How To Learn Trigonometry Intuitively

How To Learn Trigonometry Intuitively | BetterExplained
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
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How To Learn Trigonometry Intuitively

by Kalid Azad 101 comments
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Trig mnemonics like SOH-CAH-TOA

(http://mathworld.wolfram.com/SOHCAHTOA.html) focus on computations, not
concepts:
TOA explains the tangent about as well as x 2 + y2 = r 2 describes a circle. Sure, if

youre a math robot, an equation is enough. The rest of us, with organic brains halfdedicated to vision processing, seem to enjoy imagery. And TOA evokes the
stunning beauty of an abstract ratio.
I think you deserve better, and heres what made trig click for me.
Visualize a dome, a wall, and a ceiling
Trig functions are percentages to the three shapes
http://betterexplained.com/articles/intuitive-trigonometry/
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Motivation: Trig Is Anatomy

Imagine Bob The Alien visits Earth to study our species.
Without new words, humans are hard to describe: Theres a sphere at the top, which
gets scratched occasionally or Two elongated cylinders appear to provide
locomotion.
After creating specific terms for anatomy, Bob might jot down typical body
proportions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_proportions):
The armspan (fingertip to fingertip) is approximately the height
A head is 5 eye-widths wide
Adults are 8 head-heights tall
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(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvian_Man)
How is this helpful?
Well, when Bob finds a jacket, he can pick it up, stretch out the arms, and estimate the
owners height. And head size. And eye width. One fact is linked to a variety of
conclusions.
Even better, human biology explains human thinking. Tables have legs, organizations
have heads, crime bosses have muscle. Our biology offers ready-made analogies that
appear in man-made creations.
Now the plot twist: you are Bob the alien, studying creatures in math-land!
Generic words like triangle arent overly useful. But labeling sine, cosine, and
hypotenuse helps us notice deeper connections. And scholars might study haversine,
exsecant and gamsin (http://www.theonion.com/articles/nations-math-teachershttp://betterexplained.com/articles/intuitive-trigonometry/
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introduce-27-new-trig-functi,33804/), like biologists who find a link between your

fibia and clavicle.
And because triangles show up in circles
and circles appear in cycles, our triangle terminology helps describe repeating
patterns!
Trig is the anatomy book for math-made objects. If we can find a metaphorical
triangle, well get an armada of conclusions for free.
Sine/Cosine: The Dome

Instead of staring at triangles by themselves, like a caveman frozen in ice, imagine
them in a scenario, hunting that mammoth.
Pretend youre in the middle of your dome, about to hang up a movie screen. You
point to some angle x, and thats where the screen will hang.
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The angle you point at determines:

sine(x) = sin(x) = height of the screen, hanging like a sign
cosine(x) = cos(x) = distance to the screen along the ground [cos ~ how close]
the hypotenuse, the distance to the top of the screen, is always the same
Want the biggest screen possible? Point straight up. Its at the center, on top of your
head, but its big dagnabbit.
Want the screen the furthest away? Sure. Point straight across, 0 degrees. The screen
has 0 height at this position, and its far away, like you asked.
The height and distance move in opposite directions: bring the screen closer, and it
gets taller.
Tip: Trig Values Are Percentages

Nobody ever told me in my years of schooling: sine and cosine are percentages.
They vary from +100% to 0 to -100%, or max positive to nothing to max negative.
Lets say I paid $14 in tax. You have no idea if thats expensive. But if I say I paid 95%
in tax, you know Im getting ripped off.
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An absolute height isnt helpful, but if your sine value is .95, I know youre almost at
the top of your dome. Pretty soon youll hit the max, then start coming down again.
How do we compute the percentage? Simple: divide the current value by the
maximum possible (the radius of the dome, aka the hypotenuse).
Thats why were told Sine = Opposite / Hypotenuse. Its to get a percentage! A
better wording is Sine is your height, as a percentage of the hypotenuse. (Sine
becomes negative if your angle points underground. Cosine becomes negative when
your angle points backwards.)
Lets simplify the calculation by assuming were on the unit circle (radius 1). Now we
can skip the division by 1 and just say sine = height.
Every circle is really the unit circle, scaled up or down to a different size. So work out
the connections on the unit circle and apply the results to your particular scenario.
Try it out: plug in an angle and see what percent of the height and width it reaches:
Sine and Cosine

R1
x = 30
R2 sine
R3 cosine
30
50 % of height
86.60254037844 % of width
The growth pattern of sine isnt an even line. The first 45 degrees cover 70% of the
height, and the final 10 degrees (from 80 to 90) only cover 2%.
This should make sense: at 0 degrees, youre moving nearly vertical, but as you get to
the top of the dome, your height changes level off.
Tangent/Secant: The Wall

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One day your neighbor puts up a wall right next to your dome. Ack, your view! Your
resale value!
But can we make the best of a bad situation?
Sure. What if we hang our movie screen on the wall? You point at an angle (x) and
figure out:
tangent(x) = tan(x) = height of screen on the wall
distance to screen: 1 (the screen is always the same distance along the ground,
right?)
secant(x) = sec(x) = the ladder distance to the screen
We have some fancy new vocab terms. Imagine seeing the Vitruvian TAN
GENTleman projected on the wall. You climb the ladder, making sure you can SEE,
CANT you?. (Yeah, hes naked wont forget the analogy now, will you?)
Lets notice a few things about tangent, the height of the screen.
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It starts at 0, and goes infinitely high. You can keep pointing higher and higher
on the wall, to get an infinitely large screen! (Thatll cost ya.)
Tangent is just a bigger version of sine! Its never smaller, and while sine tops
off as the dome curves in, tangent keeps growing.
How about secant, the ladder distance?
Secant starts at 1 (ladder on the floor to the wall) and grows from there
Secant is always longer than tangent. The leaning ladder used to put up the
screen must be longer than the screen itself, right? (At enormous sizes, when the
ladder is nearly vertical, theyre close. But secant is always a smidge longer.)
Remember, the values are percentages. If youre pointing at a 50-degree angle, tan(50)
= 1.19. Your screen is 19% larger than the distance to the wall (the radius of the
dome).
Tangent and Secant

