11.07.2015 Views

The Pythagorean Theorem - Educational Outreach

The Pythagorean Theorem - Educational Outreach

The Pythagorean Theorem - Educational Outreach

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To start a formal exploration of trigonometry, firstconstruct a unit circle of radius r 1and center ( 0,0). Lett be the counterclockwise arc length along the rim from thepoint ( 1,0)to the point P( t) ( x,y). Positive values for tcorrespond to rim distances measured in thecounterclockwise direction from ( 1,0)to P( t) ( x,y)whereas negative values for t correspond to rim distancesmeasured in the clockwise direction from ( 1,0)toP( t) ( x,y). Let be the angle subtended by the arclength t , and draw a right triangle with hypotenusespanning the length from ( 0,0)to ( x , y)as shown in Figure3.15.r 1P( t) ( x,y)ty( 0,0) x (1,0 )Figure 3.15: Trigonometry via Unit Circle<strong>The</strong> first pillar is the collection definition for the sixtrigonometric functions. Each of the six functions has astheir independent or input variable either or t . Eachfunction has as the associated dependent or output variablesome combination of the two right-triangular sides whoselengths are x and y .118

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