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Example Questions
Example Question #11 : Coterminal Angles
Find a positive and negative angle that are coterminal with a angle.
Coterminal angles are angles in standard position that have a common terminal side. In order to find a positive and a negative angle coterminal with , we can add and subtract . So we can write:
So a angle and a angle are coterminal with a angle.
Example Question #11 : Coterminal Angles
Find a positive and negative angle that are coterminal with a angle.
Coterminal angles are angles in standard position that have a common terminal side. In order to find a positive and a negative angle coterminal with , we need to subtract one full rotation () and two full rotations ():
So a angle and a angle are coterminal with a angle.
Example Question #13 : Coterminal Angles
Which of the following is a coterminal angle to ?
To find a possible coterminal angle, add or subtract multiples of 360 degrees, or radians. In this case, since we are given the angle in radians, add or subtract .
These are all possible coterminal angles.
The correct answer is:
Example Question #11 : Coterminal Angles
Which angle is NOT coterminal with ?
To obtain any angle that is coterminal with , either add or subtract , or in this case its equivalent, .
Adding yields:
Subtracting yields:
The only answer not generated either way is .
Example Question #41 : Angles
Which angle is NOT coterminal with ?
To obtain any angle that is coterminal with , either add or subtract , or in this case its equivalent, .
Adding yields:
Subtracting yields:
The only answer not generated either way is .
Example Question #12 : Coterminal Angles
Which two angles are both coterminal with ?
and
and
and
and
and
and
For an angle to to coterminal with , it must be equivalent to that angle, pointing up. The two angles that work are and .
We can visualize why works in a couple different ways. If we know that the angle pointing straight down is , we can see that the negative version of that would point straight up. We could also count clockwise around the circle three -angles, which would place us at .
Similarly, counting around the unit circle nine -angles would place us at . We could also subtract , or equivalently , to figure out where the angle is within the unit circle:
Example Question #12 : Coterminal Angles
Find a positive coterminal angle of 390°.
10°
60°
120°
90°
30°
30°
Coterminal angles have the same initial and terminal sides. The simplest case is 180°. If you imagine this on a cartesian plane, it is simply the x-axis. The 180° on the positive y-axis side is coterminal with the 180° on the negative y-axis side and vice versa. For an angle of 390° we find its positive coterminal angle by subtracting 360°. This gives us the coterminal angle of 30°. 30° and 390° both have the same initial and terminal sides.
Example Question #13 : Coterminal Angles
Find a negative coterminal angle for 380°.
-330°
-380°
-340°
-300°
-310°
-340°
Coterminal angles have the same initial and terminal sides. The simplest case is 180°. If you imagine this on a cartesian plane, it is simply the x-axis. The 180° on the positive y-axis side is coterminal with the 180° on the negative y-axis side and vice versa. To find the negative coterminal angle of 380°, we must subtract an angle that has the same terminal and initial sides, but is larger than 380° (this ensures we get a negative coterminal angle).
To find the correct "amount of angle" to subtract, multiply 360 by multiples of 2 until you get an angle value that would give a negative angle when subtracted.
Example Question #11 : Coterminal Angles
Which of the following angles is coterminal with ?
Adding the two fractions together yields
We can find angles coterminal to this by adding or subtracting multiples of .
In this case:
.
Example Question #13 : Coterminal Angles
Find positive angles between and which are coterminal to , , and .
, ,
, ,
, ,
, ,
, ,
, ,
"Coterminal angles" are those angles in standard position that have a common terminal side. To find an angle coterminal to another given angle, simply add or subtract (or ) to the given angle measure. The problem restricts the desired coterminal angles to those which lie between and . Hence, for each given angle measure we must find the angle between and which is equivalent to that angle by adding or subtracting multiples of or .
is negative, so is coterminal to and lies between and .
is greater than , so is coterminal to and lies between and .
is greater than , so is coterminal to and lies between and .
Hence, the positive angles between and which are coterminal to , , and are , , , respectively.
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