Trigonometry Required for Physics Problems - dummies

# Trigonometry Required for Physics Problems

Physics problems sometimes require you to have some trigonometry under your belt. To see what kind of trig you need, take a look at the figure, which shows a right triangle. The long side is called the hypotenuse, and the angle between x and y is 90 degrees.

Physics problems require you to be able to work with sines, cosines, and tangents. Here’s what they look like for the image:

You can find the length of one side of the triangle if you’re given another side and an angle (not including the right angle). Here’s how to relate the sides:

And here’s one more equation, the Pythagorean theorem. It gives you the length of the hypotenuse when you plug in the other two sides:

## Practice questions

1. Given the hypotenuse h and the angle theta in the diagram above, what is the length x equal to?

2. 2.If x = 3 m and y = 4 m in the diagram above, what is the length of h?

Following are the answers to the practice questions:

1. x = h cos theta