1. Everything you need to know about trig for this class…
Trig Tutorial
Everything you need to know about trig for this class…

2. Sin, Cos, Tan You need to memorize the trig ratios somehow…
FOR RIGHT TRIANGLES ONLY!!!
SOHCAHTOA
Some Old Horse Caught Another Horse Taking Oats Away
S = sine, O = opposite, H = hypotenuse, C = cosine, A = adjacent, T = tangent

3. Opposite, adjacent, hypotenuse, and the angle theta
Theta is the angle represented with the symbol: θ
Opposite is the side of the triangle across from theta
Hypotenuse is the long side of the triangle (not a leg)
Adjacent is the side of the triangle that isn’t the hypotenuse but is next to theta

4. Trig ratios
sinθ =
cosθ =
tanθ =

5. Other options… Sometimes you won’t even need to use a trig identity.
Other things you might use when solving a triangle are:
Pythagorean’s Theorem: a2 + b2 = c2
Adding angles: The 3 inside angles of a triangle should add up to be 180 degrees.

6. Let’s try some examples… Problem #1
If the opposite side is 125 feet and the hypotenuse is 195 feet, what is the angle theta?
Draw your triangle and label it.
Decide what trig identity you need.
Manipulate your equation and solve.

7. Problem #2
If the hypotenuse is 550 feet and the angle theta is 35 degrees, what is length of the adjacent side?

8. Problem #3
If the top angle is 27 degrees, what is the angle theta?

9. Problem #4
If the opposite side is 4.7 m and the angle theta is 7.0 degrees, what is the length of the adjacent side?