Can some one help me nderstand trig better with a few expamples?

Question

which of cosine, sine, or tan do i use?

i always have the angle of interest i got that part but what if i only have the AS or OS or H and i have to find the othere two which one do i use?

AS= Ajacent side

OS= opisite

H= hypotinous

Answer 1

I'm not going to get into the technical stuff, but you can use cosine, sine, and tangent when ever you want, its just faster to know which one to use.

I think the eaistest way to understand it, is to go back to geometry and practice on triangles..

Answer 2

well the basic rule is: SOH-CAH-TOA

where SOH: Sine is Opposite over Hypotenuse

where CAH: Cosine is Adjacent over Hypotenuse

where TOA: Tangent is Opposite over Adjacent

What you do is you put yourself in the position of the angle you are given and then you see which side your given, if you are given your adjacent and you wanna find the hypotenuse then your ratios are adjacent over hypotenuse right? and so which trig ratio do you use for that.....COSINE. so then you would do Cos(placeyourangle)=adjacent/x(this is your unknown hypotenuse). Then you isolate X...and you have found your hypotenuse....and you can go on from there. Good Luck! :)