R1
x = 50
R2 tangent
R3 secant
50
119.17535925942 % of hyp.
155.57238268604 % of hyp.
(Plug in x=0 and check your intuition that tan(0) = 0, and sec(0) = 1.)
Cotangent/Cosecant: The Ceiling

Amazingly enough, your neighbor now decides to build a ceiling on top of your dome,
far into the horizon. (Whats with this guy? Oh, the naked-man-on-my-wall incident)
Well, time to build a ramp to the ceiling, and have a little chit chat. You pick an angle
to build and work out:
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cotangent(x) = cot(x) = how far the ceiling extends before we connect

cosecant(x) = csc(x) = how long we walk on the ramp
the vertical distance traversed is always 1
Tangent/secant describe the wall, and COtangent and COsecant describe the ceiling.
Our intuitive facts are similar:
If you pick an angle of 0, your ramp is flat (infinite) and never reachers the
ceiling. Bummer.
The shortest ramp is when you point 90-degrees straight up. The cotangent is
0 (we didnt move along the ceiling) and the cosecant is 1 (the ramp length is
at the minimum).
Visualize The Connections

A short time ago I had zero intuitive conclusions about the cosecant. But with the
dome/wall/ceiling metaphor, heres what we see:
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Whoa, its the same triangle, just scaled to reach the wall and ceiling. We have vertical
parts (sine, tangent), horizontal parts (cosine, cotangent), and hypotenuses (secant,
cosecant). (Note: the labels show where each item goes up to. Cosecant is the full
distance from you to the ceiling.)
Now the magic. The triangles have similar facts:
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From the Pythagorean Theorem (http://betterexplained.com/articles/surprising-usesof-the-pythagorean-theorem/) ( a2 + b2 = c2 ) we see how the sides of each triangle are
linked.
And from similarity (http://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-whysimilarity-works/), ratios like height to width must be the same for these triangles.
(Intuition: step away from a big triangle. Now it looks smaller in your field of view, but
the internal ratios couldnt have changed.)
This is how we find out sine/cosine = tangent/1.
Id always tried to memorize these facts, when they just jump out at us when
visualized. SOH-CAH-TOA is a nice shortcut, but get a real understanding first!
Gotcha: Remember Other Angles

Psst dont over-focus on a single diagram, thinking tangent is always smaller than 1.
If we increase the angle, we reach the ceiling before the wall:
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The Pythagorean/similarity connections are always true, but the relative sizes can
vary.
(But, you might notice that sine and cosine are always smallest, or tied, since theyre
trapped inside the dome. Nice!)
Summary: What Should We Remember?

For most of us, Id say this is enough:
Trig explains the anatomy of math-made objects, such as circles and repeating
cycles
The dome/wall/ceiling analogy shows the connections between the trig
functions
Trig functions return percentages, that we apply to our specific scenario
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You dont need to memorize 12 + cot2 = csc2, except for silly tests that mistake trivia
for understanding. In that case, take a minute to draw the dome/wall/ceiling diagram,
fill in the labels (a tan gentleman you can see, cant you?), and create a cheatsheet
(http://www.mathwords.com/t/trig_identities.htm) for yourself.
In a follow-up, well learn about graphing, complements, and using Eulers Formula
(http://betterexplained.com/articles/intuitive-understanding-of-eulers-formula/) to
find even more connections.
Appendix: The Original Definition Of Tangent

You may see tangent defined as the length of the tangent line from the circle to the xaxis (geometry buffs can work this out).
As expected, at the top of the circle (x=90) the tangent line can never reach the x-axis
and is infinitely long.
I like this intuition because it helps us remember the name tangent, and heres a
nice interactive trig guide (http://www.touchmathematics.org/topics/trigonometry) to
explore:
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(http://www.touchmathematics.org/topics/trigonometry)
Still, its critical to put the tangent vertical and recognize its just sine projected on
the back wall (along with the other triangle connections).
Appendix: Inverse Functions

Trig functions take an angle and return a percentage. sin(30) = .5 means a 30-degree
angle is 50% of the max height.
The inverse trig functions let us work backwards, and are written sin1 or arcsin
(arcsine), and often written
asin
in various programming languages.
If our height is 25% of the dome, whats our angle?
Arcsine
R1
height = .25
R2 asin(height)
+5 rowsClear
0.25
14.47751218593
Now what about something exotic, like inverse secant? Often times its not available
as a calculator function (even the one I built, sigh).
Looking at our trig cheatsheet, we find an easy ratio where we can compare secant to
1. For example, secant to 1 (hypotenuse to horizontal) is the same as 1 to cosine:
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Suppose our secant is 3.5, i.e. 350% of the radius of the unit circle. Whats the angle to
the wall?
Appendix: A Few Examples

Example: Find the sine of angle x.
Ack, what a boring question. Instead of find the sine think, Whats the height as a
percentage of the max (the hypotenuse)?.
First, notice the triangle is backwards. Thats ok. It still has a height, in green.
Whats the max height? By the Pythagorean theorem, we know
Ok! The sine is the height as a percentage of the max, which is 3/5 or .60.
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Follow-up: Find the angle.

