Trig Circle Help

The Sine Wave

If you graph the position of the ball, as seen by your friend, with respect to time, the result is a sine wave (Fig. 1-7), which is a graphical plot of a sine function. Some sine waves are “taller” than others (corresponding to a longer string), some are “stretched out” (corresponding to a slower rate of rotation), and some are “squashed” (corresponding to a faster rate of rotation). But the characteristic shape of the wave is the same in every case. When the amplitude and the wavelength are multiplied and divided by the appropriate numbers (or constants), any sine wave can be made to fit exactly along the curve of any other sine wave.

Fig. 1-7. Position of orbiting ball as seen edge-on, as a function of time.

You can whirl the ball around faster or slower than one revolution per second. The string can be made longer or shorter. These adjustments alter the height and/or the frequency of the sine wave graphed in Fig. 1-7. But the fundamental rule always applies: the sine wave can be reduced to circular motion. Conversely, circular motion in the ( x,y ) plane can be defined in terms of a general formula:

y = a sin b θ

where a is a constant that depends on the radius of the circle, and b is a constant that depends on the revolution rate.

The Cosine Function

Look again at Fig. 1-5.

Fig. 1-5 . The unit circle is the basis for the trigonometric functions.

Imagine, once again, a ray from the origin outward through point P on the circle, pointing right along the x axis, and then rotating in a counterclockwise direction.

What happens to the value of x ₀ (the abscissa of point P ) during one complete revolution of the ray? The abscissa of P starts out at x ₀ = 1, then decreases until it reaches x ₀ = 0 when θ – 90° = π/2. After that, x ₀ continues to decrease, getting down to x ₀ = –1 when θ = 180° = π. As P continues counterclockwise around the circle, x ₀ begins to increase again; at θ = 270° = 3π/2, the value gets back up to x ₀ = 0. After that, x ₀ increases further until, when P has gone completely around the circle, it returns to x ₀ = 1 for θ = 360° = 2π.

The value of x ₀ is defined as the cosine of the angle θ. The cosine function is abbreviated cos. So we can write this:

cos θ = x ₀

The Tangent Function

Once again, look at Fig. 1-5.

Fig. 1-5 . The unit circle is the basis for the trigonometric functions.

The tangent (abbreviated tan) of an angle θ is defined using the same ray OP and the same point P = ( x ₀ , y ₀ ) as is done with the sine and cosine functions. The definition is:

tan θ = y ₀ /x ₀

Because we already know that sin θ = y ₀ and cos θ = x ₀ , we can express the tangent function in terms of the sine and the cosine:

tan θ = sin θ /cos θ

This function is interesting because, unlike the sine and cosine functions, it “blows up” at certain values of θ. Whenever x ₀ = 0, the denominator of either quotient above becomes zero. Division by zero is not defined, and that means the tangent function is not defined for any angle θ such that cos θ = 0. Such angles are all the odd multiples of 90° (π/2 rad).

Primary Circular Functions Practice Problems

Practice 1

What is tan 45°? Do not perform any calculations. You should be able to infer this without having to write down a single numeral.

Solution 1

Practice Problems for these concepts can be found at:  The Circle Model Practice Test