Series: Pre Cal: Solving Trigonometric Equations

Good but abstract

01/09/2011

~ Nina3

Still too abstract to get students (not math lovers;) exited....

Great lesson, but could use more real application

07/25/2009

~ sharon5

When would you have a real problem where you would be looking for a position of a spring? I know that is what my students are going to be asking.

Below are the descriptions for each of the lessons included in the series:

• Pre-Calculus: Solving Trigonometric Equations

  This lesson will teach you how to solve equations involving trigonometric functions. Professor Burger shows you two ways to look at these equations, on a graph, and using reference angles. You will learn to rephrase the equation to determine what it is really asking, ""What value of X makes the function of X = n?"" You will learn how to write your answer to indicate infinitely many solutions and the step-by-step process of solving the equations. Examples of problems covered in this lesson involve trig functions, roots, fractions, variables and coefficients, including problems like cos x = 1/2 and sinx = -(2^(1/2)/2). You'll also learn when and why most trig problems like these have multiple (or infinite) solutions and how to correctly identify and denote these solution sets.

  This lesson is perfect for review for a CLEP test, mid-term, final, summer school, or personal growth!

  Taught by Professor Edward Burger, this lesson was selected from a broader, comprehensive course, Precalculus. This course and others are available from Thinkwell, Inc. The full course can be found at http://www.thinkwell.com/student/product/precalculus. The full course covers angles in degrees and radians, trigonometric functions, trigonometric expressions, trigonometric equations, vectors, complex numbers, and more.

  Edward Burger, Professor of Mathematics at Williams College, earned his Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin, having graduated summa cum laude with distinction in mathematics from Connecticut College.

  He has also taught at UT-Austin and the University of Colorado at Boulder, and he served as a fellow at the University of Waterloo in Canada and at Macquarie University in Australia. Prof. Burger has won many awards, including the 2001 Haimo Award for Distinguished Teaching of Mathematics, the 2004 Chauvenet Prize, and the 2006 Lester R. Ford Award, all from the Mathematical Association of America. In 2006, Reader's Digest named him in the "100 Best of America".

  Prof. Burger is the author of over 50 articles, videos, and books, including the trade book, Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz: Making Light of Weighty Ideas and of the textbook The Heart of Mathematics: An Invitation to Effective Thinking. He also speaks frequently to professional and public audiences, referees professional journals, and publishes articles in leading math journals, including The Journal of Number Theory and American Mathematical Monthly. His areas of specialty include number theory, Diophantine approximation, p-adic analysis, the geometry of numbers, and the theory of continued fractions.

  Prof. Burger's unique sense of humor and his teaching expertise combine to make him the ideal presenter of Thinkwell's entertaining and informative video lectures.

• Pre-Calculus: Solving Trig Equations by Factoring

  Professor Burger teaches how to solve more complicated equations (tanx * sin^2x = tan x) involving trigonometric functions in this lesson. Solving these types of problems involve use of trig identities, factoring, etc and how to find all of the viable solutions for these types of problems. In the problem listed above, Professor Burger will show you how to factor the equation in order to help simplify and then solve it. Professor Burger also gives a warning about cancelling out in equations that involve trig functions. By canceling, you risk missing valid solutions and solution sets.

  Taught by Professor Edward Burger, this lesson was selected from a broader, comprehensive course, Precalculus. This course and others are available from Thinkwell, Inc. The full course can be found at http://www.thinkwell.com/student/product/precalculus. The full course covers angles in degrees and radians, trigonometric functions, trigonometric expressions, trigonometric equations, vectors, complex numbers, and more.

  About Professor Edward Burger:
  Edward Burger, Professor of Mathematics at Williams College, earned his Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin, having graduated summa cum laude with distinction in mathematics from Connecticut College.

  He has also taught at UT-Austin and the University of Colorado at Boulder, and he served as a fellow at the University of Waterloo in Canada and at Macquarie University in Australia. Prof. Burger has won many awards, including the 2001 Haimo Award for Distinguished Teaching of Mathematics, the 2004 Chauvenet Prize, and the 2006 Lester R. Ford Award, all from the Mathematical Association of America. In 2006, Reader's Digest named him in the "100 Best of America".

  Prof. Burger is the author of over 50 articles, videos, and books, including the trade book, Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz: Making Light of Weighty Ideas and of the textbook The Heart of Mathematics: An Invitation to Effective Thinking. He also speaks frequently to professional and public audiences, referees professional journals, and publishes articles in leading math journals, including The Journal of Number Theory and American Mathematical Monthly. His areas of specialty include number theory, Diophantine approximation, p-adic analysis, the geometry of numbers, and the theory of continued fractions.

  Prof. Burger's unique sense of humor and his teaching expertise combine to make him the ideal presenter of Thinkwell's entertaining and informative video lectures.

• Pre-Calculus: Trig Equations with Coefficients

  Now that you have learned how to solve simple trigonometric equations, Professor Burger will show you how to solve trig equations that have a coefficient in the argument (e.g. sine of 2X versus just sine of X). These are also called multiple angle equations. In evaluating these trigonometry equations, you will generally only be asked to find solutions in one or two periods of the functions, so you will not have an infinite number of solutions (most often, you'll solve for solutions between 0 and 2*pi). Sample problems from this lesson include (2*sin 3*theta) = 1 and tan^2(2X) = 1 and sin2x*tan2x + sin2x = 0.

  Taught by Professor Edward Burger, this lesson was selected from a broader, comprehensive course, Precalculus. This course and others are available from Thinkwell, Inc. The full course can be found at http://www.thinkwell.com/student/product/precalculus. The full course covers angles in degrees and radians, trigonometric functions, trigonometric expressions, trigonometric equations, vectors, complex numbers, and more.