Of course. We have a few ways. Now that we know sine = .60, we can just do:
Heres another approach. Instead of using sine, notice the triangle is up against the
wall, so tangent is an option. The height is 3, the distance to the wall is 4, so the
tangent height is 3/4 or 75%. We can use arctangent to turn the percentage back into
an angle:
Example: Can you make it to shore?
Youre on a boat with enough fuel to sail 2 miles. Youre currently .25 miles from
shore. Whats the largest angle you could use and still reach land? Also, the only
reference available is Huberts Compendium of Arccosines, 3rd Ed. (Truly, a hellish
voyage.)
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Ok. Here, we can visualize the beach as the wall and the ladder distance to the
wall is the secant.
First, we need to normalize everything in terms of percentages. We have 2 / .25 = 8
hypotenuse units worth of fuel. So, the largest secant we could allow is 8 times the
distance to the wall.
Wed like to ask What angle has a secant of 8?. But we cant, since we only have a
book of arccosines.
We use our cheatsheet diagram to relate secant to cosine: Ah, I see that sec/1 =
1/cos, so
A secant of 8 implies a cosine of 1/8. The angle with a cosine of 1/8 is arccos(1/8) =
82.8 degrees, the largest we can afford.
Not too bad, right? Before the dome/wall/ceiling analogy, Id be drowning in a mess of
computations. Visualizing the scenario makes it simple, even fun, to see which trig
buddy can help us out.
In your problem, think: am I interested in the dome (sin/cos), the wall (tan/sec), or the
ceiling (cot/csc)?
Happy math.
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Update: The owner of Grey Matters (http://gmmentalgym.blogspot.com/) put

together interactive diagrams for the analogies (drag the slider on the left to change
the angle):
Sine/Cosine: The Dome (https://www.desmos.com/calculator/0uyr4ywrvt)
Tangent/Secant: The Wall (https://www.desmos.com/calculator/2ehsvswurj)
Cotangent/Cosecant: The Ceiling
(https://www.desmos.com/calculator/1bswcagm9k)
Combined visualization (https://www.desmos.com/calculator/az45nwnmis)
(https://www.desmos.com/calculator/az45nwnmis)
Thanks!
Other Posts In This Series

1. How To Learn Trigonometry Intuitively
2. Intuition For The Law Of Sines (http://betterexplained.com/articles/law-ofhttp://betterexplained.com/articles/intuitive-trigonometry/
Page 18 of 48
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sines/)
3. Intuition For The Law Of Cosines (http://betterexplained.com/articles/law-ofcosines/)
Posted in Guides (http://betterexplained.com/articles/category/guides/), Math
(http://betterexplained.com/articles/category/math/)
Join Over 250k Monthly Readers
Hi! I'm Kalid, author, programmer, and ever-curious learner. I want to give you a
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Questions & Contributions

Translation
Russian Translation (http://ru.yasno.tv/article/math/43-sinus-iru.yasno.tv

cosinus-eto-procenty)
Resource
Tangent/cotangent touches the circle once, secant/cosecant touches it

twice. (http://curiouscheetah.com/BlogMath/basic-trig-functions/)
curiouscheetah.com
Ask a Question
Contribute an Insight
Page 19 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
Have a question? Ask away.
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Have feedback? Just enter it above. I'm making a curated set of questions and insights for the article. Thanks!
101 comments
1. Juliet Cooke says:
In your example you need to specify which angle you want the sine of because at
the moment it is ambiguous.
2. kalid says:
Whoops, thanks for the suggestion! Just updated to clarify.
3. Pravin Patel says:
Hi Khalid,
My daughter is in high school. I want her to score good in SAT exam. Do you have
any package or suggestion.
Appreciated very much for your response.
Regards,
Pravin
4. Luke says:
Page 20 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
Kalid, you did it again! As an engineer and programmer I use those trig identities
all the time but never have they been made so succinctly clear to me. Huge ahamoment with the dome-wall-ceiling analogy.
Such a pity of all the wasted time Ive wrestled with trig in high school
Please all teachers of the world use this!
5. kalid says:
@Pravin: I dont really have many specific test prep recommendations,
unfortunately. At a high level, my approach is to gain a solid intuition for the ideas
+ do practice exams to make sure things are clicking. If youre having difficulties
with a certain type of problem, its important to look for an analogy/explanation
that builds deep understanding.
@Luke: Awesome, thanks! Id used trig a lot in school, and didnt have the
identities come together until recently (argh).
6. patrick says:
My grad stat prof saidit takes a brilliant person to see a simple concept
Your work is brilliant, thank you.
7. kalid says:
Thanks Patrick, really appreciate it I think there always has to be a simple
explanation beneath the surface complexity. (One of my favorite Einstein quotes is
that unless you can explain a topic clearly, you dont really understand it :))
8. rn koushik says:
hi khalid,
Page 21 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
A good explanation indeed. An innovative and creative presentation. Can you plz
do the same for hyperbolic trigonometric functions????? Plz plz plz .. I look
forward for it
9. Hans says:
RE: Remember, the values are percentages. If youre pointing at a 50-degree angle,
tan(50) = 1.19. Your screen is 19% larger than the hypotenuse.
Are you sure? Should it be.
Remember, the values are percentages. If youre pointing at a 50-degree angle,
tan(50) = 1.19. Your screen is 19% larger than the Wall Distance (Radius).
10. kalid says:
@rn: Hyperbolic trig functions would be a nice follow-up :). Im hoping to explore
the implications of Eulers formula.
@Hans: Whoops, I should have clarified the hypotenuse was meant to refer to
the unit circle (radius = hypotenuse = 1) but this was unclear. Ill fix up the
phrasing, thanks!
11. Doug Bennett says:
Why oh why oh why oh why dont they teach it like this in the classroom??? Thank
you so much for sharing your intuitive connections to these concepts. You would
think that by now, the standard curriculum would be focused around visual
learning, since every human being is a visual learner, rather than teaching concepts
in a fashion designed for a robot. I am showing these pages to everyone I know that
has trouble with math. Theres no reason to be afraid of the subject if its taught
like this.
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12. kalid says:

