Relationship between sine and tangent

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around understanding the relationships between sine, cosine, and tangent functions, particularly in the context of right triangles and their graphical representations. The original poster seeks clarification on how these trigonometric functions relate to one another as part of an assignment.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Conceptual clarification, Mathematical reasoning

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants explore definitions of sine, cosine, and tangent in relation to right triangles. Some question the relevance of specific classroom concepts like SOH CAH TOA. Others discuss the implications of graphing these functions and their relationships, particularly regarding division by zero in tangent.

Discussion Status

Participants have offered various perspectives on the relationships among the functions, with some providing links for further reading. There is an ongoing exploration of how these functions interact, particularly through graphical analysis, but no consensus has been reached on a singular explanation.

Contextual Notes

There is mention of specific classroom activities involving graphing sine, cosine, and tangent, which may influence the understanding of their relationships. The original poster expresses confusion about the assignment's requirements, indicating a potential lack of clarity in the instructions given by the teacher.

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hey guys...so my teacher gave me this lil assignment and she said to explain (in words) the relationship between sine and tangent and cosine and tangent.i have no clue what I am doing...so if someone could PLEASE explain this to me...i will be so greatful!
thankz
 
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sine...

hey guys...so my teacher gave me this lil assignment and she said to explain (in words) the relationship between sine and tangent and cosine and tangent.i have no clue what I am doing...so if someone could PLEASE explain this to me...i will be so greatful!
thankz
 
what were you told in class about them? Does SOH CAH TOA mean anything of importance?
 
no i don't think it has anything to do with that...we were looking at the graphs of sine,cosine and tangent today in class and she told us to explain the relationships...so i have so clue what she really ment
 
yea...i already read that...and there wasn't really any helpful information.but thankz anyways
 
I don't know how you can explain those things "in words," but I'll give it a try.

Sine, Cosine, and Tangent, are essentially defined in terms of angles and sides of a right triangle. [tex]\sin(\theta)[/tex] is a function which takes an angle of a right triangle as its input and returns the ratio of the length of the opposite side and the length of the hypotonuse. Similarly [tex]\cos(\theta)[/tex] is a function which takes an angle of a right triangle as its input and returns the ratio of the length of the adjacent side and the length of the hypotonuse. Likewise, [tex]\tan(\theta)[/tex] is a function which takes an angle of a right triangle as its input and returns the ratio of the length of the opposite side and the length of the adjacent side.
 
If you have a point [tex]P(x,y)[/tex] on the unit circle, then [tex]x = \cos \theta[/tex], [tex]y = \sin \theta[/tex], and [tex]\tan x[/tex] is the ratio of the y-coordinate over the x-coordinate or [tex]\frac{\sin \theta}{\cos \theta}[/tex].
 
  • #10
This was also posted in the homework section. I'm merging the two threads.
 
  • #11
well, i think, seeing as you were studying the graphs, they wants you to realize the sine graph divided by cos graph equated to the tangent graph. eg they wanted you to realize the tan graph wasnt defined were cos equalled zero (division by zero impossible). and notice that the values of tan and sin were the same wen cos equalled one, etc etc.hopefully this helped.

of course this simple relation is easy to see.
sin= opposite/hypotenuse
cos= ajacent/hypotenuse

(o/h)/(a/h)= o/a

opposite/adjacent, as we well know, it the tan ratio.
 
  • #12
Gib Z said:
well, i think, seeing as you were studying the graphs, they wants you to realize the sine graph divided by cos graph equated to the tangent graph. eg they wanted you to realize the tan graph wasnt defined were cos equalled zero (division by zero impossible). and notice that the values of tan and sin were the same wen cos equalled one, etc etc.hopefully this helped.

of course this simple relation is easy to see.
sin= opposite/hypotenuse
cos= ajacent/hypotenuse

(o/h)/(a/h)= o/a

opposite/adjacent, as we well know, it the tan ratio.


Thats what I said with SOH CAH TOA
 
  • #13
o well i got it...it has to do with the the period,amplitude,max,min,domain and range.thankz for ur help everyone!
 

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