Let us consider a small right-triangle ABC with AB = 4 cm, BC = 3 cm and AC = 5 cm as in the

picture.

The triangle can be drawn in a paper and we can calculate the angles θ and α using the given
sides and we can calculate the sides if the angles are given. As it is a right-triangle, the angle
values are θ ≈ 36. 87 and α ≈ 53. 13 degrees respectively.

In the case of larger triangles, they cannot be drawn easily on paper. Then how can we do the
calculations of those large triangles? One simplest way is to scale down the large triangle and
calculate the measurements. Let’s say we would like to know the height of a building we saw.
The building is 40 meters away from our location, and we can see the top of the building with an
angle of elevation of 36.87 degrees. So, it is a right-triangle similar to our small triangle above.
As the angle and one side of the large triangle resemble our small triangle, we can say the
building’s height is 30 meters and the hypotenuse is 50 meters. We can say that the large triangle
is 1000 times bigger than our small triangle.
The right triangles of trigonometry with a hypotenuse of measure 1 represent all possible right
triangles because the triangle with the hypotenuse of measure 1 is the triangle inside the circle
with a radius 1.
As per above example, we know that if the two triangles are similar, their sides are proportions to
one another. Let’s check the two triangles ABC and DEF below.

These two triangles are similar and the angles θ and α from the triangle ABC is the same to the
𝑎 𝑑 𝑐 𝑓 𝑎 𝑑
angles θ and α of the triangle DEF respectively. Therefore, 𝑏
= 𝑒
, 𝑏
= 𝑒
, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐
= 𝑓
.
These are also the 𝑠𝑖𝑛, 𝑐𝑜𝑠, and 𝑡𝑎𝑛 values of the angle θ. Let’s say, the triangle DEF is 2 times
larger than the triangle ABC, and let the angle θ be 45 degrees. As the triangle DEF is 2 times
larger than the triangle ABC, 𝑑 = 2𝑎, 𝑒 = 2𝑏, and 𝑓 = 2𝑐. Let the hypotenuse of the triangle
ABC, 𝑏 = 1. As we have known the value of an angle and one side of the right-triangle, we can
calculate other sides of the triangle using the right triangles of trigonometry. If we put the
triangle ABC inside of a circle with radius 1, it will be 𝑥 = 𝑐, and 𝑦 = 𝑎. With the point of view
from the angle θ in a unit circle, (𝑥, 𝑦) = (𝑐𝑜𝑠 θ, 𝑠𝑖𝑛 θ). Therefore, 𝑎 = 𝑠𝑖𝑛(45) ≈ 0. 71, and
𝑐 = 𝑐𝑜𝑠(45) ≈ 0. 71.

We can also verify this with:

𝑜𝑝𝑝 𝑎 𝑎
𝑠𝑖𝑛(θ) = ℎ𝑦𝑝
= 𝑏
= 1
= 𝑎, and
𝑎𝑑𝑗 𝑐 𝑐
𝑐𝑜𝑠(θ) = ℎ𝑦𝑝
= 𝑏
= 1
= 𝑐.
And then, based on the similarities of these two triangles, we can calculate the values of the sides
of the triangle DEF. And this proves that the right triangle of trigonometry with a hypotenuse of
measure 1 represents all possible right triangles.

Reference:
Abramson, J. (2017). Algebra and trigonometry. OpenStax, TX: Rice University. Retrieved from
https://openstax.org/details/books/algebra-and-trigonometry