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Example Questions
Example Question #5 : Trigonometry
If , what is
if
is between
and
?
Recall that .
Therefore, we are looking for or
.
Now, this has a reference angle of , but it is in the third quadrant. This means that the value will be negative. The value of
is
. However, given the quadrant of our angle, it will be
.
Example Question #61 : Trigonometry
What is the sine of the angle formed between the origin and the point if that angle is formed with one side of the angle beginning on the
-axis and then rotating counter-clockwise to
?
You can begin by imagining a little triangle in the fourth quadrant to find your reference angle. It would look like this:
Now, to find the sine of that angle, you will need to find the hypotenuse of the triangle. Using the Pythagorean Theorem, , where
and
are leg lengths and
is the length of the hypotenuse, the hypotenuse is
, or, for our data:
The sine of an angle is:
For our data, this is:
Since this is in the fourth quadrant, it is negative, because sine is negative in that quadrant.
Example Question #62 : Trigonometry
What is the sine of the angle formed between the origin and the point if that angle is formed with one side of the angle beginning on the
-axis and then rotating counter-clockwise to
?
You can begin by imagining a little triangle in the third quadrant to find your reference angle. It would look like this:
Now, to find the sine of that angle, you will need to find the hypotenuse of the triangle. Using the Pythagorean Theorem, , where
and
are leg lengths and
is the length of the hypotenuse, the hypotenuse is
, or, for our data:
The sine of an angle is:
For our data, this is:
Since this is in the third quadrant, it is negative, because sine is negative in that quadrant.
Example Question #1 : How To Find Negative Sine
If , what is the value of
if
?
Recall that the triangle appears as follows in radians:
Now, the sine of is
. However, if you rationalize the denominator, you get:
Since , we know that
must be represent an angle in the third quadrant (where the sine function is negative). Adding its reference angle to
, we get:
Therefore, we know that:
, meaning that
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