<p>Is there a trick to remembering all the unit circle stuff? an alternative to memorizing it all? I need to be able to do trig identities such as sin(3pi/4)</p>
<p>I can do calculus.. just dont remember this trig haha</p>
<p>Do you remember how the unit circle is derived? Because you can make yourself one on the test.</p>
<p>I remember it pretty well without that, but I have a hard time remembering which is 1/2, and which is 3(2^1/2)/2. So I draw it out. Remember, the x-coordinate is cosine, and the y-coordinate is sine.
Did that make any sense?</p>
<p>Uhh the unit circle is derived from the pythagorean theorem. remember sin is the y axis and cosine is the x axis. then just remember the special triangles, and remember the hypotenuse is always 1. This will give you 30,60, 45. And the rest is just reflections. hope this helps.</p>
<p>Think about the first letters in sin and cosine. C comes before S in the alphabet, just like X comes before Y. So that way you know that cosine is X and sin is Y.</p>
<p>it's cos(ine), co before sine :)</p>
<p>Quick question: How did you all survive Calc without knowing the unit circle? I thought that was essential to memorize(Haven't taken calc yet)</p>
<p>Well, you can always look at it. And if it's a test or something where you're not allowed to, you can make your own if you know how. Or use a calculator, if it's allowed.</p>
<p>So yeah, as long as you understand it, you don't need to have it memorized.</p>