Thanks Doug, really glad it helped. Math (and any subject, really) can be so much
easier to learn when we look for an approach that gets things to click deep down.
Often times we try to trudge through, which works in the short term, but doesnt
build lasting understanding or enthusiasm. Just as you say, the fear of learning
even difficult subjects can be removed its a blast when things to click.
13. Kai (http://www.echteinfach.tv/) says:
As an addition to the nice article, you can wathc the (German) videos at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWDxBnc6XRU&list=PL63A6385F43C725CC
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWDxBnc6XRU&list=PL63A6385F43C725CC)
TRI01 is about trigonometry history,
TRI04 is an introduction to Sine,
TRI07 about the unit circle,
TRI08 for the sine wave.
I plan to do some English versions in the future. Let me know if you like it
14. krishnamoorthy says:
Khalid ,
Trigonometry is used to be Tricknometry but now I find it is as simple as eating
banana .Great job well done.I love your creative thinking.
15. Johan Bester says:
Wow! This is the best Ive ever seen. Ive never thought in terms of percentages. Its
is little bit lengthy though, but yourre a star Kalid!
16. Kai Mathematik (http://www.echteinfach.tv/) says:
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9/26/15, 12:19 AM
For the percentage you can also use this app: http://www.echteinfach.tv/flash/?
app=a0102 (http://www.echteinfach.tv/flash/?app=a0102) (click on Options ->
Prozent Modus).
It gives you something like that: http://i.imgur.com/k7SUY1l.png
(http://i.imgur.com/k7SUY1l.png)
For more playing around: http://www.echteinfach.tv/trigonometrie/sinuskosinus#p (http://www.echteinfach.tv/trigonometrie/sinus-kosinus#p) or sine and
cosine curves: http://www.echteinfach.tv/trigonometrie/trigonometrischefunktionen#p (http://www.echteinfach.tv/trigonometrie/trigonometrischefunktionen#p)
Have fun!
Kai
17. Tom says:
Im a programmer and I love algebra, but I gave up hope on ever understanding
trigonometry beyond simply memorizing percentages. I never realized it was this
simple.
Thank you.
18. Bhadrasheel says:
Hi Khalid,
Keep helping the world in this Wonderful way.
Thank you very much.
Always waiting for ur new ideas in simplifying the concept.
19. Ellie says:
Page 24 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
Khalid,
Thanks for the lovely explanation.
Even with the wall concept, its not intuitive why Tan(x) is a positive function in
the 3rd Quadrant. That Tan(x) = Y component / X component or Sine(x)/Cos(x)
kinda explains it that both quantities are negative in the 3rd quadrant and hence
the Tan function, which is a ratio, is positive. However, when you visualise the Tan
function in the 3rd Quadrant, intuitively it feels like it should be negative.
Added complication is that if you take the word TANGENT literally as a slope of the
circle then at 90 degrees the slope of the tangent should be zero. But Tan function
is undefined at 90 degrees (division by zero at this point).
While if you visualize Tan as a magnitude/ length of the tangent, then it ought to
be negative in the 3rd Quadrant. How can I visualize this better?
20. kalid says:
@Kai: Always interested in checking out resources, though Ill have to brush up
(i.e. learn) some German!
@krishnamoorthy: Thanks so much. I do think most ideas can be as simple as
falling off a log if seen the right way.
@Johan: Thanks! Hah, you should have seen the original post, which was about
twice as big :). Ill be doing a follow-up with some of that content.
@Tom: Thanks. I was in the same boat, thinking I had to memorize everything. Its
almost like refactoring ugly code, sometimes theres a simpler way to think about
an existing problem which makes everything snap together.
@Bhadrasheel: Appreciate it!
Page 25 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
@Ellie: Great question how the trig angles behave in other quadrants is
something Id like to cover in the follow-up. (Article was getting big, something
good for the follow-up!)
Using the percentage analogy, tangent is the height relative to the wall distance,
but each component can have a sign:
Is the wall in front (positive) or behind (negative)
Is the height above ground (positive) or below ground (negative)
For example,
* For x = -30, we are pointing underground so the tangent is negative.
* For x = 120, we are pointing backward. The height is positive, but we are on the
back wall so its negative.
* For x = 210, we are pointing underground AND backward. So this is negative
height on the back wall, which counts as positive
This matches the signs for cosine (front wall / back wall) and sine (above ground /
underground) so the calculations are the same :).
21. Kai Mathematik (http://www.echteinfach.tv/) says:
@kalid: Actually I am doing the same that you are doing, breaking everything
down, not taking formula as-is, trying to find the insights behind but just in
German and a tiny bit more animated !
Some English speakers have asked me already to transfer my videos into English. I
think I will give it a try this year, if I find time. I will send you a message as soon as
the first video is ready. Just remember Echt Einfach TV (which means Real Simple
TV).
Page 26 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
Kind regards!
Kai
22. Scott (http://headinside.blogspot.com) says:
Thank you for this wonderful intuitive explanation, Kalid! Youve done it again!
While I could follow the explanations, I did want to follow your advice and not get
too hung up on an individual diagram. I also wanted to play around with the
concepts, so I put together the following demos on the online Desmos calculator:
Sine/Cosine: The Dome:
https://www.desmos.com/calculator/0uyr4ywrvt
(https://www.desmos.com/calculator/0uyr4ywrvt)
Tangent/Secant: The Wall:
https://www.desmos.com/calculator/2ehsvswurj
(https://www.desmos.com/calculator/2ehsvswurj)
Cotangent/Cosecant: The Ceiling:
https://www.desmos.com/calculator/1bswcagm9k
Visualize The Connections:
https://www.desmos.com/calculator/az45nwnmis
(https://www.desmos.com/calculator/az45nwnmis)
Putting these demos together and seeing the results also helped make everything
clearer, and I thought others might find these useful.
Thanks again, Kalid!
Page 27 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
23. joe says:

