Can someone tell my what cos, sin and tan actually measure?
In: Mathematics
let’s say your arm is exactly one meter long, and you’re in a swimming pool, with the surface of the water at shoulder level
if you stretch your arm forward along the surface of the water, and lift it up by an angle A, then
* sin(A) is how far **above** the water the tip of your fingers are
* cos(A) is how far **in front** of you the tip of your fingers are
if you then do the same thing, but this time you’re firmly grabbing a laser pointer pointing downwards in your fist, then
* tan(A) is how far the laser beam has to travel before hitting the surface of the water
Note that when cos(A) is behind you, or sin(A) is underwater, or tan(A) is pointing away from the surface, they give you a negative distance c:
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