Wednesday, May 24

Students took the Similarity test (chapter 11) on Friday. This week we have learned the right-triangle definition of the trigonometric functions sine, cosine and tangent. As of now these functions take as input one of the non-right angles in a right triangle and their output is a specific ratio of sides in all such similar right triangles.

So, based on this definition, if $sin(35^circ) approx .57$ that means that in any right triangle with a $35^circ$ angle, the ratio of $dfrac{text{opposite side}}{text{adjacent side}}$ is approximately .57. In the figure below this means that $dfrac{AC}{BC} approx .57$ .