hi, thanks for another great article. my only suggestion would be the large triangle
in visualising connections and the others is that it (can) look as though each label
is a bit of the line and hence the total length is the sum of all the functions i take
it you mean when you go to this point, you use this function to give you the
length ie, step up from say, 1 to csc to sec NOT (1+csc+sec) = lenth of line. not a
biggy but if it caught me out for a couple minutes, it might end up a road-block for
someone else.
24. Chris (https://twitter.com/MrAdamsProblems) says:
I saw this last night before going to bed, and used it this morning with my
Geometry class as we began our Trig unit today.
After reading it last night, presenting it to the kids this morning, and reading
through this again, trigonometry finally makes intuitive sense to me.
I am confident that this will help my students see this in a clearer light, and
hopefully the handout that I put together to introduce sine and cosine today is
helping them make meaningful connections.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/10NdKM6hAAnOtf0yATknNcfzHWoC2Pz4A9oklIz4
usp=sharing
(https://docs.google.com/document/d/10NdKM6hAAnOtf0yATknNcfzHWoC2Pz4A9oklIz
usp=sharing)
25. Ellie says:
That helps Khalid! Thanks a ton!
26. kalid says:
@kai: Sounds great, let me know and Ill check them out.
Page 28 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
@joe: Great feedback, Ill see if I can add a note to clarify. When youre making the
diagrams you tend to have all sorts of unstated assumptions which arent there for
other people :).
@Chris: Thats so awesome, I love it when the analogies come in handy for
teaching. I really like how youve worked percentages into the worksheet, it puts a
meaning behind the calculation (3/5 oh, thats 60%!).
@Ellie: Happy to help!
27. EJ says:
This comment is to Ellie: why tangent is positive in the 3rd quadrant.
Note that tangent is NOT the slope of the circle but the slope
(=rise/run=sine/cosine) of the radius extending from the center to the unit circle.
When that radius is extending to the 3rd quadrant, the slope remains the same
(sign and size).
Similarly, tangent is negative in the 2nd and 4th quadrants.
28. Ananya Muddukrishna says:
Kalid, you have a beautiful way of explaining things. Your illustrations, intuition
buildup and Aha! moments produce a snapping feeling in my brain. Everything just
falls into place never to be forgotten again.
I think that your articles are an invaluable gift to mankind. Keep it up! All the best.
29. kalid says:
Thanks Ananya, I really appreciate the encouragement! Really glad that everything
clicked :).
Page 29 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
30. vinay says:

I am confused about the ceiling diagram. How come height traversed is always 1?
Seems height can be bigger as the line extends beyond the dome.
31. Kalid says:
Hi vinay, try this interactive calculator for an example:
https://www.desmos.com/calculator/1bswcagm9k
When building a ramp up to the ceiling, the distance we travel depends on the
angle we pick. However, the ceiling itself is always 1 unit above the ground. (In a
building the ceiling is always a constant height, no matter how steep the stairs are
to get there.)
32. Rick cruz says:
Enjoyed another door I needed to open. Thanks.
33. Kalid says:
Thanks Rick, glad you enjoyed it.
34. Rodrigo Alexandre Pgoli says:
Dear friend, Thank you for this precious point of view about trigonometry.
It was a pleasure reading your article. It was amazing!
Congratulations! Thanks a lot!
35. kalid says:
Thank you Rodrigo!
Page 30 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
36. Hctor says:

Thanks a lot man!.. Great explanation!
37. kalid says:
@Scott: Thanks so much for getting the interactive diagrams together, Ive put
them onto the post. (My apologies for the delay on approving that comment, it was
stuck in my moderation queue because of an overactive spam filtering rule.)
@Hector: Glad you enjoyed it!
38. Aleks says:
Every circle is really the unit circle, scaled up or down to a different size. This one
did it for me.
39. jodie says:
Very well explained, thank you
40. kalid says:
@Aleks: Awesome, glad it clicked
@jodie: Youre welcome!
41. mark ptak (http://www.we4dkids.com) says:
First offI am completely in agreement with Alecks on the insight. As I spend time
presently on the calculus of integration of trigonometric functions I cant wait to
hear the insight on that one. (Found it .the downside of this site is that I am
starting to wait for Kalid to provide me the insight.must work on that).
Page 31 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
42. kalid says:

