The University of Sydney

MOOC Introduction to Calculus

Notes for ‘Sine, cosine and tangent’

Important Ideas and Useful Facts:

(i) The sine, cosine and tangent of an acute angle: Consider a right-angled triangle with acute
angle θ, adjacent side length a, opposite side length b and hypotenuse c.

c
b

a
Define the sine of the angle θ to be
b opposite
sin θ = = ,
c hypotenuse
the cosine of θ to be
a adjacent
cos θ = = ,
c hypotenuse
and the tangent of θ to be
b opposite b/c sin θ
tan θ = = = = .
a adjacent a/c cos θ
Observe that the remaining angle of the triangle is 90◦ − θ (since the angles of the triangle
add up to 180◦ ).

c
90◦ − θ
b

a
It follows from the definitions that
a b
sin(90◦ − θ) = = cos θ , cos(90◦ − θ) = = sin θ ,
c c
and
a a/c cos θ 1
tan(90◦ − θ) = = = = .
b b/c sin θ tan θ
For example,
1
sin(70◦ ) = cos(20◦ ) , sin(20◦ ) = cos(70◦ ) , and tan(70◦ ) = .
tan(20◦ )

1
(ii) Notation for powers of sine, cosine and tangent: To avoid brackets and to decongest formulae
and expressions, one normally writes

sinn θ = (sin θ)n , cosn θ = (cos θ)n and tann θ = (tan θ)n ,

for integers n greater than or equal to 2. In particular,

sin2 θ = (sin θ)2 , cos2 θ = (cos θ)2 and tan2 θ = (tan θ)2 .

(iii) The circular identity: For any angle θ, the following equation holds:

sin2 θ + cos2 θ = 1 ,

known as the circular identity (because of a close relationship to circles, explained later).
This follows by the Theorem of Pythagoras applied to the definitions and the right-angled
triangle above, noting that
b2 + a2 = c2 ,
so that ( )2 ( )2
2 2 b a b2 + a 2 c2
sin θ + cos θ = + = = = 1.
c c c2 c2

(iv) Values for common angles 45◦ , 30◦ and 60◦ : The three simplest right-angled triangles use
acute angles 45◦ , 30◦ and 60◦ respectively, drawn here with hypotenuse of length 1:

1 √
1 √1 1 3
2 1 2
60◦
2
45◦ 30◦
√
√1 3 1
2 2 2

These produce the following values:

1 1
sin 45◦ = √ , cos 45◦ = √ , tan 45◦ = 1 ,
2 2
√
1
◦ ◦ 3 1
sin 30 = , cos 30 = , tan 30◦ = √ ,
2 2 3
√
◦ 3 1 √
sin 60 = , cos 60◦ = , tan 60◦ = 3.
2 2

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Examples:

1. Suppose that θ is an acute angle such that tan θ = 3. Find sin θ and cos θ.
Solution: A diagram (even if just rough and ready and not necessarily accurate) and use
of the Theorem of Pythagoras help us solve this problem quickly. We don’t even need to
find the angle θ.
We draw a right-angled triangle and label the sides opposite and adjacent to the angle
θ with two numbers whose ratio is 3, which becomes the given tan θ. Because we can
rescale any triangle, we can choose the adjacent side to have length labelled by 1, so the
opposite side should have length labelled by 3.

√
10 3

By Pythagoras, the hypotenuse must have length labelled by

√ √ √
12 + 32 = 1 + 9 = 10 ,

added to the diagram above. We can now read off the following answers:
opposite 3
sin θ = = √ ,
hypotenuse 10
and
adjacent 1
cos θ = = √ ,
hypotenuse 10
Just as a final check against errors, these expressions should satisfy the circular identity,
which they do:
( )2 ( )2
3 1 9 1 10
sin θ + cos θ = √
2 2
+ √ = + = = 1.
10 10 10 10 10

3
2. Suppose that θ is an acute angle such that cos θ = 43 . Find sin θ and tan θ.
Solution: Again, a diagram (even if just rough and ready and not necessarily accurate)
and use of the Theorem of Pythagoras help us solve this problem quickly. Again, we don’t
need to find the angle θ.
We draw a right-angled triangle and label the side adjacent to the angle θ and the hy-
potenuse with two numbers such that their ratio is 34 , which becomes the given cos θ.
Because we can rescale any triangle, we can choose the adjacent side to have length 3,
and the hypotenuse to have length 4.

4 √
7

By Pythagoras, the opposite side must have length

√ √ √
42 − 32 = 16 − 9 = 7 ,

which has been added to the diagram above. We can now read off the following answers:
√
opposite 7
sin θ = = ,
hypotenuse 4
and √
opposite 7
tan θ = = .
adjacent 3