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Example Questions
Example Question #1 : How To Find The Range Of The Cosine
What is the range of the function ?
There is no range that fits this function.
The range of the function represents the spread of possible answers you can get for , given all values of . In this case, the ordinary range for a cosine function is , since the largest value that cosine can solve to is (for a cosine of or a multiple of one of those values), and the smallest value cosine can solve to is (for a cosine of or a multiple of one of those values).
However, in this case our final answer is first multiplied by , then decreased by after the cosine is applied to . Multiplying the initial range by results in a new range of . Next, subtracting from this range gives us a new range of .
Note that the does not change our range. This is because, irrespective of other multipliers, a cosine operation can only return values between and . To think of this a different way, will give us the same returns as , only we will move around the unit circle five times as much before finding our answer.
Thus, our final range is .
Example Question #151 : Trigonometry
Which of the following functions has a range of ?
None of these have the specified range.
The range of the function represents the spread of possible answers you can get for , given all values of . In this case, the ordinary range for a cosine function is , since the largest value that cosine can solve to is (for a cosine of or a multiple of one of those values), and the smallest value cosine can solve to is (for a cosine of or a multiple of one of those values).
One fast way to match a range to a function is to look for the function which has a vertical shift equal to the mean of the range values. In other words, for the standard trigonometric function , where represents the vertical shift, .
In this case, since our range is , we expect our to be .
Of the answer choices, only has , so we know this is our correct choice.
Example Question #10 : How To Find The Range Of The Cosine
Which of the following functions has a range of ?
None of these formulas has the specified range.
The range of the function represents the spread of possible answers you can get for , given all values of . In this case, the ordinary range for a cosine function is , since the largest value that cosine can solve to is (for a cosine of or a multiple of one of those values), and the smallest value cosine can solve to is (for a cosine of or a multiple of one of those values).
One fast way to match a range to a function is to look for the function which has a vertical shift equal to the mean of the range values. In other words, for the standard trigonometric function , where represents the vertical shift, .
In this case, since our range is , we expect our to be .
Of the answer choices, only has , so we know this is our correct choice.
Example Question #11 : How To Find The Range Of The Cosine
Which of the following functions has a range of ?
None of these functions has the specified range.
The range of the function represents the spread of possible answers you can get for , given all values of . In this case, the ordinary range for a cosine function is , since the largest value that cosine can solve to is (for a cosine of or a multiple of one of those values), and the smallest value cosine can solve to is (for a cosine of or a multiple of one of those values).
One fast way to match a range to a function is to look for the function which has a vertical shift equal to the mean of the range values. In other words, for the standard trigonometric function , where represents the vertical shift, .
In this case, since our range is , we expect our to be .
Of the answer choices, only has , so we know this is our correct choice.
Example Question #11 : How To Find The Range Of The Cosine
Which of the following represents a cosine function with a range of to ?
The range of a cosine wave is altered by the coefficient placed in front of the base equation. So, if you have , this means that the highest point on the wave will be at and the lowest at ; however, if you then begin to shift the equation vertically by adding values, as in, , then you need to account for said shift. This would make the minimum value to be and the maximum value to be .
For our question, the range of values covers . This range is accomplished by having either or as your coefficient. ( merely flips the equation over the -axis. The range "spread" remains the same.) We need to make the upper value to be instead of . To do this, you will need to add , or , to . This requires an upward shift of . An example of performing a shift like this is:
Among the possible answers, the one that works is:
The parameter does not matter, as it only alters the frequency of the function.
Example Question #1 : How To Find Negative Cosine
If and , what is the value of ?
Based on this data, we can make a little triangle that looks like:
This is because .
Now, this means that must equal . (Recall that the cosine function is negative in the second quadrant.) Now, we are looking for:
or . This is the cosine of a reference angle of:
Looking at our little triangle above, we can see that the cosine of is .
Example Question #1 : How To Find Negative Cosine
What is the cosine 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 ? Round to the nearest hundredth.
Recall that when you calculate a trigonometric function for an obtuse angle like this, you always use the -axis as your reference point for your angle. (Hence, it is called the "reference angle.")
Now, it is easiest to think of this like you are drawing a little triangle in the third quadrant of the Cartesian plane. It would look like:
So, you first need to calculate the hypotenuse. You can do this by using the Pythagorean Theorem, , where and are the lengths of the legs of the triangle and the length of the hypotenuse. Rearranging the equation to solve for , you get:
Substituting in the given values:
So, the cosine of an angle is:
or, for your data, .
This is approximately . Rounding, this is . However, since is in the third quadrant your value must be negative: .
Example Question #3 : How To Find Negative Cosine
What is the cosine 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 ? Round to the nearest hundredth.
Recall that when you calculate a trigonometric function for an obtuse angle like this, you always use the -axis as your reference point for your angle. (Hence, it is called the "reference angle.") Now, it is easiest to think of this like you are drawing a little triangle in the second quadrant of the Cartesian plane. It would look like:
So, you first need to calculate the hypotenuse:
So, the cosine of an angle is:
or, for your data, .
This is approximately . Rounding, this is . However, since is in the second quadrant your value must be negative: .
Example Question #2 : How To Find Negative Cosine
To the nearest , what is the cosine of the angle formed between the origin and ? Assume a counterclockwise rotation.
If the point to be reached is , then we may envision a right triangle with sides and , and hypotenuse . The Pythagorean Theorem tells us that , so we plug in and find that:
Thus,
Now, SOHCAHTOA tells us that , so we know that:
Thus, our cosine is approximately . However, as we are in the third quadrant, cosine must be negative! Therefore, our true cosine is .
Example Question #3 : How To Find Negative Cosine
On a grid, what is the cosine of the angle formed between a line from the origin to and the x-axis?
If the point to be reached is , then we may envision a right triangle with sides and , and hypotenuse . The Pythagorean Theorem tells us that , so we plug in and find that: .
Thus, .
Now, SOHCAHTOA tells us that , so we know that:
Thus, our cosine is approximately . However, as we are in the second quadrant, cosine must be negative! Therefore, our true cosine is .
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