Start With a Right Triangle There are only two requirements ... It just happens that it's easy to show trig functions with a circle, but trig functions are really about right triangles.

These functions, such as the sine and cosine, are defined using right triangles. Imagine a right triangle with one side that lies flat against a table and another that shoots straight up from ...

If the mast is perpendicular to the deck and top of the mast is rigged to the deck, then the mast, deck and rigging rope form a right triangle ... three trigonometric functions produce the ...

As the numbers are known on the opposite and the hypotenuse, then we look for the ratio which uses both these sides (SOH CAH TOA). That ratio is the sine ratio. \(\sin (x^\circ ) = \frac{{opposite ...

Interestingly enough, the trigonometric functions that define those relationships are also closely tied to circles. Needless to say, this makes trig one of the hardest topics in math for students ...

Our new research, published in Historia Mathematica, shows that the Babylonians were able to construct a trigonometric table using only the exact ratios of sides of a right-angled triangle.