What is Trigonometry?

Trigonometry is basically the study of triangles and the relationship of their sides and angles. If you look at any triangle, youll see that it has three sides and three angles (hence the name tri-angle ). It happens that these sides and angles have very specific relationships. For example, if you take any triangle and make one of the angles larger, the side opposite of that angle will get longer ( assuming the other two sides stay the same length). Also, the other two angles will get smaller. Exactly how much each of these things changes takes a bit of calculation, but the ratios have all been figured out and codified.

A very specific type of triangle has one of its angles exactly equal to 90 degrees. This is called a right triangle and is indicated by a little square in the corner of that angle. It happens that in a right triangle, the various relationships are far simpler and quite easy to figure out with some basic formulas. This makes a right triangle a very useful construct. Almost all of the trig you will see in this chapter and the rest of the book deals with right triangles.



Foundation ActionScript. Animation. Making Things Move
Foundation Actionscript 3.0 Animation: Making Things Move!
ISBN: 1590597915
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 137
Authors: Keith Peters

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