Trigonometry: The word trigonometry is taken from Greek words ‘trigon’
and ‘metron’ and the meaning for the words is ‘measuring the sides of a
triangle’. Therefore trigonometry deals with the study of the measurement of
triangles. The subject was originally created to solve geometric problems
related to triangles. It was studied by sea captains for navigation, engineers
and by surveyor to map out the new lands. But today its scope has been
widened to a great extent and now it also includes the study of polygon and
circle.
Angle in Geometry: Consider a line extending indefinitely in both
directions. A point ‘O’ is dividing the line into two parts. The part of the line
on one side of the point O is called a ray or half-line. Thus O divides the line
into two rays OA and OA’.
The point O is called vertex or origin of each of these rays. An angle is a
figure formed by two rays having common vertex (origin). The rays are
called sides of the angle.
An angle is denoted by the symbol ‘ ’ and it is followed by three capital
letters, of which one in the middle denotes the vertex or origin of the
angle and two other are points on the sides. It can also be simply denoted by
one capital letter for vertex.
Example: The following figure is of an angle which is represented as .
With each angle a number is associated and this number is called measure
of the angle.
Angles are measured in degrees or in radian. One complete rotation is
measured as 360° or 2π. Angle measure can be positive or negative,
depending on the direction of rotation. The angle measure is the amount of
rotation between the two rays forming the angle.
Angle in Trigonometry: In trigonometry idea of angle is different from the
concept of angle in Geometry and it can be positive or negative as well
and of any magnitude.
As in case of geometry, in trigonometry also the measure of the angle is
the amount of rotation from the direction of one ray of the angle to the
other. The initial and final positions of the revolving ray are respectively
called the initial side (arm) and terminal side (arm) and the revolving line
is called the generating line or the radius vector.
For example, if OA and OB be the initial and final positions of the revolving
ray then angle formed will be .
Angles exceeding 360°: In geometry we measure
angles from to . But same is not the case in trigonometry because here
rotation involves more than one revolution, for example, the rotation of a
flywheel. In trigonometry we have the concept of angles greater than .
These angles can be formed in the following way:
The revolving line (radius vector) starts from the initial position and
makes n complete revolutions in anticlockwise direction and also a further
angle α in the same direction. We then have a certain angle given by
Where and n is a positive integer or zero.
Thus there are infinitely many angles with initial side and final side
.
For example, , , etc.
Sign of Angles: Angles which are formed by anticlockwise rotation of the
radius vector are taken as positive whereas angles formed
by clockwise rotation of the radius vector are taken to be as negative.
Quadrants: Let XOX’ and YOY’ be two mutually perpendicular lines in a
plane and OX be initial half line. The whole plane is divided into 4 different
parts or regions as XOY, YOX’, X’OY’ and Y’OX. These regions are
called quadrants and are respectively called 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th quadrant.
The angle is said to lie in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th quadrant according as the
terminal side coincides with one of the axes, then angle is called a quadrant
angle. For any angle ‘ ’ which is not a
quadrant angle and when number of revolution is not more than one and
radius vector rotates in anticlockwise direction.
; if lies in the 1st quadrant
; if lies in the 2nd quadrant
; if lies in the 3rd quadrant
; if lies in the 4th quadrant
when terminal side coincides with OY, angle formed =
when terminal side coincides with OX’, angle formed =
when terminal side coincides with OY’, angle formed =
when terminal side coincides with OX, angle formed =
Radian or Circular Measure:
The angle subtended at the center by an arc of circle whose length is equal
to the radius of the circle is called a radian and is denoted by .
We shall show that this angle is independent of the radius of the circle
considered.
Let O be the center of a circle of radius r and let the length of arc AB = r
Then by the definition of radian