access to. This is how we tackle this kind of problem. We use this basic principal that:

And for this particular problem if we replace a with 1 and b with

 And similarly we can show that we get 2 App.

and if we substitute them on the left side

Its application with double/half angle identities in Trig. The following example shows that two students used different identities to compute a trig ratio of a specific angle (non-referenced) and they got two different answers. Although a teacher checked their work, she couldnt find any mistake, even though their answers looked completely different. Then the teacher asked the whole class to investigate why their answers are not identical. This is a great situation because it opens a room for investigation that will link to radicals and identities

using half or sum/difference angle identities. ( )

We can apply this principal in solving equations involving radicals Teachers can be creative and make equations involving quadratic or trig functions that are written in a particular radical form as explained above.

The answers are 9 and 4 but only 9 is permissible.

H.12.A.2

Solve for

This particular radical equation has a teaching moment that is worth sharing with math teachers and students who would like to see why their knowledge about solving this type of problem does not always lead them to the answer. What makes this problem unique is not that there two radicals in it, but that it is in fact the expressions under the radicals. We offer two solutions that at their core are slightly different.

Solution A. Let follows: m- = 1 then (m-1)2 = m2 -5 m2 -2m +1= m2-5 so m = 3 and if we back substitute 3 =m then m2 =7x-5 or m2 -5 =7x-10 then we rewrite the equation in terms of m as

for m we get 7x 5 = 9 or x = 2

Solution B (usually offered in pre-calculus textbooks) Square both side of the equation to eliminate the radicals.

We need to square both sides again to get rid of the radicals on the right side of equation. 49x2-112x +64 = 49x2 +50-105x and if we simplify we have -7x=-14 or x=2

H.12.T.1 This straight forward principal will help math teachers to verify student work as well as saving them time to prepare an answer key for their trig questions (half/double angle identities) and with finding specific angle trig ratios (Nelson, 1993).

We can also prove this by using

identity

Thereofore the right should have the above

side triangle similarly we can show that illustrated dimensions.

H.12.T.2 If , what are the minimum and maximum values of ?

The reason that we chose this problem is its connection to the concept of unit circle and the minimum and maximum range of the We know that , so we can rearrange

H.T.12.3 Prove that if u,v, and K are three positive integers that such u>v then we can obtain the Pythagorean triple (a-b-c) as follows: a= K(u2 v2) , b = 2uvk , C = K(u2 +v2) You can easily verify the validity of the above three algebraic relations by simply substituting them into the Pythagorean formula. Our objective in this paper was not merely focused on introducing this relationship, it is in fact to get math teachers to share insightful mathematics with their students and see if their students can come up with a further insight.

And if we multiply the whole equation by

(k

and if we look closely and compare the three terms of ,

App. We can test our Pythagorean triple (that we found through expanding the identity of square of differences) and see if we are able to identify u,v, and K for each sets.

Find u,v,k for 312-459-555? 3(104,153,185) Since they are all divisible by three 3(2 x3 x 14,153,185) we start with 104(smallest number in set) and we write as 2uv 3(2 x 3 x14, 14^2 -3^2,14^+3^2) We now know that u=14 and v=3 so we check the other two relations Find a Pythagorean triple with u=3,v=2,k=1 a= 1. (32 +22) = 13 , b= 1.( 32 -22) =5 , c= 2.1.3.2 =12 so the set is 5-12-13