Feb.11/09 Test #1

Today, we had a test. It was on Degree, Radian Measurement and the Unit Circle (Exercise 1 and 2).

Tomorrow we will go on to Exercise 3: Spccial Angles and the Trigonometric Functions

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Creation of a Unit Circle



Today was basically a work period. The first thing we learned today was how to draw a unit circle that would be useful in the test tomorrow. In the previous lesson we learned what a unit circle was and how we can apply it to problems that will show up throughout the course. Now with the chart we created, we can take our knowledge, put it into a diagram, and see it visually on a piece of paper. An image of what we had to draw is posted beneath. The second thing we did was start a chart that would represent all the special angles found throughout the unit circle. The best way to fill in the chart is too do it from the knowledge you have accumulated up to this point, rather than just copy out from the book. This diagram and chart, especially the unit circle, are important to the success of you the individual. These need to be known and memorized because the only time we will be supplied a copy during testing is tomorrow. The rest of the class was allotted to us to draw our diagrams and fill in our chart, and we could ask our teacher any questions we might have needed answered from previous lessons. There will be a test tomorrow, so study hard, go to sleep a little earlier, have a balanced breakfast in the morning, and most importantly show up on time for math class tomorrow. Good luck classmates!!

If you don’t get any of the materials studied in class or just need another explanation of a concept for any reason, I would highly suggest that you would stay after school for an hour of tutoring. You will not know how helpful it is until you experience it for yourself :)




The unit circle:


http://everobotics.org/projects/roboMagellan/img/UnitCircle.gif





The chart we created(similar except we did a whole circle. IE 360 degrees):

http://www.easycalculation.com/trigonometry/trigonometry-tables.php



Remember!!!

sine.................y-coordinate

cosine.............x-coordinate

tangent..........sin/cos or y/x

cosecant........1/y

secant............1/x

cotangent......x/y

Good Way to Remember the Unit Circle!

While I was trying to do my homework tonight, I found this video on You Tube and found it to be extremely helpful in understanding the concepts of the Unit Circle. The link is posted below. I also found this great site with math terms, using examples and everything! So that link is included as well. I hope this helps you guys as much as they have helped me.

How to Remember the Unit Circle

Math Vocabulary Explained!

Unit Circle Intro

This is a list of different websites that Mr. Max gave us.

The main reason that it is the unit circle is because the radius is equal to 1 unit. A positive circle goes counter clockwise, so therefore a negative circle would go clockwise.





Basically, this is the definitions of the primary trig. functions as well as the recripricles.

this is basically showing us how sin is the y value and the cos is the x value.

The way we find out the coordinates from a larger triangle is to set up a ratio. In using this you can find out what they will be.

An example of the types of questions we may encounter.

This is the video of the lesson Mr. Max taught.

Thursday February 5th, 2009

Today we started off on going over the class policies. Then we started our first unit, which is circular functions. We learned what a radian was and how it was related to a degree. Here are the slides of the notes Mr. Max had done on his board and his recording.

The First Day of The Rest of Your Life...

Welcome to the blog! We'll use it this semester to learn from and with each other. Post freely and often, and feel free to leave comments for your classmates...

RM