Big Question Blog Post: Unit T
1. How do the trig graphs relate to the Unit Circle?
1) The period of a trig function is the horizontal length of one complete cycle. The trig functions of sine and cosine have a period of 2π because their waves repeats every 2π units. The same can be said of periods of tangeant and cotangeant because their waves repeat at every pi and so that is their period. The following picture shows this.
Picture illustrates period
2) The amplitude of a sinusoidal function is one-half of the positive difference between the maximum and minimum values of a function. It is the peak from the center of the graph. At first, trig functions were just related to triangles but now we can relate them to amplitudes and unit circles. The curves go one unit above and below their midlines (here, the x-axis). This value of "1" is called the "amplitude". It is also illustrated in the above graph
References: http://www.purplemath.com/modules/grphtrig.htm
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