Trigonometric Ratios (SOH CAH TOA)

There are three trigonometric ratios that compare side lengths in a right triangle.

These ratios are called Sine, Cosine and Tangent.

They are abbreviated as sin, cos and tan.

Each ratio must refer to a specific angle of the triangle in order to be calculated.

If you see: “sin A”, you read it as: “the sine of angle A” And sin 53º is: the sine of 53º

side opposite ∠A B
sin A =
hypotenuse
hypotenuse
side opposite
to angle A c
side adjacent to ∠A
cos A = a
hypotenuse
A
C b
side opposite ∠A side adjacent
tan A =
side adjacent to ∠A to angle A

Find the proper ratio for the triangle shown below.

1) sin X = 2) sin Z = 3) cos Z =

4) cos X = 5) tan X = 6) tan Z =

13
5

X
Y 12
 5
Each of the ratios you have written has been part of an equation, like: sin X =
13

You will now be asked to write and solve equations of this type.

Example 1:

In the triangle at the right, angle B is 50º

A

We need to write an equation using a trig ratio to find X.

We are trying to find the side __________________ our angle. X

We know the length of the ___________________ side. B 27 C

The ____________________ ratio uses these two side lengths.

Write down the equation naming the proper trig ratio of 50º on one side and the actual
ratio of lengths on the other side. Use your calculator or a table to look up the decimal
value of this trig ratio for the measure your reference angle. Then solve the equation for x.

Example 2:
5
Given: sin X = Find X. Divide to get a decimal. sin X = .38461538…..
13

Look on the table to find the angle measure. X ≈ _____________

 Trigonometric Ratios
(rounded to 4 decimal places)

degree degree
sine cosine tangent sine cosine tangent
measure measure
0 0 1.0000 0 45 0.7071 0.7071 1.0000
1 0.0175 0.9998 0.0175 46 0.7193 0.6947 1.0355
2 0.0349 0.9994 0.0349 47 0.7314 0.6820 1.0724
3 0.0523 0.9986 0.0524 48 0.7431 0.6691 1.1106
4 0.0698 0.9976 0.0699 49 0.7547 0.6561 1.1504
5 0.0872 0.9962 0.0875 50 0.7660 0.6428 1.1918
6 0.1045 0.9945 0.1051 51 0.7771 0.6293 1.2349
7 0.1219 0.9925 0.1228 52 0.7880 0.6157 1.2799
8 0.1392 0.9903 0.1405 53 0.7986 0.6018 1.3270
9 0.1564 0.9877 0.1584 54 0.8090 0.5878 1.3764
10 0.1736 0.9848 0.1763 55 0.8192 0.5736 1.4281
11 0.1908 0.9816 0.1944 56 0.8290 0.5592 1.4826
12 0.2079 0.9781 0.2126 57 0.8387 0.5446 1.5399
13 0.2250 0.9744 0.2309 58 0.8480 0.5299 1.6003
14 0.2419 0.9703 0.2493 59 0.8572 0.5150 1.6643
15 0.2588 0.9659 0.2679 60 0.8660 0.5000 1.7321
16 0.2756 0.9613 0.2867 61 0.8746 0.4848 1.8040
17 0.2924 0.9563 0.3057 62 0.8829 0.4695 1.8807
18 0.3090 0.9511 0.3249 63 0.8910 0.4540 1.9626
19 0.3256 0.9455 0.3443 64 0.8988 0.4384 2.0503
20 0.3420 0.9397 0.3640 65 0.9063 0.4226 2.1445
21 0.3584 0.9336 0.3839 66 0.9135 0.4067 2.2460
22 0.3746 0.9272 0.4040 67 0.9205 0.3907 2.3559
23 0.3907 0.9205 0.4245 68 0.9272 0.3746 2.4751
24 0.4067 0.9135 0.4452 69 0.9336 0.3584 2.6051
25 0.4226 0.9063 0.4663 70 0.9397 0.3420 2.7475
26 0.4384 0.8988 0.4877 71 0.9455 0.3256 2.9042
27 0.4540 0.8910 0.5095 72 0.9511 0.3090 3.0777
28 0.4695 0.8829 0.5317 73 0.9563 0.2924 3.2709
29 0.4848 0.8746 0.5543 74 0.9613 0.2756 3.4874
30 0.5000 0.8660 0.5774 75 0.9659 0.2588 3.7321
31 0.5150 0.8572 0.6009 76 0.9703 0.2419 4.0108
32 0.5299 0.8480 0.6249 77 0.9744 0.2250 4.3315
33 0.5446 0.8387 0.6494 78 0.9781 0.2079 4.7046
34 0.5592 0.8290 0.6745 79 0.9816 0.1908 5.1446
35 0.5736 0.8192 0.7002 80 0.9848 0.1736 5.6713
36 0.5878 0.8090 0.7265 81 0.9877 0.1564 6.3138
37 0.6018 0.7986 0.7536 82 0.9903 0.1392 7.1154
38 0.6157 0.7880 0.7813 83 0.9925 0.1219 8.1443
39 0.6293 0.7771 0.8098 84 0.9945 0.1045 9.5144
40 0.6428 0.7660 0.8391 85 0.9962 0.0872 11.4301
41 0.6561 0.7547 0.8693 86 0.9976 0.0698 14.3007
42 0.6691 0.7431 0.9004 87 0.9986 0.0523 19.0811
43 0.6820 0.7314 0.9325 88 0.9994 0.0349 28.6363
44 0.6947 0.7193 0.9657 89 0.9998 0.0175 57.2900
45 0.7071 0.7071 1.0000 90 1.0000 0 undefined
Trigonometry Practice Quiz Name___________________________________

