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Anthony Khoo
Precalculus
Alma Gonzalez: Period 3
14 November, 2015
The Beautiful Unit Circle IAKT

The unit circle is a wonderful tool to help individuals understand the sines and cosines of
angles found in right triangles. The unit circle has a center at the origin (0,0) and a radius of one
unit hence the name Unit Circle. Angles are measured starting from the positive x-axis in
quadrant I and follows through around the unit circle. Understanding the Unit Circle however
can pose a problem to many people due to its complex image. However, contrary to popular
belief, the Unit Circle is straightforward once you begin figuring out simple strategies to help
you figure out each portion of the Unit Circle.

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To understand what degrees are in a Unit Circle you must understand the pattern. The
easiest section to fill in is the 90 degree angles as shown in pink in the image. Each angle that
goes by 90 degree is in: (0,1), (1,0), (-1,0), and (0,-1). The next step towards finding the degrees
is by going 30 degrees all around the circle as shown in the red numbers in the image, we do this
because it creates a special triangle called the 30-60-90 triangle. The last step is to add 45
degrees as shown in the image around the Unit Circle to help create another special triangle
called the 45-45-90 triangle. However, were only from finishing the Unit Circle.

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Its very important to have the lines in the Unit Circle not only in degrees but in
radiant as well. A simple technique would be to keep in mind that = 180 degrees. With this
information in mind, we can automatically fill in some of these blanks as portrayed in the image
to the left in pink. For example, = 180 degrees so it would go where 180 degrees is on the
circle, 2 = 360 degrees so we would put this where 360 degrees and etc. We could continue to
do this with the rest of the angles but there is a simpler technique to fill them in. Starting from
the 30 degree angle, we just simply put /6 because that 180/6 = 30 degrees, now we simply add
1 to in /6 every 30 degrees. For example, 60 degrees would have 2/6 which simplifies to /3.
A similar technique applies to every angle that goes by 45 degrees, instead of adding 1 to /6 we
would add it to /4 and simplify when needed for example, after /4 would be 2/4 which
simplifies to /2. There is one more step from completing the Unit Circle, coordinate points.
Coordinate points at first hand may seem scary and hard to
understand, but once you look at the Unit Circle in a different picture, it
becomes much more easier to remember. Something useful to remember is
that cosine is the X of the angle and
sine is the Y of the angle. The
coordinate points being positive and
negative depends on which quadrant
the angle lies on for example,
Quadrant I contains all positive
numbers, Quadrant II contains all
negative X values and positive Y
values because it lies on the upper left side of the origin, Quadrant III

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however contains all negative values because it lies on the bottom left side
of the origin, and lastly Quadrant IV contains negative values for its Y value
and positive values for its X values because it lies on the bottom right side
of the origin. The easiest coordinate point to fill out would be all the angles
that go by 45, the X and Y will always be 2/2 because if we draw the angle
as a triangle it would be a 45-45-90 triangle thus having the same X and Y
coordinate. You can also draw the other angles as triangles as well to figure
out their coordinate as long as you keep in mind which is X and Y. If we were
to draw all the other angles that went by 30 degrees then all we would have
to remember is that the longest side is always 3/2 and the shortest side
would always be . /6 has a coordinate point of (3/2, ) because its X
coordinate is the long side which means it would be 3/2 and the Y is the
short side so it would be . /3 however would have a coordinate point of
(,3/2) because the X coordinate now has the shortest side and the Y value
has the longest side.
In short, the Unit Circle may seem difficult at first to comprehend, but with a little
practice and knowledge of these techniques, it can become quite simple to remember all the
values in the Unit Circle. The Unit Circle is a great tool that should be taught to everyone
advancing into the depths of mathematics. It can be an easy tool to learn with the right amount of
patience and drive to comprehend.

Work Cited

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"Unit Circle." Unit Circle. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2015.