  Edward Burger, Professor of Mathematics at Williams College, earned his Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin, having graduated summa cum laude with distinction in mathematics from Connecticut College.

  He has also taught at UT-Austin and the University of Colorado at Boulder, and he served as a fellow at the University of Waterloo in Canada and at Macquarie University in Australia. Prof. Burger has won many awards, including the 2001 Haimo Award for Distinguished Teaching of Mathematics, the 2004 Chauvenet Prize, and the 2006 Lester R. Ford Award, all from the Mathematical Association of America. In 2006, Reader's Digest named him in the "100 Best of America".

  Prof. Burger is the author of over 50 articles, videos, and books, including the trade book, Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz: Making Light of Weighty Ideas and of the textbook The Heart of Mathematics: An Invitation to Effective Thinking. He also speaks frequently to professional and public audiences, referees professional journals, and publishes articles in leading math journals, including The Journal of Number Theory and American Mathematical Monthly. His areas of specialty include number theory, Diophantine approximation, p-adic analysis, the geometry of numbers, and the theory of continued fractions.

  Prof. Burger's unique sense of humor and his teaching expertise combine to make him the ideal presenter of Thinkwell's entertaining and informative video lectures.

• Pre-Calculus: Trig Equations and Quadratic Formula

  Sometimes, trigonometric equations cannot be factored. To solve these equations, Professor Burger shows you how to apply the quadratic formula to find solutions to these equations. This is a multi-step process that starts with simplifying the equation. After the equation is simplified, you will be able to solve the quadratic formula and then enter that answer in to solve for X. In the lesson example, Professor Burger uses both a calculator and graphing to ensure he has the correct points. This lesson explains the covered material by walking through sample equations 3sin^2(2x) + sin (2x)-1 = 0. This equation has 2 solutions over the interval from zero to 2*pi. This lesson is loaded with warnings about easy mistakes to make and pitfalls to be wary of when evaluating problems like this.

  Taught by Professor Edward Burger, this lesson was selected from a broader, comprehensive course, Precalculus. This course and others are available from Thinkwell, Inc. The full course can be found at http://www.thinkwell.com/student/product/precalculus. The full course covers angles in degrees and radians, trigonometric functions, trigonometric expressions, trigonometric equations, vectors, complex numbers, and more.

  Edward Burger, Professor of Mathematics at Williams College, earned his Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin, having graduated summa cum laude with distinction in mathematics from Connecticut College.

  He has also taught at UT-Austin and the University of Colorado at Boulder, and he served as a fellow at the University of Waterloo in Canada and at Macquarie University in Australia. Prof. Burger has won many awards, including the 2001 Haimo Award for Distinguished Teaching of Mathematics, the 2004 Chauvenet Prize, and the 2006 Lester R. Ford Award, all from the Mathematical Association of America. In 2006, Reader's Digest named him in the "100 Best of America".

  Prof. Burger is the author of over 50 articles, videos, and books, including the trade book, Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz: Making Light of Weighty Ideas and of the textbook The Heart of Mathematics: An Invitation to Effective Thinking. He also speaks frequently to professional and public audiences, referees professional journals, and publishes articles in leading math journals, including The Journal of Number Theory and American Mathematical Monthly. His areas of specialty include number theory, Diophantine approximation, p-adic analysis, the geometry of numbers, and the theory of continued fractions.

  Prof. Burger's unique sense of humor and his teaching expertise combine to make him the ideal presenter of Thinkwell's entertaining and informative video lectures.

• Pre-Calculus: Word Problems and Trig Equations

  This lesson provides a more real-world application of trigonometric equations using a word problem. Professor Burger walks you through solving the trig word problem about spring motion. The motion of the particular spring in question is described by the function: sin (2T)+ 3^(1/2)*cost (2T), where T is the time in seconds. The problem asks us to solve for all times, T, when the object is located where it started the experiment. As he demonstrates how to solve the word problem, Prof Burger uses many of the trig information he taught in previous lessons, including identities, graphing, and angles. Finally, he reminds you to check your answer to make sure that the solutions are allowable. Additionally, he highlights that you should 'reality check' your answer as it's obviously not possible to have solutions for T that are negative given that this is a real-world example and time should never be negative.

  Taught by Professor Edward Burger, this lesson was selected from a broader, comprehensive course, Precalculus. This course and others are available from Thinkwell, Inc. The full course can be found at http://www.thinkwell.com/student/product/precalculus. The full course covers angles in degrees and radians, trigonometric functions, trigonometric expressions, trigonometric equations, vectors, complex numbers, and more.

  Edward Burger, Professor of Mathematics at Williams College, earned his Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin, having graduated summa cum laude with distinction in mathematics from Connecticut College.

  He has also taught at UT-Austin and the University of Colorado at Boulder, and he served as a fellow at the University of Waterloo in Canada and at Macquarie University in Australia. Prof. Burger has won many awards, including the 2001 Haimo Award for Distinguished Teaching of Mathematics, the 2004 Chauvenet Prize, and the 2006 Lester R. Ford Award, all from the Mathematical Association of America. In 2006, Reader's Digest named him in the "100 Best of America".

  Prof. Burger is the author of over 50 articles, videos, and books, including the trade book, Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz: Making Light of Weighty Ideas and of the textbook The Heart of Mathematics: An Invitation to Effective Thinking. He also speaks frequently to professional and public audiences, referees professional journals, and publishes articles in leading math journals, including The Journal of Number Theory and American Mathematical Monthly. His areas of specialty include number theory, Diophantine approximation, p-adic analysis, the geometry of numbers, and the theory of continued fractions.

  Prof. Burger's unique sense of humor and his teaching expertise combine to make him the ideal presenter of Thinkwell's entertaining and informative video lectures.

Supplementary Files:

• Once you purchase this series you will have access to these files: