This week in Pre-calc 11 we learned about special triangles and how we can find their ratios without using a calculator. I chose to write about this topic because knowing this topic can help recognize patterns in trigonometry and make them much easier to work with.

There are two special triangles in trigonometry. First the 45-45-90 triangle and the 30-60-90 triangle and like all right triangles they add up to 180 degrees.

Now here’s how we apply it.

Let’s say you are working with a rotation angle of 300 degrees that means we know that the reference angle is 60 degrees.

And we know of a special right triangle that has a 60 ratio meaning we know the X and Y variables of tan.