Thanks Mark hah, dont want anyone getting dependent! =)
Id like to do a follow-up on the calculus properties of the trig functions, now that I
have a better understanding of them myself
43. Andrew says:
Kalid, your website has added an immense amount of intuition to my
understanding of mathematics. Thank you for your fresh approach to the topics
you cover. After reading this I began getting into hyperbolic trig functions. Most of
which, I cant find anything that provides much intuition on the subject. I think,
since you love e so much, you could provide a lot of intuition on these functions
since their definitions involve 2 terms of e. Thanks for your time.
44. mark ptak (http://www.we4dkids.com) says:
Somehow last night I went from the triangles in the circles to the wedges formed
by the secant and tangent lines. With that, the area of the 30 60 90 triangle with
one leg length of 1 becomes 1/(2V3) [ one over 2 root three]. That is the beauty of
the insights you provide they build up our own abilities to make new connections.
45. kalid says:
Thanks Mark, thats a cool extension. Ive been milling about, thinking of other
intuitions that can pop out (such on the Law of Sines), hope to share them down
the road too.
46. kalid says:
Thanks Andrew, Id like to do a follow-up on hyperbolic trig functions their
connection to e is pretty neat. Also, we can even define the regular trig functions in
terms of e as well :).
Page 32 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
47. Ansh choubey says:

Kalid if u remember I messaged you regarding trigzz !! .. and now seeing it huge
whoo moment you re better than my science teachers better say crammer robozz
:00 !! U re genius indeed
48. kalid says:
Thanks Ansh, glad it helped! =)
49. Harish Dobhal says:
Marvelous!
Being a Physics teacher I have to give an insight into basic mathematics(trigs,
calculus, probability, complex nos etc) to my students and I so far for trigs I use the
circle/tangent analogy. But your dome analogy is far more efficient and natural.
Thanks for this wonderful insight!
50. kalid says:
Thanks Harish, really glad it helped :). [I love being able to provide teachers with
new analogies to try out.]
It was only recently (i.e. a few months ago) that trig started clicking this way, I wish
Id had it as a student too!
51. Tim McGrath says:
Hey K
Page 33 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
This is beautiful, but how about adding, while youre at it, the derivatives of the sin
and cos functions. The explanations Ive seen are understandable but more
elaborate than intuitive.
Thanks.
52. kalid says:
Hey Tim! Great idea, Id like to cover the derivatives of sine/cosine in a follow-up.
Im still working on a solid intuition beyond the definitions/calculus reasoning :).
53. Alan Williams says:
Thanks Kalid,
Your triple triangle diagram and the tanned gent you can see tip certainly clarifies
the relationships of the ratios when interpreted correctly. Also the fact that the
unknown sides are percentages of the known sides is seriously illuminating.
You could shorten the explanation by cutting some of the anatomy content as well
as the higher Trig references. But well done for this explanation which I am
unlikely to forget anytime soon.
Alan.
54. kalid says:
Thanks Alan, glad the analogies helped. The anatomy part helps me realize the role
of trig (way to explore an alien shape) but everyone has a different takeaway :).
55. Diane says:
Page 34 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
I just love how you explained that SUC-A-TOE(A) does not work(as I call it). I have
been battling this issue with teachers for years now. And yes, I do know that its
SOH-CAH-TOA
I prefer to teach CONCEPTS then to just give quick ways to memorize a
formula. No learning occurs!
56. kalid says:
Thanks Diana! I agree, memorizing acronyms is a poor substitute for internalizing
the actual concept (they should serve as reminders, not lessons).
57. jose says:
This is my first comment on your site & wanted to express my gratitude. I just hate
how all my math teachers except for one(alg2 teacher) teach math in timeconsuming, unnecessary, & confusing manner. I like your use of thought
experiments & explaining the underlying concepts. It makes Math extremely
simple & helps with more advanced topics that use the ones you teach as the basis.
I honestly do not know of another site dedicated to teaching the underlying
concepts as a means to understand the topic overall. You have been a godsend for
me in math. I cant believe you arent way way way more popular bc of how good
you are in deciphering the encryption the majority of math teachers place on
math topics/concepts.
58. kalid says:
Thanks Jose, I really appreciate it!
59. Flora says:
Page 35 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
Hi Kalid,
Once again, thank you for helping everyone see how the trig functions can be
applied in real life. I often feel theres a disconnection between the contents
learned in maths and my actual life, and now I can happily link them together in a
more intuitive sense.
However, I do believe theres still a fair bit of rote required despite the intuitiveness
of your explanation. Its not immediately apparent which terms equal to ONE and
which ones are free to extend beyond the unit circle e.g. what I mean is that its not
immediately obvious to associate tangent and secant to the wall example, and
COtangent and COsecant to the ceiling. Perhaps you can share some insight as to
how you came about the two above examples. Your epiphany or aha moments that
led you to write these examples or the thought process you went through to get to
your wonderful analogy, so that as learners, were not overly reliant on others to
come up with an effective method of learning what youve dubbed as the anatomy
of math , as was mentioned earlier on by @Mark Ptak.
60. kalid says:
Hi Flora, thanks for the comment and great feedback.
I probably wasnt clear enough in the analogy. I imagine the dome (distance of 1) as
a type of boundary, where sine/cosine are stuck in the dome (their max value is 1,
min value -1 when facing backwards) and all other trig functions exist outside the
dome and can take on nearly any value. (Technically, sec and cosec have a
minimum distance of 1, so can take any value from 1 to infinity, or -1 to -infinity
when facing backwards). Id like to do a follow-up analyzing some more of the
behavior, as students are often forced to graph the values of trig functions (its
better to visualize what values they can take on).
Page 36 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
For learning, Id like to describe the process a bit more as well. I have a general
article on my strategy (http://betterexplained.com/articles/developing-yourintuition-for-math/ (http://betterexplained.com/articles/developing-yourintuition-for-math/)), for this example I started thinking about what circular
objects in the real world might represent the unit circle. I thought of a dome (after
too many IMAX movies maybe?) and then the screen was a natural way to
represent some partial height (sine) and distance away (cosine). From there, I was
able to imagine other buildings around me that might represent the screen in
other positions it turned out the trig functions showed up there too. A lot of it is
trial and error where you hunt around for an analogy that seems to cover a few use
cases (it doesnt have to cover them all). I hope to write more about this too.
61. rregan (http://educationwithapurpose.com) says:
Your intro to this is so funny and beautiful.
62. kalid says:
@rregan: Thanks, glad you liked it :).
63. Aurelio Jargas (http://aurelio.net) says:
Hi Kalid,
Excellent article, thank you VERY much for sharing. My life would be so much
easier in school if teachers made these relations clear.
I got confused in the Tangent/Secant: The Wall section, where in the diagram you
say secant = ladder hypotenuse, but in the embedded calculator you say % of
hyp. where hyp. means the radius. So, the hypotenuse is the secant or the
radius?
Page 37 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
64. kalid says:

