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Sine and Cosine

Age 14 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow star
  • Problem
  • Teachers' Resources

The Flash "movie" allows students to see the flow of function values as the dot circles the centre point or origin. Students can be encouraged to see the "spot" values provided by a calculator as snap-shots of this flow.

Check that students grasp that an angle of zero is when the dot is at (1,0), that the red line corresponds to the Sine value and the blue line to the Cosine value.

There may be a need to guide students into noticing that there is a the change of sign, and noticing when it occurs.

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Three points A, B and C lie in this order on a line, and P is any point in the plane. Use the Cosine Rule to prove the following statement.

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The NRICH Project aims to enrich the mathematical experiences of all learners. To support this aim, members of the NRICH team work in a wide range of capacities, including providing professional development for teachers wishing to embed rich mathematical tasks into everyday classroom practice.

NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.

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