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    IB Math AIHL
    /
    Trig equations & identities
    /

    Skills

    Skill Checklist

    Track your progress across all skills in your objective. Mark your confidence level and identify areas to focus on.

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    📖 = included in formula booklet • 🚫 = not in formula booklet

    Track your progress:

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    📖 = included in formula booklet • 🚫 = not in formula booklet

    Trig equations & identities

    Skill Checklist

    Track your progress across all skills in your objective. Mark your confidence level and identify areas to focus on.

    12 Skills Available

    Track your progress:

    Don't know

    Working on it

    Confident

    📖 = included in formula booklet • 🚫 = not in formula booklet

    Track your progress:

    Don't know

    Working on it

    Confident

    📖 = included in formula booklet • 🚫 = not in formula booklet

    The Unit Circle

    7 skills
    Sine and Cosine on the Unit Circle
    AHL AI 3.8

    The key idea with triangles who's hypotenuse lie on the unit circle (that form an angle of θ with the x-axis) is that cosθ represents length of the base, and sinθ represents the height.


    Take a look at the graph below and notice the following relationships always hold:

    cosθsinθ​=x-coordinate=y-coordinate​


    Powered by Desmos

    Watch video explanation →
    Key values of Sin, Cos & Tan
    AHL AI 3.8

    The following table shows the values of sinθ and cosθ for the so called critical angles θ. These are angles that give "nice" values for sin and cos:


    θ (rad)

    sinθ

    cosθ

    0

    0

    1

    6π​

    21​

    2√3​

    4π​

    2√2​

    2√2​

    3π​

    2√3​

    21​

    2π​

    1

    0


    Powered by Desmos


    Watch video explanation →
    Quadrants
    AHL AI 3.8

    The unit circle can be divided into quadrants based on the sign of cosθ and sinθ. These correspond to the 4 quadrants produced by the intersection of the x and y axes. The quadrants are denoted Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4.

    Quadrant

    sin

    cos

    Q1

    +

    +

    Q2

    +

    -

    Q3

    -

    -

    Q4

    -

    +

    Powered by Desmos

    Watch video explanation →
    Periodicity
    SL AI 2.5

    Since a full circle is 2π radians, adding 2π to any angle θ gives the same point on the unit circle. In fact, adding any integer multiple of 2π gives the same point:

    cos(θ+2kπ)sin(θ+2kπ)​=cosθ=sinθ​k∈Z🚫
    Watch video explanation →
    Symmetry About the X-axis
    AHL AI 3.8
    sin(−θ)cos(−θ)​=−sinθ=cosθ​🚫
    Watch video explanation →
    Symmetry About the Y-axis
    AHL AI 3.8
    sin(π−θ)cos(π−θ)​=sinθ=−cosθ​🚫
    Watch video explanation →
    Symmetry About the Origin
    AHL AI 3.8
    sin(θ+π)cos(θ+π)​=−sinθ=−cosθ​🚫
    Watch video explanation →

    Trigonometric Functions

    3 skills
    Sine and Cosine functions
    SL AI 2.5

    Powered by Desmos

    Notice that both sinx and cosx have a domain of x∈R and a range of (−1,1).

    Watch video explanation →
    Sinusoidal Functions
    SL AI 2.5

    A sinusoidal function is a generalization of sin and cos to the form

    asin(b(x+c))+d

    Powered by Desmos

    or

    acos(b(x+c))+d

    Powered by Desmos

    Watch video explanation →
    Tan function
    AHL AI 3.8

    The tan function is defined by tanx=cosxsinx​.

    The domain is thus x=22k+1​π (there are vertical asymptotes at those x′s), and the range is all real numbers R.

    The function has roots at x=0,±π,±2π… (ie x=kπ where k∈Z)

    Powered by Desmos

    Watch video explanation →

    Trig Equations

    1 skill
    Solving trig equations algebraically in specific domain
    AHL AI 3.8

    When we have a trig equation where the argument to the trig function is of the form ax+b, we need to find the domain of ax+b using the domain of x. For example, if 0≤x<2π and we have sin(2x+2π​)=1, then

    2⋅0+2π​≤2x+2π​<2⋅2π+2π​

    therefore

    2π​≤2x+2π​<29π​
    Watch video explanation →

    Trigonometric Identities

    1 skill
    sin²θ+cos²θ=1
    AHL AI 3.8

    For any value of θ:

    sin2θ+cos2θ=1📖
    Watch video explanation →