USING INVERSE FUNCTIONS TO SOLVE REAL LIFE PROBLEMS

USING INVERSE FUNCTIONS TO SOLVE REAL LIFE PROBLEMS IN ENGINEERING BY RYAN RAMROOP

WHAT ARE TRIGONOMETRIC FUNCTIONS? • Trigonometric Functions are functions widely used in Engineering and Mathematics. They are based off of an angle of the right triangle and the ratio of two of its sides. • The three most common trigonometric functions are: • Sine • Cosine • Tangent • With sufficient information, a trig function can evaluate a missing side or length by simply follwing the rules of the function. • (SOH CAH TOA)

USING TRIGONOMETRIC FUNCTIONS IN ENGINEERING • Trigonometric Functions and inverse trigonometric functions are essential to Engineers. They use them for many reasons including calculating: • Angles • Torque • Forces • A perfect example of this would be that of an Engineer trying to calculate the angle his rocket was launched using only the vertical and horizontal values he managed to collect. With any two of the three values, the engineer is then able evaluate third since they are all interchangeable.

FOR EXAMPLE A rocket sitting 10 meters above the ground is launch with an initial velocity of 10 meters-per-second and lands 20 seconds later. At what angle was the rocket *With the given information, we could conclude that the rocket launched? lands 200 meters away* With two factors given, we could now use the trig functions to solve the problem. (In this case, we use the inverse function) By using the inverse function of Tangent, you are able to identify the angle given that the opposite and adjacent sides of a right triangle are swapped with that of the projectile’s data respectively.

CONCLUSIO N The calculation of that of the angle of a projectile’s motion, Torque and forces are just three uses of Trig functions in Engineering. It can also be used for scaling following the similar triangle property due to the concept of the unit circle. However, this specific theory was chosen on the basis of many people may not realize how big of a role trig functions plays in their daily life even though they themselves are not using it, but instead everything engineered to make their life easier was due to trig functions.