MATHEMATICS

PROJECT
TRIGONOMETRIC FUNCTIONS

GUIDED BY:
MR. RAM KISHORE

SUBMITTED BY:
M.WASEY KHAN
XI ‘B’
The Sine Curve
y = a sin t
•Let's investigate the shape of the curve y = a sin t and see what the concept
of "amplitude" means. The sine curve occurs naturally when we are
examining waves.
•Have a play with the following Flash interactive. Run the animation first
(click "Start"). Then change the circle radius (which changes the amplitude
of the sine curve) using the slider. Then run the animation again.
•The scale for this is radians. Remember that π radians is 180°, so in the
graph, the value of 3.14 on the t-axis represents 180° and 6.28 is equivalent
to 360°.
Did you notice:
• That the shape of the sine curve forms a regular pattern (the curve repeats after the
wheel has gone around once)? We say such curves are periodic. The period is the time
it takes to go through one cycle and then start over again.
• That in the interactive, when the radius of the circle was 50 units then the curve went
up to 50 units and down to -50 units on the y-axis? This quantity of a sine curve is
called the amplitude of the graph. This indicates how much energy the graph has.
Higher amplitude means greater energy.
• That the rotation angle in radians is the same as the time (in seconds, well
approximately). See more on radians. All the graphs in this chapter deal with angles
in radians. Radians are much more useful in engineering and science than degrees.
 AMPLITUDE
• The a in the expression y = a sin x represents the amplitude of
the graph. It is an indication of how much energy the wave
contains.
• The amplitude is the distance from the "resting" position
(otherwise known as the mean value or average value) of the
curve. In the interactive above, the amplitude can be varied
from 10 to 100 units.
• Amplitude is always a positive quantity. We could write this
using absolute value signs. For the curves y = a sin x,
amplitude = |a|
 GRAPH OF SINE X - WITH VARYING AMPLITUDES

We start with y = sin x.

It has amplitude = 1 and period = 2π.

Now let's look at the graph of y = 5 sin x.

This time we have amplitude = 5 and period =

2π. (I have used a different scale on the y-axis.)
 And now for y = 10 sin x.

Amplitude = 10 and period = 2π.

For comparison, and using the same y-axis scale, here are the graphs of p(x) = sin x, q(x) = 5
sin x and r(x) = 10 sin x on the one set of axes.
Note that the graphs have the same period (which is 2π) but different amplitude.
 • The domain of sin is all real numbers.
• The range of sin is [-1, 1]
• The zeros of sin are the multiples of π
• The sin function is periodic with period 2π
• The sin function is positive in quadrants I and II and negative in
quadrants III and IV
• The sin function is not one-to-one (does not pass the horizontal line
test) and therefore has no inverse.
• The sin function with its domain restricted to is one to one and has
an inverse Another symbol used for the inverse of sin is arcsin
The Cosine Curve
y = a sin t
• Now let's see what the graph of y = a cos x looks like.

• Similar to the sine interactive at the top of the page, we

can change the amplitude using the slider.
Did you notice:
• That the sine and cosine graphs are almost identical, except the cosine curve is
shifted to the left by π/2 (= 1.57 = 90°)
 GRAPH OF COSINE X - WITH VARYING AMPLITUDES
• Now let's have a look at the graph of y = cos x.

• We note that the amplitude = 1 and period = 2π.

Similar to what we did with y = sin x above, we now see the graphs of
• p(x) = cos x
• q(x) = 5 cos x
• r(x) = 10 cos x
on one set of axes, for comparison:

Note: For the cosine curve, just like the sine curve, the period of each graph is the same
(2π), but the amplitude has changed.
 • The domain of cos is all real numbers.
• The range of cos is [-1, 1]
• The zeros of cos are the odd multiples of
• The cos function is periodic with period 2π
• The cos function is positive in quadrants I and IV and
negative in quadrants II and III
• The cos function is not one-to-one (does not pass the
horizontal line test) and therefore has no inverse.
• The cos function with its domain restricted to [0,π] is one to
one and has an inverse
• Another symbol used for the inverse of cos is arccos
The Tangent Curve
y = a tan t
As we know,

tan x = sin x / cos x

This means the function will have a discontinuity where cos x = 0. That is, when x takes any
of the values:

x = ..., -5π/2, -3π/2, -π/2, π/2, 3π/2, 5π/2, ...

It is very important to keep these values in mind when sketching this graph.
Graph of y = tan x:

• Note that there are vertical asymptotes (the gray dotted lines) where the denominator
of tan x has value zero.
• Note also that the graph of y = tan x is periodic with period π. This means it repeats
itself after each π as we go left to right on the graph.
• We can see an animation of the tangent function in this
interactive.

• We can change the amount of energy in the wave by

changing the radius of the circle with the slider. The units
on the horizontal axis are radians (in decimal form).
Recall that:

π radians = 3.14 radians = 180°.

