SIMILAR

RIGHT TRIANGLES AND TRIG RATIOS - PART 3

ORIGINALLY ADAPTED FROM THE BRILLIANT SAM J SHAH

1. We saw how useful the ratios of the sides of right triangles could be for us. These are so important to
mathematicians that they gave them names. (They come from Latin.)

Sine
Cosine
Tangent
leg opposite of angle
leg adjacent to the angle
leg opposite of angle
tan() =

sin() =
cos() =
hypotenuse
hypotenuse
leg adjacent to the angle




this is often shortened
this is often shortened
this is often shortened

SOH

CAH

TOA

It is important to note that although the names might seem fancy, their meanings are simply the ratio of
sides of a right triangle. And those ratios are important because all similar right triangles have the same
ratios!

So with our fancy new names, the Table of Right Triangle Ratios is actually:
Angle
(degree)
21
22
23
24

44
45
46
47

79
80
81
82

sin()

cos()

tan()

0.3584
0.3746
0.3907
0.4067

0.6947
0.7071
0.7193
0.7314

0.9816
0.9848
0.9877
0.9903

0.9336
0.9272
0.9205
0.9135

0.7193
0.7071
0.6947
0.6820

0.1908
0.1736
0.1564
0.1392

0.3839
0.4040
0.4245
0.4452

0.9657
1.0000
1.0355
1.0724

5.1446
5.6713
6.3138
7.1154

And I know youve seen these buttons on your calculator! Check it! Make sure your calculator is in degree mode
by pressing MODE and then make sure DEGREE is highlighted. If it isnt, use the arrow buttons to highlight
degree and press Enter so it is.

Now on your home screen type:

and press Enter. Check it out! Look at the table on the
previous page!

(a) What precisely does that value mean geometrically?
For any right triangle with an angle of 23 degrees, ___________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________.
(b) Check the following on your calculator, see if the table above matches what you get, and explain what the
number means geometrically:
Type tan(81)
Geometrically, it means:

For any right triangle with an
angle of 81 degrees,

Type cos(46)
Geometrically, it means:

For any right triangle with an angle
of 46 degrees,

Type sin(44)
Geometrically, it means:

For any right triangle with an angle
of 44 degrees,

Yup. Your calculator has built into it our Table of Right Triangle Ratios. Fancy!
But even better, we can get these ratios for non-integer angle right triangles!
(c) Use your calculator to find the hypotenuse.

(d) Use your calculator to find the side adjacent to the given angle:

(e) Use your calculator to find the sides opposite to and adjacent to the given angle:

Super duper important conclusion #1: Your calculators sine, cosine, and tangent buttons are simply a quick
way to get an accurate ratio of sides from the calculators extensive internal Table of Right Triangle Ratios.
In essence, your calculator is doing the work of looking up the table values for you. Nothing more.

Super duper important conclusion #2: To get your calculator to give you the right values in its extensive
Table of Right Triangle Ratios, you input the angle into
, and it will give you an output of a
ratio of sides. When you enter sin(42) into your calculator you are basically saying, Hey calculator, do you
mind telling me the ratio of the side opposite to the 42 degree angle to the hypotenuse?.
2. More Practice, for problems youve done before!

3. But wait! Theres more! If we know a ratio of sides, we can actually use our
calculator to find the missing angles too!
(a) If we call the missing angle (a Greek letter commonly used for angles, theta), we
1.244
know that cos( ) =
0.4539814612 . Use our Table of Right Triangle Ratios to
2.7402
find the missing angle to the nearest degree.






(b) Now were going to use our calculator. To find the missing angle, we use a related key on our calculator.
Instead of using cosine, were using something called inverse cosine. For now, just know that what this does is
it looks through the calculators internal extensive table of trig ratios, finds the appropriate one, and outputs
the angle.

Enter this on your calculator:

, and hit Enter. To get inverse cosine, press

. You should get the missing angle!

We could do the same with inverse sine and inverse tangent.

(c) Whats nice is that because the calculator has a built in extensive table of right triangle ratios, we can get
really accurate angle measures. Redo the following problems that youve done before, but using your
calculator.

(d) For the following two problems, write down three different things you could type on your calculator to give
you the missing angle:

Super duper important conclusion #1: Your calculators inverse sine, inverse cosine, and inverse tangent
buttons are simply a quick way to get an accurate angle by using an internal extensive Table of Right Triangle
Ratios. In essence, your calculator is doing the work of looking up the table values for you. Nothing more.

Super duper important conclusion #2: To get your calculator to give you the right values in its extensive Table of
Right Triangle Ratios, you input the ratio of sides into
angle.

, and it will give you an output of the

Next Steps: Taking it one step further

4. What are the similarities and differences in the Platonic Right Triangles book and the Table of Right
Triangle Ratios?






5. What are the similarities and differences in the Table of Right Triangle Ratios and your calculators
sine/cosine/tangent/inverse sine/inverse cosine/inverse tangent capabilities?










`

6. (a) Student A says that the missing side of the triangle can be found by saying:
missing side
cos(49.3o ) =
3.04
o
3.04 cos(49.3 ) = missing side

1.9823 missing side

Student B similarly says:
missing side
cos(60.89o ) =
2.64
o
2.64 cos(60.89 ) = missing side

1.2843 missing side

Yikes! Contradiction! Explain what is going on! Explain.






1
(b) You know the area of a triangle is (base)(height ) . Find the area of this triangle. If you need a hint,
2
1
look at this footnote.














1

Are you sure you want a hint? I dont know. You might want to just continue thinking about it No? Okay. Fine. Finding the area of
a right triangle is easier than the area of a random triangle. So divide this triangle into two right triangles.

7. Look at this excerpt of the Table of Trig Ratios, copied from above.
Angle
(degree)
21
47
80

sin()

cos()

tan()

0.3584
0.7314
0.9848

0.9336
0.6820
0.1736

0.3839
1.0724
5.6713

(a) Do the division

sin()
for the three angles. What do you notice?
cos()

(b) Explain this! (Hint: think about the geometric meaning of sine, cosine, and tangent)

(c) Calculate (sin())2 + (cos())2 for the three angles. What do you notice?

(d) Explain this!

8. Find the missing length x.

9. Find the length of CD, if angle BAD is 33 degrees, and BAC is 30 degrees.