Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Sine, Cosine and Tangent in Four Quadrants
Sine, Cosine and Tangent in Four Quadrants
Sine, Cosine and Tangent in Four Quadrants
nuse
Divide the length of one side of a
ote
p
right angled triangle by another side Hy Opposite
Adjacent
Cartesian Coordinates
Using Cartesian Coordinates we mark a point on a graph by how far along and how far up
it is:
https://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/trig-four-quadrants.html 1/6
22/01/2020 Sine, Cosine and Tangent in Four Quadrants
10 y
12
5
(12,5)
5
0
0 5 10 15 x
The point (12,5) is 12 units along, and 5 units up.
Four Quadrants
When we include negative values, the x and y axes divide
the space up into 4 pieces:
Like this:
X Y
Quadrant Example
(horizontal) (vertical)
II Negative Positive
IV Positive Negative
https://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/trig-four-quadrants.html 2/6
22/01/2020 Sine, Cosine and Tangent in Four Quadrants
Example: The point "C" (−2,−1) is 2 units along in the negative direction, and 1 unit
down (i.e. negative direction).
In Quadrant I everything is normal, and Sine, Cosine and Tangent are all positive:
But in Quadrant II, the x direction is negative, and both cosine and tangent become
negative:
https://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/trig-four-quadrants.html 3/6
22/01/2020 Sine, Cosine and Tangent in Four Quadrants
There is a pattern! Look at when Sine Cosine and Tangent are positive ...
Some people like to remember the four letters ASTC by one of these:
https://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/trig-four-quadrants.html 4/6
22/01/2020 Sine, Cosine and Tangent in Four Quadrants
Two Values
Have a look at this graph of the Sine Function:
y
1
0.5
30° 150° 390°
0
x
-0.5
-1
-90° 0° 90° 180° 270° 360° 450°
There are two angles (within the first 360°) that have the same value!
The trouble is: Your calculator will only give you one of those values ...
... but you can use these rules to find the other value:
Sine θ 180º − θ
Cosine θ 360º − θ
Tangent θ θ − 180º
https://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/trig-four-quadrants.html 5/6
22/01/2020 Sine, Cosine and Tangent in Four Quadrants
We can now solve equations for angles between 0º and 360º (using Inverse Sine Cosine and
Tangent )
We get the first solution from the calculator = sin-1(0.5) = 30º (it is in Quadrant I)
This is less than 0º, so we add 360º: −52.4º + 360º = 307.6º (Quadrant IV)
We get the first solution from the calculator = cos-1(−0.85) = 148.2º (Quadrant II)
https://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/trig-four-quadrants.html 6/6