Hi Aurelio, really glad it was helpful.
Good question on the meaning of the hypotenuse. In my head, I see the hypotenuse
as the longest side of the triangle.
When were in the dome, the hypotenuse [longest side] touches the dome, and is
equal to the radius. When we have the secant, were drawing a line all the way to
the wall [which extends outside the dome]. In this case, the secant is written in
terms of the hypotenuse, such as 2.5 or 10. [So the secant is 250% or 1000% larger
than the original hypotenuse which is stuck inside the dome. This is also the radius
of the dome.]
65. Aurelio Jargas (http://aurelio.net) says:
Ok, now I got it! Youre the best Kalid, thanks for the detailed (and very quick)
answer. BTW, youve just sold another book
66. binnoy (http://visualizingmathsandphysics.blogspot.in/) says:
Thank You Kalid
Binnoy
http://visualizingmathsandphysics.blogspot.in/
(http://visualizingmathsandphysics.blogspot.in/)
67. Anonymous says:
You want to rewrite the science of Trigonometry?
you are confusing the trig relationship with unite circle!
you seem to be a theatre lover and only thinking of screen and your place in the
theatre ! well not everyone !!
to me you seem to measure water by Grains size !!
Page 38 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
68. Theophilus says:

Anonymous or what do you call yourself, we know you are a genius but keep it to
yourself. We are satisfied with what Khalid is givining. If you so much know trig as
you claimed, why have we not heard about you uptil now? Are you not aware that
people dont know mathematics? Are you telling me that that the traditional
teaching style has helped maths? Now, someone comes up to help majority of us,
you are not included, you are scathingly criticising. Please, go and sit down.
Good reply Theophilus. He or She is Anonymous for some reason and we got it
My guess is he or she is either one of those teachers who have been pursuing their
students to memorize trig formulae OR one of those purists who make it their goal
of life to keep things as they were and so are blind to actual logic.
71. Bhashit (http://www.bhashitparikh.com) says:
Hi Kalid,
I really like your articles. This is a second thank-you note from me.
I keep aside a few hours every week for exploring math, and I read this article last
week during that time. Now, today, during one of those hours, I was amazed to find
that the explanations were still clear in my brain. I mean, I can really visualize the
sin/cos etc. Thanks a lot.
72. Fahim says:
Page 39 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
Hi Kalid,
Longtime lurker of your site, admirer of your ability to intuit.I appreciate examples
like the hellish voyage on the appendix. I found your site way after leaving college
and things are finally becoming clear to me. Thanks for your passion.
73. dingo says:
Are you a wizard?
74. Usha says:
Identifying pause and digest moments.. there are several:
11 min video broken down
0 Motiv/intro
0:38 Trig as anatomy what are the ratios
2:00 Analogy of the Dome, Screen, Distance to Screen
3:27 Think of in terms of percents
4:46 Projecting on a wall
6:17 Ramp to the ceiling
7:25 Connections: Putting it all together
8:38 Facts or relationships we get
10:05 Wall or Ceiling first
For those learning this, realizing utility of pausing at particular moments could be
helpful.
Great video!
Usha
75. kalid says:
Wow, thank you Usha, great summary!
Page 40 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
76. Leo says:

Kalid:
The fact that trig relations are percentages is a very good insight! I must
compliment you.
I would have a modest(?) proposal: I am of an older generation, did my studies in
the 50s. We had a visual tool always at our side, an analogue calculator, a thing
called a SLIDE RULE. It is based on logarithms, and you multiply on it by SLIDING
one log number line scale against another. My big slide rule has trig functions and
exponential functions in the form of number lines that refer to the basic log scale.
Its all out there in front, right before your eyes. I think my generation and those
before us had a better visual and intuitive grasp of math because of the slide rule.
Almost all calculations on a slide rule are based on proportions. They become
natural if you work with a slide rule. And: you have to keep orders of magnitude
straight in your head. A slide rule user must always know where they are in a
calculation. You might make little mistakes in the 3rd or 4th significant digit, but
never a BIG electronic calculator type of mistake.
I have never stopped using a slide rule and never really graduated to electronic
calculators. I think it is worth anybodys while who is interested in an intuitive feel
for math to look into slide rules. Their are lots of them floating around and the web
has lots of info on how to use them.
77. kalid says:
Hi Leo, thanks for the comment, glad the percentage analogy worked!
The slide rule is a really interesting device (Ive only used it in online simulations,
never in real life) but I think theres cool insights within as well. Having a tangible
representation of what logs are doing is another way to build an intuition, might be
a fun article!
Page 41 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
78. Leo says:

