Basic Trigonometry

Sections of this are from “Trigonometry in a

Nutshell"
© 2001 The Math Forum @ Drexel
remainder by Gary Greer
When you have a right
triangle there are 5 things
you can know
 the lengths about
of the sides (A, B,it..
and C)
 the measures of the acute angles (a and b)
 (The third angle is always 90 degrees)

b
C
A
a
B
If you know two of the sides, you
can use the Pythagorean
theorem to find the other side
A = C 2 − B2
B = C 2 − A2
C= A2 + B 2
if A = 3, B = 4
C= A2 + B 2 b
C
C = 32 + 4 2 A=3
a
C = 25 = 5 B=4
And if you know either angle, a
or b, you can subtract it from 90
to get the other one: a + b = 90
 This works because there are 180º in a
triangle and we are already using up 90º
 For example:
 if a = 30º
 b = 90º – 30ºb = 60º
b
C
A
a
B
But what if you want to know
the angles?
 Well, here is the central insight of
trigonometry:
 If you multiply all the sides of a right triangle
by the same number (k), you get a triangle
that is a different size, but which has the
same angles:
k(C) b
C b A k(A)
a a
B
k(B)
How does that help us?
 Take a triangle where angle b is 60º and
angle a is 30º
 If side B is 1unit long, then side C must be 2

units long, so that we know that for a triangle

of this shape the ratio of side B to C is 1:2
 There are ratios for every

shape of triangle! C=2 60 º

A=1
30º
B
But there are three pairs of
sides possible!
 Yes, so there are three sets of ratios for any
triangle
 They are mysteriously named:
 sin…short for sine
 cos…short for cosine
 tan…short or tangent
 and the ratios are already calculated, you just
need to use them
So what are the formulas?

opp
sin θ = Tan is
Sin is
Cos Opposite
isOpposite over Hypotenuse
Adjacent over Adjacent
Hypotenuse
hyp
adj
cosθ = SOHCAHTOA
hyp
opp
tan θ =
adj
Some terminology:

 Before we can use the ratios we need to get

a few terms straight
 The hypotenuse (hyp) is the longest side of
the triangle – it never changes
 The opposite (opp) is the side directly across
from the angle you are considering
 The adjacent (adj) is the side right beside the
angle you are considering
A picture always helps…

 looking at the triangle in terms of angle b

 A is the adjacent b
C
(near the angle) A

 B is the opposite (across from B

the angle)

b Near
 C is always the hypotenuse
Longest hyp
adj

opp Across
But if we switch angles…

 looking at the triangle in terms of angle a

 A is the opposite (across from C

the angle) A
a
 B is the adjacent (near the B
angle)

Across
 C is always the hypotenuse
Longest hyp
opp
a
adj Near
Lets try an example

 Suppose we want to
find angle a opp
 what is side A? tanθ =
 the opposite adj
 what is side B?
 the adjacent
 with opposite and
adjacent we use b
C
the… A=3
 tan formula a
B=4
Lets solve it

opp
tan θ =
adj
3
tan a = = 0.75
4
check our calculators
b
a = 36.87º C
A=3
a
B=4
Where did the numbers for
the ratio come from?
 Each shape of triangle has three ratios
 These ratios are stored your scientific
calculator
 In the last question, tanθ = 0.75
 On your calculator try 2nd, Tan 0.75 = 36.87 °
Another tangent example…

 we want to find angle b

opp
 B is the opposite tanθ =
 A is the adjacent adj
 so we use tan
4
tan b =
3 b
C
tan b = 1.33 A=3
a
b = 53.13° B=4
Calculating a side if you know
the angle
 you know a side (adj) and an angle (25°)
 we want to know the opposite side

A opp
tan 25° = tanθ =
6 adj
A = tan 25° × 6
b
A = 0.47 × 6 C
A
A = 2.80 25°
B=6
Another tangent example

