Trigonemtry. Ok, a cotangents, well what use are those to us?

Question

Like what would it do for us that ordinary trig wouldn't do? Does it simply let us work out angles on non-right-angled-triangles? Wouldn't sine rules be enough for that?

Obviously it's not 'a cotangents'; it's a typo.

Answer 1

I don't use cotangents very often (just like I don't use secant or cosecant very often). Sines, cosines, and tangents are usually enough to do the job. And even sometimes with tangents, I change them to sines and cosines.

On the other hand, I don't like trig functions in the denominator if I can help it. So instead of saying "one over sine x," I'd rather say "cosecant x" just to avoid using a denominator. The same applies to cotangents.

So I guess they're there mainly for convenience. You don't have to use them if you don't want to.

Answer 2

The three 'primary' trig functions (sin, cos, and tan) are useful in a lot of areas (as you should know)

The 'inverse' trig functions

secant = 1/cos
cosecant = 1/sin
cotangent = 1/tan ( = cos/sin)

also have their uses. In particular, in mathematics, it's simply easier to use them than to bother with inverses and fractions.


Doug

Answer 3

i know its a natural sign when calculating intergals... its easier when you use the sign rules together...