# Trig or Calc

1. Apr 10, 2014

### Tyrion101

If I understand my next possibilities in college, I think I can take either calculus 1 or trig 1, which do I take?

2. Apr 10, 2014

### micromass

Staff Emeritus
If you never took trig before, then trig.

3. Apr 10, 2014

### Staff: Mentor

After what?

4. Apr 10, 2014

### Tyrion101

College algebra

5. Apr 10, 2014

### micromass

Staff Emeritus
I'm surprised you are even able to register for calculus with just college algebra. Do trig first, and perhaps precalc before tackling calculus.

6. Apr 10, 2014

### Tyrion101

What should be after college algebra?

7. Apr 10, 2014

### LincolnLamar

Trig!

8. Apr 11, 2014

### 462chevelle

definitely trig. there are so many identities in my calc book that are used, where they dont tell you thats what their doing. you would be so lost if you didnt know that they were replacing stuff with identities. and understanding the unit circle is always nice.

9. Apr 11, 2014

### lurflurf

It varies some schools do all the trig stuff in a class with a different name such as algebra, geometry, or calculus. Some students know trig from hobbies.

can you prove
$$\frac{2\tan^2(x)+2\tan(x)\sec(x)}{\tan(x)+\sec(x)-1}=\tan(x)+\sec(x)+1$$
do you know what it means?

10. Apr 11, 2014

### Tyrion101

I know that it's a function and have a vague idea of how to solve for x, but beyond that no.

11. Apr 11, 2014

### lurflurf

you probably need to take trig then, do you know what the law of sines is?

12. Apr 11, 2014

### Tyrion101

Nope but it sounds familiar. My school has a class called algebra geometry trig 1. The same for calculus.

13. Apr 12, 2014

### jbrussell93

I never took "trig". I took precalculus and college algebra in high school and started in calc 1. Whether or not you should take trig depends on what you covered in geometry and precalculus class. You should be fine taking precalc instead of trig in my opinion.

14. Apr 12, 2014

### Staff: Mentor

I agree, provided that the precalc class has a significant component on trig. If it doesn't, I would highly recommend taking trig, which gets used in most math classes at the calculus level and above.

15. Apr 12, 2014

### BruceW

if they are offering trigonometry 1 or calculus 1, then I would guess that in reality, this is advanced trigonometry, and basic calculus. For example, I can't imagine someone learning about the differential equations for simple harmonic motion, before learning what is a sine function.

So anyway, my main point is that they have probably made the courses such that they are both around the same 'level', so it would hopefully not matter which you choose. And if this is the case, just choose the one you are interested in (or perhaps the most useful one to you, if you have a particular job in mind after college).

Having said all that, if you want to make sure, then you could look at the syllabus, or ask one of the teacher/professors? And briefly look up some of the stuff, to see which you would prefer to learn first.

16. Oct 11, 2014

### dumplump

If you could not prove the trig Identity, then I would advise either precalculus or trig.