Kalid:
One might get a taste by using an online simulation, but there is no substitute for
holding one your hands. They are precision instruments, the final product of 300
years of development and evolution. And they were expansive. My high school slide
rule cost $55 in 2014 dollars, and my big scientific-engineering one was $250. Both
are in working order today after 55-60 years. Back then, a person bought usually
one high quality one in a lifetime. The German-American rocket engineer Werner
von Braun worked on the Apollo moon shots with one he bought in the early
1920s.
(I have never replaced a set of batteries)
I am not suggesting one really learns to use one seriously. With all the relations
there in front of you, they are great objects for meditations on mathematics. Most
of your insights in this site could be arrived at by figuring out precisely how a slide
rule works. If a person uses a slide rule a lot, you can estimate the result of a
computation by closing your eyes, picturing a slide rule, and operating it in your
imagination. Calculators are of course remarkable, but they are black boxes.
Nobody knows whats going on inside. The result pops out magically. They are
highly anti-intuitive.
Get your hands on a physical slide rule. Beware: they cast a spell.
I am working my way through your entire site. Great stuff, new little things at every
point.
79. Sarah says:
Page 42 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
Thank you! This helps a lot! I am on winter break, and am studying math on my
own to understand it instead of just memorizing it. Ive had two physics classes
and up to Calculus I but I am very weak at Trig because I have no idea, it just
doesnt click. Calculus was way easier, but trig popped up everywhere in it and in
physics too and I was just at its mercy! The diagram was the best I always
wondered where the other identies were located on the triangles/ circle dome. the
most useful diagram next to the original unit circle Ive ever come across!
80. kalid says:
@Leo: Thanks for the info, glad youre enjoying the site :).
@Sarah: Awesome to hear! Trig bugged me for so long as well until I found a way
to have the relationships click.
81. CAWALING JESRYL BANAYBANAY (http://FACEBOOK.COM) says:
it is so great for those are students wanting to know or to understand easily for this
sad topic, just scroll this website for more quaries,..
82. Umar danish says:
Salam wa alay kum .Mr. Khalid and very very thanx for providing such sites I
think this is the best site for math seekers.
83. Pat Moss says:
Hi.
This posting is great! Makes it a lot easier to understand. I knew how to do
Trigonometry but realized just how tricky it was when I had to try & explain it to
my teenage son. This certainly made it easier. Thank you.
Page 43 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
84. michael edwards says:

I never took trig now I am curious and familiar with operations that apply.
85. Andy B says:
Just a small tip for anyone out there using Google as a calculator for any of these
functions, beware that it returns results in radians. I was puzzled for a few minutes
on Kalids example to solve for sine of angle x until I realised the answer Google
was computing for arcsin(.60) [0.64] was in radians. Performing a conversion from
that to degrees (by multiplying the radian value by 180/) yielded the expected
result of 36.9 degrees. Happy Math!
86. Ghostrecon says:
I sent the question about the tangent line never reaching x-axis.
87. Ty says:
I truly thank God for you. Thanks so much!
88. Jim says:
I could always work with the formulas, but had a hard time visualizing them and
understanding them intuitively. This really helped, thank you!
89. nick says:
What happens at x = /4?
90. Ayubi says:
Hey Khalid, its really nice to see how you demystify many of the concepts that we
learned in high school. Ive always tried to get some intuition but failed so far so I
gave up on this quest. Its refreshing to see how youve been able to make it work.
Page 44 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
However, I would love to see how you reasoned your way through to getting these 3
similar triangles all stacked up on top of one another. Can you please post an
article or a reply to this comment? Would love to see more of your work!
91. Geraint says:
Thanks for the article its great! One question though, is there a reason why the
tangent is always vertical??
92. kalid says:
Hi Geraint, the tangent doesnt have to be vertical, but its lined up that way for
simplicity in the diagram. See the section of the article Appendix: The Original
Definition Of Tangent.
93. kalid says:
Hi Ayubi, glad you enjoyed it! It might be a fun article, but I essentially look for
connections between things wherever I can. All the trig functions seem to have
similar relationships (something^2 + something^2 = something^2) which fits the
Pythagorean model. Seeing everything as percentages seemed to help clarify as
well (tan is just another percentage, except it can go to infinity). A lot of it is trial
and error and a belief that things can be simple if we look at it the right way (and it
may take a lot of time before it jumps out at us).
94. Aaron Brown says:
WowI feel like my foot has been itching since high school, and it took me 18 years
until I was finally able to take off my shoe and scratch it. I cant believe how much
sense this post makes. Kudos, Kalid, for making this subject so easy and
understandable! If only all high school teachers everywhere would watch your
videos.
Page 45 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
95. kalid says:

Thanks Aaron, glad it helped!
96. Matthew says:
*Click*
After 25 years, thank you oh so very much.
Your feedback is welcome -- leave a reply!

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Page 46 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
In This Series
1. How To Learn Trigonometry Intuitively
2. Intuition For The Law Of Sines (http://betterexplained.com/articles/law-of-sines/)
3. Intuition For The Law Of Cosines (http://betterexplained.com/articles/law-of-cosines/)
About The Site

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Page 47 of 48
9/26/15, 12:19 AM
If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Einstein (more (/philosophy/))
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Trig mnemonics like SOH-CAH-TOA

TOA explains the tangent about as well as x 2 + y2 = r 2 describes a circle. Sure, if