Precalculus Investigation of Sine and Cosine

Using Interactive Websites

First, it would be helpful if you have your notes on Sine and Cosine to reference. Take those out
so that you can compare them with what you see on the screen. Now navigate to the class
website at sites.google.com/site/mrvwclass. Click on Precalculus and then scroll down until you
see the “Useful Links” section.

Website #1 (http://mathplotter.lawrenceville.org/mathplotter/mathPage/sine.htm)
With this website, you can do three things: choose whether you want to display sine, cosine, or
both at the same time. Once you choose that, you grab the green circle in the bottom half of the
application and drag it left and right to see what happens as you choose different angles.

1. With only sine selected, move the green circle left and right and see what happens to the
angle on the circle as well as the position on the sine curve. What color is the sine curve?
Do you see that same color anywhere on the picture of the circle? Do you think these are
related in any way?

2. Select the green circle and move it between 0 radians and 0.25 radians.
sin 0 = sin 0.25 =
How much does the value of sine change between 0 and 0.25?
Also, how is the point on the circle moving during the time (mostly left, right, up, down?)

3. Now, select the green circle and move it between 1.4 radians and 1.56 radians.
sin 1.4 = sin 1.56 =
How much does the value of sine change between 1.4 and 1.56?
Also, how is the point on the circle moving during the time (mostly left, right, up, down?)

4. Why do you think that it changes quite a bit between 0 and 0.25 and hardly at all between
1.4 and 1.56? (Hint: It has something to do with the position of the point on the circle
and what direction it is moving in)

5. Now check the box by cosine and uncheck the box by sine. Find the value of cosine for
each of the following:
cos (0.5) = cos (1.56) = cos (2.9) =
cos (3.14) = cos (5.9) = cos (7.1) =
6. What color is the cosine curve? Do you see that same color anywhere in the picture of
the circle? Do you think these are related in any way?
 7. Finally, enable both the sine and the cosine at the same time and slowly drag the green
circle from the left to the right. What do you notice about the length of the red vertical
line in the circle, the blue horizontal line in the circle, the red line in the graph and the
blue line in the graph? Be specific. Don’t rush past this question.

Website #2 (http://www.yenka.com/freecontent/attachment.action?quick=je&att=1388)
After you go to this website, you will have to click on the picture that looks
like this. Once you have done this, a window will launch. This application
shows both sine and cosine at all times, just the cosine curve has been rotated
and points down. Also, this website looks at sine and cosine as degrees
(which is fine). Use the green circle to control the application.

8. Play around for a while and then answer true or false for the following:
a. Sine (the blue line) tells you how far left and right the point on the circle is.
b. Sine (the blue line) tells you how far up and down the point on the circle is.
c. Cosine (the red line) tells you how far left and right the point on the circle is.
d. Cosine (the red line) tells you how far up and down the point on the circle is.

9. Why does sine look exactly the same from 0° to 360° as it does from 360° to 720°?

10. Why does cosine look exactly the same from 0° to 360° as it does from 360° to 720°?

11. What is the maximum value of sine? What is the minimum value of sine?

12. What is the maximum value of cosine? What is the minimum value of cosine?

13. At what degree measures does sine seem to be changing a lot?

At what degree measures does sine seem to be hardly changing?

14. At what degree measures does cosine seem to be changing a lot?

At what degree measures does cosine seem to be hardly changing?

15. Is there any relationship between the answers to the previous two questions?