 If you know a side and an angle, you can

find the other side.
6 opp
tanθ =
tan 25° = adj
B
6
B=
tan 25°
b
6 C
B= A=6
0.47 25°
B = 12.87 B
An application
 You look up at an angle of 65° at the top of a tree
that is 10m away
 the distance to the tree is the adjacent side
 the height of the tree is the opposite side

opp
tan 65° =
10
opp = 10 × tan 65°
65°
opp = 10 × 2.14
10m
opp = 21.4
Why do we need the sin &
cos?
 We use sin and cos when we need to work
with the hypotenuse
 if you noticed, the tan formula does not have
the hypotenuse in it.
 so we need different formulas to do this work
 sin and cos are the ones!
C = 10 b
A
25°
B
Lets do sin first

 we want to find angle a

 since we have opp and hyp we
use sin opp
sinθ =
5 hyp
sin a =
10
sin a = 0.5 C = 10 b
A=5
a = 30° a
B
And one more sin example
 find the length of side A
 We have the angle and opp
the hyp, and we need sinθ =
hyp
the opp
A
sin 25° =
20
A = sin 25° × 20
C = 20 b
A = 0.42 × 20 A
A = 8.45 25°
B
And finally cos
 We use cos when we need to work with the
hyp and adj
adj
 so lets find angle b cosθ =
hyp
4
cos b =
10 C = 10 b
A=4
cos b = 0.4
a
b = 66.42° B
a = 90° - 66.42°
a = 23.58°
Here is an example
 Spike wants to ride down a steel
beam
 The beam is 5m long and is
leaning against a tree at an angle
of 65° to the ground
 His friends want to find out how
high up in the air he is when he
starts so they can put add it to the
doctors report at the hospital
 How high up is he?
How do we know which
formula to use???
 Well, what are we working with?
 We have an angle
 We have hyp
 We need opp
C=5
 With these things we will use
B
the sin formula

65°
So lets calculate
opp
sin 65° =
hyp
opp
sin 65° =
5
C=5
opp = sin 65° × 5
B
opp = 0.91× 5
opp = 4.53
 so Spike will have fallen 4.53m 65°
One last example…

 Lucretia drops her walkman

off the Leaning Tower of
Pisa when she visits Italy
 It falls to the ground 2
meters from the base of the
tower
 If the tower is at an angle of
88° to the ground, how far
did it fall?
First draw a triangle

 What parts do we have?

 We have an angle
 We have the Adjacent
 We need the opposite
 Since we are working with B
the adj and opp, we will use
the tan formula
88°

2m
 So lets calculate
opp
tan 88° =
adj
opp
tan 88° =
2
opp = tan 88° × 2
opp = 28.64 × 2 B

opp = 57.27
Lucretia’s walkman fell 57.27m


88°

2m
What are the steps for doing
one of these questions?
1. Make a diagram if needed
2. Determine which angle you are working with
3. Label the sides you are working with
4. Decide which formula fits the sides
5. Substitute the values into the formula
6. Solve the equation for the unknown value
7. Does the answer make sense?
Two Triangle Problems

 Although there are two triangles, you only

need to solve one at a time
 The big thing is to analyze the system to
understand what you are being given
 Consider the following problem:
 You are standing on the roof of one building
looking at another building, and need to find
the height of both buildings.
Draw a diagram

 You can measure the

angle 40° down to
the base of other
building and up 60°
to the top as well.
You know the 60°
distance between the
40°
two buildings is 45m

45m
Break the problem into two
triangles.
 The first triangle:
a

60°
 The second triangle
45m
40°
 note that they share a
side 45m long b
 a and b are heights!
The First Triangle
 We are dealing with an angle, the opposite
and the adjacent
 this gives us Tan

a
tan 60° =
45
a = tan 60° × 45
a = 1.73 × 45 a

a = 77.94m 60°
45m
The second triangle
 We are dealing with an angle, the opposite and
the adjacent
 this gives us Tan

b
tan 40° = 45m
45
40°
b = tan 40° × 45
b
b = 0.84 × 45
b = 37.76m
What does it mean?

 Look at the diagram now:

 the short building is
37.76m tall
 the tall building is 77.94m 77.94m
plus 37.76m tall, which
60°
equals 115.70m tall
40°

37.76m

45m
That’s all for
Trigonometry

Sections of this are from “Trigonometry in a

Nutshell"
© 2001 The Math Forum @ Drexel
http://
www.mathquest.com/library/drmath/drmath.high.html
remainder by Gary Greer