Trigonometry in the "Real World"

Today we looked at examples of "real world" applications of trigonometry. This involves looking at worded questions and solving these using the skills we have gained throughout this unit so far.

The first step to solving these problems is drawing a diagram. You want to include as much information as possible on these diagrams. This will involve interpreting the information given in the questions and putting this on paper.

The next step is converting the units so they are all the same. For example, if we are given one side length in meters and another side length in centimeters, we have to convert one of these so they are the same (i.e. convert the meters to centimeters, OR convert the centimeters to meters). If you are unsure as to how to convert units, I suggest you do some research on this as it would have been covered in previous years in your maths studies.

Once we have a diagram and have our units all the same, we can then solve the question. To solve these, we use the same 5 steps we use to solve basic trigonometry problems. These are:

1. Label the sides (i.e. label the hypotenuse, the adjacent and the opposite sides)
2. Find which sides we are using for this problem (i.e. which sides are we given some information about)
3. Find which ratio requires us to use these sides (i.e. if we are using the opposite and the hypotenuse, then we will have to use the Sin ratio)
4. Write out the equation required to solve the problem
5. Substitute in our values and solve our equation. 

There is a new worksheet on this under the worksheets tab. As always if you have any questions on this topic, feel free to see me or to post a comment on here.