Help with homework?

Question

I am home schooled but we are having trouble with the differences between sin cos and tan. Can you help?

Answer 1

Sin is Opposite / Hypotenuse

Cos is Adjacent / Hypotenuse

Tan is Opposite / Adjacent

The hypotenuse is always the longest leg.  The leg directly across from the angle is opposite and the remaining leg is adjacent.  So, say you have an angle and you know that Opposite=2 and you want to find the length of the hypotenuse.  Your equation would be...

Sin (angle) = 2/h

If however you had the lengths of two sides, say opposite=2 and hypotenuse = 5, then you would use the inverse sin to find the angle.  The inverse sin is the one up the the -1 power.

(angle) = inverse sin 2/5

This only works for right triangles.

If you have any specific problems you are trying to figure out just post them and I or someone else can work it out for you step by step.