4: Trigonometry
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- 4.3: Inverses of trigonometric functions
- While the original trigonometric functions f(t)=sin(t), g(t)=cos(t), and h(t)=tan(t) do not have inverse functions, it turns out that we can consider restricted versions of them that do have corresponding inverse functions. We thus investigate how we can think differently about the trigonometric functions so that we can discuss inverses in a meaningful way.
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- 4.4: Finding Angles
- Previously, we observed that in any right triangle, if we know the measure of one additional angle and the length of one additional side, we can determine all of the other parts of the triangle. With the inverse trigonometric functions, we are now also able to determine the missing angles in any right triangle where we know the lengths of two sides.
Thumbnail: For some problems it may help to remember that when a right triangle has a hypotenuse of length \(r\) and an acute angle \(θ\), as in the picture below, the adjacent side will have length \(r\cos θ\) and the opposite side will have length \( r\ sin θ\). You can think of those lengths as the horizontal and vertical "components'' of the hypotenuse. (GNU FDL; Michael Corral).