why is it important to know trig ratios?

Question

i just started learning trig and what relavence does knowing the values of like opp/adj have?

Answer 1

Trigonometry is one of the most essential bodies of math that there is. It is very useful for carpentry, architecture, structural engineering, and electrical engineering, to name a few. But if you are not going to be doing any of these disciplines then I agree that you don't really need to know it. The circumference of the Earth and the distance to the Moon was first worked out accurately by the ancient Greeks using their knowledge of trigonometry (which they invented, by the way). In the late 1800s the distance to the nearest star was worked out using trigonometry. When I was a teenager I used to build and launch rockets. I used trigonometry to tell me how high they went. It was great fun. if you are wondering how tall the tree in your yard is, you can use trigonometry to find out. Give it a try.

Answer 2

It is the ENTIRE BASIS for the "science" behind trig. EVERYTHING in trig is based on the FACT that knowing a side & an angle can tell you everything else about a triangle.

You should memorize some of the main ones [45, 90, 30, etc] so they can help you estimate the others.

And of course, all this applies to circles, AC voltages, and more.

Answer 3

Depends on what you end up doing. For most professions, its not all that important. It does become important in engineering, perhaps architecture, or even astronomy and physics. I was an engineer before I switched to business and it was something that became important. An easy mnemonic for the ratios is sohcahtoa: sine=opp/hyp, cosine=adj/hyp or tangent=opp/adj.

Answer 4

trig is the only thing that relates degrees with height in a right angled triangle...

Answer 5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uses_of_trigonometry

http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/java/trig/apps.html