Sine, Cosine and Tangent in Four Quadrants
Sine, Cosine and Tangent in Four Quadrants
Sine, Cosine and Tangent in Four Quadrants
nuse
Divide the length of one side of a
ote
p
right angled triangle by another side Hy Opposite
Adjacent
Cartesian Coordinates
Using Cartesian Coordinates we mark a point on a graph by how far along and how far up
it is:
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22/01/2020 Sine, Cosine and Tangent in Four Quadrants
10 y
12
5
(12,5)
5
0
0 5 10 15 x
The point (12,5) is 12 units along, and 5 units up.
Four Quadrants
When we include negative values, the x and y axes divide
the space up into 4 pieces:
Like this:
X Y
Quadrant Example
(horizontal) (vertical)
II Negative Positive
IV Positive Negative
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22/01/2020 Sine, Cosine and Tangent in Four Quadrants
Example: The point "C" (−2,−1) is 2 units along in the negative direction, and 1 unit
down (i.e. negative direction).
In Quadrant I everything is normal, and Sine, Cosine and Tangent are all positive:
But in Quadrant II, the x direction is negative, and both cosine and tangent become
negative:
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22/01/2020 Sine, Cosine and Tangent in Four Quadrants
There is a pattern! Look at when Sine Cosine and Tangent are positive ...
Some people like to remember the four letters ASTC by one of these:
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22/01/2020 Sine, Cosine and Tangent in Four Quadrants
Two Values
Have a look at this graph of the Sine Function:
y
1
0.5
30° 150° 390°
0
x
-0.5
-1
-90° 0° 90° 180° 270° 360° 450°
There are two angles (within the first 360°) that have the same value!
The trouble is: Your calculator will only give you one of those values ...
... but you can use these rules to find the other value:
Sine θ 180º − θ
Cosine θ 360º − θ
Tangent θ θ − 180º
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22/01/2020 Sine, Cosine and Tangent in Four Quadrants
We can now solve equations for angles between 0º and 360º (using Inverse Sine Cosine and
Tangent )
We get the first solution from the calculator = sin-1(0.5) = 30º (it is in Quadrant I)
This is less than 0º, so we add 360º: −52.4º + 360º = 307.6º (Quadrant IV)
We get the first solution from the calculator = cos-1(−0.85) = 148.2º (Quadrant II)
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