Back to Section Page Back to Assignments Page

Section Assignment # 1- Due Tuesday 1/28

  1. Use half of a sheet of paper to make a unit circle displaying the values of \( \sin \theta\) and \(\cos \theta\) for integer multiples of \( \frac{\pi}{4}\) and \(\frac{\pi}{6}\). (That is for 0, \(\frac{\pi}{6},\, \frac{\pi}{4},\,\frac{\pi}{3},\, \frac{\pi}{2},\, \frac{2\pi}{3},\dots\).) If you wish you can also make a table with these values. Be sure to draw at least two triangles on your unit circle so you can see how the lengths of the sides of a right triangle relate to the sine and cosine of its angles.

  2. Is cosine an even or odd function, or neither? Mathematically justify your response using the definition of even and/or odd.
Recall, a function is even if \(f(-x)=f(x)\) for all \(x\) in its domain, and odd if \(f(-x)=-f(x)\) for all \(x\) in its domain. Since \(cos(-x)=cos(x)\) we conclude that cosine is an even function. You may have suspected this since you should be familiar with the general shape of the cosine graph, which is symmetric about the y-axis.