Series: Trigonometry: Trigonometric Identities

Good but abstract

01/10/2011

~ Nina3

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

awesome

05/12/2010

~ greenshoes

awesome

Great lesson, but could use more real application

07/26/2009

~ 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.

Easy way to identify even and odd functions!

07/20/2009

~ brittanie

Great online video tutorial on how to verify if a trig function like sin or cos is even or odd. This question comes up on many college prep assessment tests and it's great to have these videos available for easy review online.

FANTASTIC!

06/02/2009

~ hmt79

This lesson walks you through several different proofs of trig identities - he does a good job at going step by step and so I didn't get lost anywhere along the way. Great lesson!

Very Well done

05/31/2009

~ isioma

Still a little confused but not because of tutorial.

SOOO EXCITED ABOUT THIS...

04/03/2009

~ Yaa

This video was incredible! I was studying for ACTs when this question came up about odd functions...which I don't think I've ever encountered yet. But this is straight-forward and worthwhile to watch. Thanks for making this tutorial - simply can't thank you enough!!! I'll definitely be looking out for some more tutorials :D

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

• Pre-Calculus: Fundamental Trigonometric Identities

  In this lesson, Professor Burger will reveal and explain several basic trigonometric identity proofs. He will begin by reviewing the definitions of sine, cosine, and tangent. From these definititions, he will prove tanx = sinx/cosx. Then, he uses the Pythagorean Theorem to show you the proofs for 3 more trigonometric identities: cos^2 + sin^2 = 1, 1+ tan^2 = sec^2, and 1 + cot^2 = csc^2. Finally, Professor Burger will tell you which of these identities and proofs you need to memorize and which you can derive simply and don't need to fret about memorizing in advance of your test.

  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.

• Trigonometry: Finding All Function Values

  Taught by Professor Edward Burger, this lesson comes from a comprehensive course, Trigonometry. This course and others are available from Thinkwell, Inc. The full course can be found at http://www.thinkwell.com/student/product/trigonometry. The full course covers trigonometric functions, trigonometric identities, application of trig, complex numbers, polar coordinates, exponential functions, logarithmic functions, conic sections, 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: Simplifying Using Trig Identities

  Professor Burger demonstrates how to use the fundamental trigonometric identities to simplify complex triognometric expressions. Many seemingly complex expressions can be greatly simplified with simple application of several trigonometric identities. You will practice using expressions such as tanx * cosx and [1+(tan^2)x]/(csc^2)x. In these problems, you will see how substituting 1/cos^2 for sec^2 or 1/sin for csc or sin/cos for tan. By applying the definitions of the different trig functions, you'll often be able to substantially simplify a problem to the point where it will be very easy for you to evaluate and solve it.

  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.

• Trigonometry: Simplify Fractional Trig Expression

  Taught by Professor Edward Burger, this lesson comes from a comprehensive course, Trigonometry. This course and others are available from Thinkwell, Inc. The full course can be found at http://www.thinkwell.com/student/product/trigonometry. The full course covers trigonometric functions, trigonometric identities, application of trig, complex numbers, polar coordinates, exponential functions, logarithmic functions, conic sections, 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.

• Trigonometry: Simplify Trig Function Binomial Prod

  Taught by Professor Edward Burger, this lesson comes from a comprehensive course, Trigonometry. This course and others are available from Thinkwell, Inc. The full course can be found at http://www.thinkwell.com/student/product/trigonometry. The full course covers trigonometric functions, trigonometric identities, application of trig, complex numbers, polar coordinates, exponential functions, logarithmic functions, conic sections, 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: Factoring Trigonometric Expressions

  Just as you can simplify trigonometric expressions using the trig identities, you can often simplify the expressions by factoring, as you would with other types of expressions. Simplifying using the identities and factoring will save you a lot of effort in solving trig problems. In order to recognize opportunities to factor when working trigonometric problems, Professor Burger recommends that you use trigonometry identities to convert trig functions to sin and cos, whenever possible. Some examples you will learn how to simplify include (sin^2) x+ (sin^2)x(cos^2)x and sinx - (cos^2)x - 1 and sin^2x + (2/cscx)+x.

  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: Trig Functions - Odd, Even, Neither?

  In this lesson, Professor Burger teaches you how to determine if a function is even, odd, or neither. He begins by defining even and odd functions and graphing them. A function is even if the function of negative x is equal to the function of x. The graph of an even function is symetric across the y-axis. A function is odd if the function of negative x is equal to the negative function of x. The graph of an odd function is symetric around the origin. After defining these, Professor Burger identifies whether sin and cos are even or odd, and then shows several more examples, including tan x, sin (2x), (sin x)/x, and x cos x. Lastly, Professor Burger describes and illustrates what a function looks like that is neither odd nor even. In this case, it is not symmetric to the Y axis or the origin.

  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.

• Trigonometry: Proving an Identity

  Taught by Professor Edward Burger, this lesson comes from a comprehensive course, Trigonometry. This course and others are available from Thinkwell, Inc. The full course can be found at http://www.thinkwell.com/student/product/trigonometry. The full course covers trigonometric functions, trigonometric identities, application of trig, complex numbers, polar coordinates, exponential functions, logarithmic functions, conic sections, 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.

• Trigonometry: Proving an Identity: Other Examples

  Taught by Professor Edward Burger, this lesson comes from a comprehensive course, Trigonometry. This course and others are available from Thinkwell, Inc. The full course can be found at http://www.thinkwell.com/student/product/trigonometry. The full course covers trigonometric functions, trigonometric identities, application of trig, complex numbers, polar coordinates, exponential functions, logarithmic functions, conic sections, 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 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.

• Trigonometry: Angle Sum & Difference Identities

  Taught by Professor Edward Burger, this lesson comes from a comprehensive course, Trigonometry. This course and others are available from Thinkwell, Inc. The full course can be found at http://www.thinkwell.com/student/product/trigonometry. The full course covers trigonometric functions, trigonometric identities, application of trig, complex numbers, polar coordinates, exponential functions, logarithmic functions, conic sections, 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: Using Sum and Difference Identities

  Using the sum and difference identities, Professor Burger shows you how to solve a trig function for an unknown angle. For an example, he uses the sin(15 degrees). You can use known angle values for 45 degree and 30 degrees and the formula for the difference of two sines to find the solution. The formula for the difference of two sines is sin(x1 - x2) = sinx1cosx2 - cosx1sinx2. Hence, if you know what the sin and cos values of 30 and 45 degrees are, you should be able to plub them into this formula to arrive at the sine value of 15 degrees. The beauty of the sum and difference formulas for trig functions is that they allow us to decompose a problem we don't know the answer to into component parts to which we do know the answer, thus solving the original problem.

  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.

• Trigonometry: Sum & Difference Identities

  Taught by Professor Edward Burger, this lesson comes from a comprehensive course, Trigonometry. This course and others are available from Thinkwell, Inc. The full course can be found at http://www.thinkwell.com/student/product/trigonometry. The full course covers trigonometric functions, trigonometric identities, application of trig, complex numbers, polar coordinates, exponential functions, logarithmic functions, conic sections, 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.

• Trigonometry: Confirming a Double-Angle Identity

  Taught by Professor Edward Burger, this lesson comes from a comprehensive course, Trigonometry. This course and others are available from Thinkwell, Inc. The full course can be found at http://www.thinkwell.com/student/product/trigonometry. The full course covers trigonometric functions, trigonometric identities, application of trig, complex numbers, polar coordinates, exponential functions, logarithmic functions, conic sections, 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: Using Double-Angle Identities

  Double-angle identities allow you to simplify trigonometric equations with a 2 as the coefficient. (similar formulae exist for trig functions with 1/2 or 3 as the coefficient). In this lesson, Professor Burger uses the equation cos2x = sinx as an example. If this equation were simply cos x = sinx, we could divide to re-write the formula as sinx/cosx = tan x = 0, but in this case, we have a coefficient in advance of one of the arguments, which is why we need to use the double-angle formulas. After using the double-angle formulas in the provided example to simplify, you can further simplify these equations using trig identities (like the Pythagorean identity) and factoring. These tools will help you to solve many trig equations. The duble angle identities for sine, cosine, tangent and cotangent are: sin2x = 2sinxcosx, cos2x = cos^2x-sin^2x, tan 2x = 2tanx/(1-tan^2x), and cot2x = (cot^2x-1)/2cotx.

  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.

• Trigonometry: Multiple-Angle Identities Word Probs

  Taught by Professor Edward Burger, this lesson comes from a comprehensive course, Trigonometry. This course and others are available from Thinkwell, Inc. The full course can be found at http://www.thinkwell.com/student/product/trigonometry. The full course covers trigonometric functions, trigonometric identities, application of trig, complex numbers, polar coordinates, exponential functions, logarithmic functions, conic sections, 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.

• Trigonometry: Using a Cofunction Identity

  Taught by Professor Edward Burger, this lesson comes from a comprehensive course, Trigonometry. This course and others are available from Thinkwell, Inc. The full course can be found at http://www.thinkwell.com/student/product/trigonometry. The full course covers trigonometric functions, trigonometric identities, application of trig, complex numbers, polar coordinates, exponential functions, logarithmic functions, conic sections, 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.

• Trigonometry: Using a Power-Reducing Identity

  Taught by Professor Edward Burger, this lesson comes from a comprehensive course, Trigonometry. This course and others are available from Thinkwell, Inc. The full course can be found at http://www.thinkwell.com/student/product/trigonometry. The full course covers trigonometric functions, trigonometric identities, application of trig, complex numbers, polar coordinates, exponential functions, logarithmic functions, conic sections, 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.

• Trigonometry: Half-Angle Identities,Trig Equations

  Taught by Professor Edward Burger, this lesson comes from a comprehensive course, Trigonometry. This course and others are available from Thinkwell, Inc. The full course can be found at http://www.thinkwell.com/student/product/trigonometry. The full course covers trigonometric functions, trigonometric identities, application of trig, complex numbers, polar coordinates, exponential functions, logarithmic functions, conic sections, 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:

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