Find the two missing lengths in each diagram.

For each of the six answers, I need to see which trig ratio you used and the equation you solved.

1)

66 °
a
b

90 °
156 m

2)

90 °
b
a

48 °

84 m

3)

support wire
Flagpole

38 ° 90 °
68 m
4) A swimmer is stuck in the current between the islands in New York Harbor.
A tourist looking down from the Statue of Liberty (315 feet above the water) can see the swimmer.
The angle of depression from the tourist to the swimmer is 6º
(This means that the angle of elevation from the swimmer to the tourist is also 6º )

What is the horizontal distance from the tourist to the swimmer?

Draw a diagram and show the trig equation you used.

5) Find the measure of angle A in the right triangle below.

B 17 A
The Law of Sines

Up until now, you have only been able to find missing measures for right triangles.

The law of sines can help you to find missing measures for ANY triangle.

a b c
The law of sines: = =
sin(A) sin(B) sin(C)

Remember that an UPPERCASE letter refers to an angle of a triangle.

The lowercase letters refer to side lengths.

You can assign any letter to any vertex because there is no “hypotenuse” if the triangle is
not a right triangle.

BUT…
Side a is opposite angle A, side b is opposite angle B and side c is opposite angle C
B

c a

A C
b

The Law of Cosines

The Pythagorean Theorem is actually just a special simplified version of another equation.
2 2 2
The equation c = a + b is very limited because it only works for right triangles.

The general form of the equation that will work for any triangle at all is:

c2 = a2 + b2 – (2ab)(cos C)
This equation is called the law of cosines.

Remember that an UPPERCASE letter refers to an angle of a triangle.

The lowercase letters refer to side lengths.
Trigonometry Summary:
In Right Triangle Trigonometry, we compare side lengths in a triangle using 3 ratios.

Sine, Cosine and Tangent are the names of the ratios. (Abbreviated: sin, cos & tan.)

Each ratio must refer to a specific angle in the triangle.

We use the mnemonic

“SOH CAH TOA”
to help us remember these ratios.

• Even if the triangle is NOT a right triangle, we can still find missing measures.

Law of sines Law of cosines

a
=
b c2 = a2 + b2 – (2ab)(cos C)
sin(A) sin(B)

To find the sin of an angle measure greater than 90º … sin(x) = sin(180 – x)

To find the cos of an angle measure greater than 90º … cos(x) = (-1) cos(180 – x)

If the triangle is NOT a right triangle, then there is no hypotenuse.

B
We can label the sides however we like
a
as long as side a is opposite angle A, c
side b is opposite angle B
C
and side c is opposite angle C.
b
A

We can find the area of ANY triangle using these formulas:

1 We need 2 side lengths and the included angle measure.

Area = bc(sin A)
2
We need all 3 side lengths. S is the “semi-perimeter”
Area = (s)(s − a)(s − b)(s − c)