So the graph shown is from 0 to 2π. The vertical lines that

appear are the asymptotes.
 • Recall that the domain of a rational function is all real numbers except the zeros of
its denominator. Since the denominator of the tangent function is the cosine
function, the domain of tan is all real numbers except the zeros of the cos function.
The domain of tan is all real numbers except odd multiples of .
• Furthermore tan has vertical asymptotes at the odd multiples of .
• The range of tan is all real numbers.
• The tan function is periodic with period π
• The tan function is positive in quadrants I and III and negative in quadrants II and
IV
• The tan function is increasing everywhere it is defined.
• The tan function is not one-to-one (does not pass the horizontal line test) and
therefore has no inverse.
• The tan function with its domain restricted to is one to one and has an inverse
• Another symbol used for the inverse of tan is arctan
The Cotangent Curve
y = a cot t
As we know,

cot x = cos x / sin x

We now have to consider when sin x has value zero, because this will determine where our
asymptotes should go.
The function will have a discontinuity where sin x = 0, that is, when

x = ..., -3π, -2π, -π, 0, π, 2π, 3π, 4π, 5π, ...

Considering the values of cos x and sin x for different values of x we can sketch the graph of
y = cot x as follows.
Graph of y = cot x:
We can getter a better understanding of the cotangent curve using this
interactive.
Run the animation and observe the features of the graph. Then change
the radius of the circle (and run the animation again) to see the effect
of different energy levels. The asymptotes are a key feature of this
graph.
Note that the cotangent curve, like all trigonometric graphs, is
periodic.
 • Recall that the domain of a rational function is all real numbers except the zeros of
its denominator. Since the denominator of the cotangent function is the sine
function, the domain of cot is all real numbers except the zeros of the sin function.
The domain of cot is all real numbers except multiples of π.
• Furthermore cot has vertical asymptotes at the odd multiples of π.
• The range of cot is all real numbers.
• The cot function is periodic with period π
• The cot function is positive in quadrants I and III and negative in quadrants II and
IV
• The cot function is decreasing everywhere it is defined.
• The cot function is not one-to-one (does not pass the horizontal line test) and
therefore has no inverse.
• The cot function with its domain restricted to [0,π ]is one to one and has an
inverse
• Another symbol used for the inverse of cot is arccot
The Secant Curve
y = a sec t
We could laboriously draw up a table with millions of values, or we could work smart and
recall that

sec x = 1 / cos x

We know the sketch for y = cos x and we can easily derive the sketch for y = sec x, by finding
the reciprocal of each y value. (That is, finding 1/y for each value of y on the curve y = cos x.)

For example (angles are in radians):

x 0 1 1.55 2 3 4
y =cosx 1 0.54 0.02 -0.42 -0.99 -0.65
1/y =secx 1 1.85 48.09 -2.4 -1.01 -1.53
I included a value close to π/2 so that we could get an idea of
what goes on there. When cos x is very small, sec x will be
very large.

After applying this concept throughout the range of x-values,

we can proceed to sketch the graph of y = sec x.

First, we graph y = cos x and then y = sec x immediately below

it. Compare the y-values in each of the 2 graphs and assure that
they are the reciprocal of each other.
 y = cos x y = sec x

We draw vertical asymptotes at the values where y = sec x is not defined. That is, when x
= ..., -5π/2, -3π/2, -π/2, π/2, 3π/2, 5π/2, ...

we will notice that these are the same asymptotes that we drew for y = tan x, which is not
surprising, because they both have cos x on the bottom of the fraction.
 • Since the denominator of the secant function is the cosine function, the
domain of secant is all real numbers except the zeros of the cos function.
The domain of secant is all real numbers except odd multiples of .
• Furthermore secant has vertical asymptotes at the odd multiples of .
• The range of secant is all real numbers not in the interval [-1,1].
• The secant function is periodic with period 2π
• The sec function is positive in quadrants I and IV and negative in quadrants
II and III
• The secant function is not one-to-one (does not pass the horizontal line test)
and therefore has no inverse.
• The secant function with its domain restricted to [0,π ]is one to one and has
an inverse
• Another symbol used for the inverse of secant is arcsec
The Cosecant Curve
y = a cosec t
We could laboriously draw up a table with millions of values, or we could work smart and
recall that

cosec x = 1 / sin x

We know the sketch for y = sin x and we can easily derive the sketch for y = cosec x, by
finding the reciprocal of each y value. (That is, finding 1/y for each value of y on the curve
y = sin x.)
Graph of y = cosec x:
 • Since the denominator of the cosecant function is the sine function, the domain
of cosecant is all real numbers except the zeros of the sin function. The domain
of cosecant is all real numbers except odd multiples of π.
• Furthermore cosecant has vertical asymptotes at the odd multiples of π.
• The range of cosecant is all real numbers not in the interval [-1,1].
• The cosecant function is periodic with period 2π
• The csc function is positive in quadrants I and II and negative in quadrants III
and IV
• The cosecant function is not one-to-one (does not pass the horizontal line test)
and therefore has no inverse.
• The cosecant function with its domain restricted to is one to one and has an
inverse
• Another symbol used for the inverse of cosecant is arccsc