GCSE Trigonometry of Right-

Angled Triangles
Dr J Frost (jfrost@tiffin.kingston.sch.uk)

Objectives:
• Find unknown sides in right-angled triangles using a side and angle.
• Find unknown angles in right-angled triangle using two sides.
• Note: ‘Exact trigonometric ratios’ and 3D Trigonometry are covered
in separate slides.

Last modified: 1st January 2019

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Motivation

Frost Childhood 𝑦
Story
I was in Year 9 and was trying to write
a computer program that would draw (𝑎 , 𝑏)
an analogue clock (as you do).
𝜃𝑟
I needed to work out the two
coordinates to draw the minute hand 𝑥
between, and similarly for the hour
hand, given the current hour, minute
and desired length of each hand.
I couldn’t work out how to do it, until I
(coincidentally) learnt trigonometry in
maths the next day, and was able to
finish my program that evening!
Starter

𝑥 13
3 𝑦

4 5
Determine the length . Determine the length .

2 2 2 2 2? 2
3 +4 =𝑥 ?
5 +𝑦 =13
But…
We used Pythagoras’
theorem if all 3 sides of a
right-angled triangle were
involved.
But what if we had two sides
involved and an angle?
(excluding the right-angle)

Unknown angle.

𝟏𝟑 𝟑
𝟒 𝒂
𝟏𝟒
𝒚 𝒙 Unknown side.
Unknown side.
𝟑𝟎°
𝟏𝟎
Names of sides relative to an angle

The hypotenuse is the

longest side of a right-
angled triangle, and is
opposite the right-angle.

?
hypotenuse
opposite
?
The ‘opposite’ is the
30°
side opposite the
angle of interest.
adjacent
?
The ‘adjacent’ is the side adjacent
(i.e. next to) the angle of interest.
Quickfire Side Naming

Hypotenuse Opposite Adjacent

𝑥
60°
𝑧 ? ? ?
𝑦

1
𝑥
𝜽
? 1? ?2
2

𝑐
20°
? ? ?
𝑎 𝑏
Sin/Cos/Tan
! sin, cos and tan are functions which take an angle and give us
the ratio between pairs of sides in a right angle triangle.
Recall that ratio can just mean how many
times bigger one quantity is than another.
𝑜
𝒉 sin ( 𝜃 )?=
h
𝒐
𝜽 𝑎
cos ( 𝜃 )?=
𝒂 h
𝑜
tan ( 𝜃 )?=
𝑎
You can remember this using:
“soh cah toa”
Examples
Fro Tip: Put your h/a/o letters in circles
– this avoids confusion with any Find the value of (to 3sf)
variables you have used as side lengths
(in this example, )
Step 1: Determine which sides are
hyp/adj/opp.
h
Step 2: Work out which
𝟒 trigonometric function we need.
We used and . Thinking about “soh cah
𝟒𝟎° toa”, we want the “cah”, i.e. cos:

𝒙𝑎

Fro Tip: The angle always follows the sin/cos/tan. I

see a lot of students incorrectly write
𝑥=4cos ( 40° )
×4 ×4

Step 3: Rearrange the equation to was being divided by 4, so we multiply

find the unknown. both sides by 4 to cancel this out.
Further Example
Find the value of (to 3sf)

𝒙
𝐬𝐢𝐧 ( 𝟐𝟎°
? )=
h 𝟐𝟎° 𝟕
𝟕
Extremely Advanced Side Note: I often get asked how that calculator actually works
out, for example, . The process is complicated and would never ordinarily be done
by a ‘human’. You won’t likely learn the technique for calculating it unless you do
Further Maths A Level, using something called Maclaurin Series. But since you
asked…
can be calculated using the infinitely long formula:

𝒙
𝑜 where for example means . But the angle has to be in a unit called ‘radians’ (we can
convert from degrees to radians by multiplying the angle by ). We can’t substitute
into an infinitely long expression, but we can stop after the first several terms to get
an accurate value, as the terms in the sum gradually approach 0. For example, , and I
got the same (up to 10 dp) by substituting into the above formula up to the term.
Test Your Understanding So Far
Find the value of (to 3sf)

𝒚
𝐭𝐚𝐧 ( 𝟐𝟓°
? )=
𝑜
𝟐𝟓° 𝟓
𝒚
𝟓
𝑎
Harder Examples
If the variable is in the
denominator, you can apply

𝟏𝟐
something called the
‘swapsie trick’.

( ? )
𝒔𝒊𝒏 𝟔𝟎 =
Notice that we can rearrange:
𝒙
60 ° i.e. we can ‘swap’ the thing

𝒙
we’re dividing by and the
result of the division. In this
trig question, we could swap
the and the

12

𝒙
𝟒
𝒕𝒂𝒏 ( 𝟑𝟎
? )=
30°

𝒙 4
 Test Your Understanding
1 2

? 8.63
Working:

? 20.2
Exercise 1 (questions on provided sheet)

1 Find , giving your answers to 3 significant figures. 𝑥=11.0

?
𝑥=16.9
? c 𝒙
a b 22
15
𝟕𝟎 °
𝟒𝟎 ° 𝟕𝟎 ° 4
𝑥=14.1
? 𝒙
𝒙
d
e
𝑥=20.3
? f
𝟕𝟎 ° 𝒙 𝒙 𝑥=7.00
?
𝟒 𝟖𝟎 °
𝑥=11.7
? 10
20
𝟓𝟓 °
g
𝒙

