Tangent Function

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Slope Review 1. Whats the slope of a perfectly horizontal (left/right) line? 2. Whats the slope of a perfectly vertical line? 3. Whats the slope of a line segment that has the endpoints (0,2) and (6,4) ?

4. Whats the slope of a line segment that has the endpoints (0,0) and (-3,2)?

1.

Important Stuff At every angle in the unit circle theres a radius. You can find the slope of each of the radiuses radii. For example, at 45 the radius passes through the points (0,0) and

2 2 2 , 2 , so slope(45) is 1. x = angle
0 30 45 60 90 120 135 150 180 210 225 240 270 300 315 330 360 Undefined 0 1

slope(x)

Definition: The

slope(x) function is also known as tan(x) .

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Tangent Function

Name:________________________

2. Is tan(x) positive or negative in the first quadrant? Second quadrant? Third quadrant?
Fourth Quadrant?

3. Graph y = tan(x) on the coordinate plane below.

2 2 2 4. We defined tan(x) as the function that keeps track of the slope of the radii around the unit circle. Some people define it in terms of sin( x) and cos(x) . Lets derive that definition of tan(x) from our slope-definition.
a. Suppose that at angle x, the y-coordinate is b and the x-coordinate is a. What is the slope of the radius at angle x?

b. Now, replace a and b with the fancy names for the x-coordinate and the ycoordinate that weve been using in trigonometry. c. Definition: The following way: Fill in the blank in the definition below:

tan(x) function can also be defined in terms of sin( x) and cos(x) , in the

tan(x) = 5. Whats the domain of y = tan(x) ? Whats the range? Is it one-to-one? 6. Is the inverse of y = tan(x) a function? Why or why not?

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Tangent Function
Interesting Stuff

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7. Prove that

tan 2 (a ) + 1 =

1 cos 2 (a )

8. Change the range of y = tan(x) so that its inverse could be a function. Then graph y = tan 1 ( x) on your graphing calculator to see how the computer handles the inverse of y = tan(x) .

9. Prove that cos( x) sin( x ) tan( x) = sin 2 ( x )

10. Prove that

1 cos( a) sin( a ) = sin( a ) tan( a )

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