Education Technology

Unwrapping the Unit Circle

Author
Subject Area
Math: Precalculus: Trigonometry (Triangle and Circular Functions)
Level
9-12
College
Activity Time
30 Minutes
Software
TI-Nspire™ CX
TI-Nspire™ CX CAS
TI Calculator
TI-Nspire™ CX series
TI-Nspire™ CX CAS/CX II CAS
TI-Nspire™ Apps for iPad®
TI-Nspire Version
4.0
Resource Types
Lessons
Format
TNS

Unwrapping the Unit Circle

Activity Overview

Students will learn the shapes of the graphs of the sine and cosine functions and how they relate to the unit circle.

About the Lesson

Students will observe an animation where the unit circle is traced.  As the unit circle is traced, the values for the angle, 𝜃, and the corresponding x- (cos 𝜃) or y-(sin 𝜃) will be plotted on a graph below (as coordinate pairs (𝜃, sin/cos𝜃).  Students will make connections between the unit circle and the graphs of the cosine and sine functions at key points.   

Author
Subject Area
Math: Precalculus: Trigonometry (Triangle and Circular Functions)
Level
9-12
College
Activity Time
30 Minutes
Software
TI-Nspire™ CX
TI-Nspire™ CX CAS
TI Calculator
TI-Nspire™ CX series
TI-Nspire™ CX CAS/CX II CAS
TI-Nspire™ Apps for iPad®
TI-Nspire Version
4.0
Resource Types
Lessons
Format
TNS
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