?
𝑥=6.19 3
Q2-7 on next slide…
𝟔𝟏 °
𝒙
Exercise 1
I put a ladder 1.5m away from a
2 5
tree. The ladder is inclined at
above the horizontal. What is the
height of the tree?
?
Ship B is 100m east of Ship A, and
3 the bearing of Ship B from Ship A
6
is . How far due North is the ship?
? square piece of card to leave the
[Edexcel GCSE June2012-2H Q18]
4
The diagram shows a
quadrilateral ABCD. AB = 16 cm.
AD = 12 cm. Angle BCD = 40°.
Angle ADB = angle CBD = 90°.
Calculate the length of CD.
?
16.5 cm
N [IMC] The semicircle and
(questions on provided sheet)
In the shape drawn below, . Work out the area of ,
giving your answer to 1 dp.
?
89.2 cm2
[OCR GCSE(9-1) SAM 6H Q16aii]
Simon cuts the corners off a
regular octagon shown below.
O is the centre of the octagon. A
and B are vertices of the
octagon. OA = OB = 5 cm. Angle
AOB = 45°.
Work out the area of the original
?
square piece of card. 85.4 cm2
isosceles triangle have
equal areas. Find .
?
 Frost Childhood So what is
y then?
Story
𝒂 (𝑎 , 𝑏)
𝒃𝜃
𝑟
x

Therefore I drew the hand between

and
STARTER RECAP
When would we use trigonometry?
• When we have a right-angled triangle.
• When we’re involving two?side lengths and an angle.

4
𝑥= =4 ?√ 3 𝑜𝑟 6.93
tan 30

4
30 °
𝒙
 But what if the angle is unknown?
We can use the same process…

h Step 1: Determine which

𝑜 5 sides are hyp/adj/opp.

3 Step 2: Work out which

trigonometric function we

𝒂
need.

Remember that the angle

(si𝑛¿¿−1)¿ always goes after the
(si𝑛¿¿−1)¿ sin/cos/tan.

Step 3: Rearrange the

equation to find the
unknown.
We want to get the angle on
We know we get rid of something in an equation by doing the opposite.
The opposite of sin is ‘inverse sin’, written . Use the shift button to get it its own. But how do we get rid
on your calculator. of the on front of it?
What is the missing angle?

𝟓
𝒂
𝟒

cos −1
( )
4
5
cos ( ) ( ) ( )
−1 5
4
sin −1 4
5
sin −1 5
4
What is the missing angle?

𝟏𝒂

cos −1
( )sin ( 2 )tan ( 2 ) ( )
1
2
−1 −1 tan −1 1
2
What is the missing angle?

𝟓
𝟑
𝒂

cos −1
( )
3
5
sin ( )
−1 3
5
tan () ()
−1 3
5
sin −1 5
3
What is the missing angle?

𝒂 𝟑

cos −1
( )
2
3
sin ( )
−1 2
3
sin () ()
−1 3
2
tan −1 2
3
Test Your Understanding

[Edexcel GCSE Nov2007-4I Q25, Nov2007-6H Q14]

PQR is a right-angled triangle.
PR = 12 cm. QR = 4.5 cm. Angle .
Work out the value of .
Give your answer correct to one decimal place.
cm
?

[Edexcel IGCSE Jan2014(R)-3H Q17] The diagram

shows triangle ABC. D is the point on AB, such
that CD is perpendicular to AB.
AC = 8.3 cm. AD = 4.7 cm. BD = 7.5 cm.
Calculate the size of angle ABC.

𝑪𝑫=√ 𝟖.𝟑 −𝟒.𝟕 =𝟔.𝟖𝟒𝟏𝟎𝟓

Give your answer correct to 1 decimal place.
𝟐 ? 𝟐
Exercise 2 (questions on provided sheet)

Find , giving your answer to 3sf. ? °

𝜃=30.0
1 a 𝜃=31.0
? ° c
7 2
b 3 1
𝜃 𝜃 𝜃
𝜃=55.2 4 5
? °
2 [Edexcel GCSE June2014-2H Q15b]
The diagram shows the positions of 3
d 5
4 three turbines A, B and C.
Calculate the bearing of C from A. 𝜃=37.3
? °
𝜃 Give your answer correct to the 7
nearest degree. 10
?°
𝜃=51.3 ? °
217 60° 𝜃
e

7
11 𝜃
?°
𝜃=50.5
Exercise 2 (questions on provided sheet)

5 [Edexcel IGCSE May2015-3H Q15]

4 is a trapezium. cm.
cm. cm. Angle angle
13 Calculate the size of angle .
Give your answer correct to 3
significant figures.
Solution:
4 𝜃 ?
[Edexcel GCSE(9-1) Nov 2017 2F Q22, Nov 2017 2H Q7]
6
3 is a trapezium. Work out the size of angle . Give your

( )
𝟓 answer correct to 1dp.
𝜽=𝐜𝐨𝐬 −𝟏 ? =𝟔𝟕 . 𝟒 °
𝟏𝟑

1 1
N 1
The angles form a sequence. ?
Solution:
Give the formula for the th term of
𝜃 the sequence.
1 𝜃2 3
𝜃1 ?
Related Slides

In other slides on www.drfrostmaths.com we’ll cover:

1. Exact Trigonometric Ratios

e.g. What is the exact value of ? (without using a
calculator)
2. 3D Trigonometry & Pythagoras