Mnemonics in trigonometry

In trigonometry, it is common to use mnemonics to help remember trigonometric identities and the
relationships between the various trigonometric functions.

SOH-CAH-TOA
The sine, cosine, and tangent ratios in a right triangle can be
remembered by representing them as strings of letters, for instance
SOH-CAH-TOA in English:

Sine = Opposite ÷ Hypotenuse

Cosine = Adjacent ÷ Hypotenuse
Tangent = Opposite ÷ Adjacent

One way to remember the letters is to sound them out phonetically

(i.e. /ˌsoʊkəˈtoʊə/ SOH-kə-TOH-ə, similar to Krakatoa).[1] Image mnemonic to help remember
the ratios of sides of a right triangle

Phrases

Another method is to expand the letters into a sentence, such as "Some Old Horses Chew Apples Happily
Throughout Old Age", "Some Old Hippy Caught Another Hippy Tripping On Acid", or "Studying Our
Homework Can Always Help To Obtain Achievement". The order may be switched, as in "Tommy On A
Ship Of His Caught A Herring" (tangent, sine, cosine) or "The Old Army Colonel And His Son Often
Hiccup" (tangent, cosine, sine) or "Come And Have Some Oranges Help To Overcome Amnesia" (cosine,
sine, tangent).[2][3] Communities in Chinese circles may choose to remember it as TOA-CAH-SOH, which
also means 'big-footed woman' (Chinese: 大腳嫂 ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: tōa-kha-só) in Hokkien.

An alternate way to remember the letters for Sin, Cos, and Tan is to memorize the syllables Oh, Ah, Oh-Ah
(i.e. /oʊ ə ˈoʊ.ə/) for O/H, A/H, O/A.[4] Longer mnemonics for these letters include "Oscar Has A Hold
On Angie" and "Oscar Had A Heap of Apples."[2]

All Students Take Calculus

All Students Take Calculus is a mnemonic for the sign of each trigonometric functions in each quadrant of
the plane. The letters ASTC signify which of the trigonometric functions are positive, starting in the top
right 1st quadrant and moving counterclockwise through quadrants 2 to 4.

Quadrant I (angles from 0 to 90 degrees, or 0 to π/2 radians): All trigonometric functions are
positive in this quadrant.
Quadrant II (angles from 90 to 180 degrees, or π/2 to π radians): Sine and cosecant
functions are positive in this quadrant.
Quadrant III (angles from 180 to 270 degrees, or π to 3π/2 radians): Tangent and cotangent
functions are positive in this quadrant.
 Quadrant IV (angles from 270 to 360 degrees, or 3π/2 to
2π radians): Cosine and secant functions are positive in
this quadrant.

Other mnemonics include:

All Stations To Central[5]

All Silly Tom Cats[5]
Add Sugar To Coffee[5]
All Science Teachers (are) Crazy[6]
A Smart Trig Class[7]
Signs of trigonometric functions in
Other easy-to-remember mnemonics are the ACTS and CAST each quadrant.
laws. These have the disadvantages of not going sequentially from
quadrants 1 to 4 and not reinforcing the numbering convention of
the quadrants.

CAST still goes counterclockwise but starts in quadrant 4 going through quadrants 4, 1, 2,
then 3.
ACTS still starts in quadrant 1 but goes clockwise going through quadrants 1, 4, 3, then 2.

Sines and cosines of special angles

Sines and cosines of common angles 0°, 30°, 45°, 60° and 90° follow the pattern with
n = 0, 1, ..., 4 for sine and n = 4, 3, ..., 0 for cosine, respectively:[8]

0° = 0 radians

π
30° = 6 radians

π
45° = 4 radians

π
60° = 3 radians

π undefined
90° = 2 radians

Hexagon chart
Another mnemonic permits all of the basic identities to be read off quickly. The hexagonal chart can be
constructed with a little thought:[9]
 1. Draw three triangles pointing down, touching at
a single point. This resembles a fallout shelter
trefoil.
2. Write a 1 in the middle where the three
triangles touch
3. Write the functions without "co" on the three left
outer vertices (from top to bottom: sine, tangent,
secant)
4. Write the co-functions on the corresponding
three right outer vertices (cosine, cotangent,
cosecant)

Starting at any vertex of the resulting hexagon:

The starting vertex equals one over the

Trigonometric identities mnemonic
opposite vertex. For example,

Going either clockwise or counter-clockwise,

the starting vertex equals the next vertex divided by the vertex after that. For example,

The starting corner equals the product of its two nearest neighbors. For example,

The sum of the squares of the two items at the top of a triangle equals the square of the item
at the bottom. These are the trigonometric Pythagorean identities:

Aside from the last bullet, the specific values for each identity are summarized in this table:
 ... equals first
Starting ... equals first ... equals second counter- ... equals the product of
1 second
function opposite clockwise/anticlockwise two nearest neighbors
clockwise

See also
List of trigonometric identities

References
1. Humble, Chris (2001). Key Maths : GCSE, Higher (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/47985033).
Fiona McGill. Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes Publishers. p. 51. ISBN 0-7487-3396-5.
OCLC 47985033 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/47985033).
2. Weisstein, Eric W. "SOHCAHTOA" (https://mathworld.wolfram.com/SOHCAHTOA.html).
MathWorld.
3. Foster, Jonathan K. (2008). Memory: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford. p. 128. ISBN 978-0-
19-280675-8.
4. Weisstein, Eric W. "Trigonometry" (https://mathworld.wolfram.com/Trigonometry.html).
MathWorld.
5. "Sine, Cosine and Tangent in Four Quadrants" (https://web.archive.org/web/2015011812124
1/http://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/trig-four-quadrants.html). Archived from the original (htt
p://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/trig-four-quadrants.html) on 2015-01-18. Retrieved
2015-01-18.
6. Heng, Cheng and Talbert, "Additional Mathematics" (https://books.google.com/books?id=ZZ
oxLiJBwOUC) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20230610195637/https://books.google.
com/books?id=ZZoxLiJBwOUC) 2023-06-10 at the Wayback Machine, page 228
7. "Math Mnemonics and Songs for Trigonometry" (https://www.onlinemathlearning.com/mnem
onics-for-trigonometry.html). Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20191017145136/https://
www.onlinemathlearning.com/mnemonics-for-trigonometry.html) from the original on 2019-
10-17. Retrieved 2019-10-17.
8. Ron Larson, Precalculus with Limits: A Graphing Approach, Texas Edition (https://books.goo
gle.com/books?id=bsZDAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA275)
9. "Magic Hexagon for Trig Identities" (https://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/trig-magic-hexagon.
html). Math is Fun. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20180205001201/https://www.math
 sisfun.com/algebra/trig-magic-hexagon.html) from the original on 2018-02-05. Retrieved
2018-02-04.

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