Trigonometry in Physics

[ashleyd]

Hi Guys,

I was wondering just how much trigonometry is in Non Calculus based Physics? If there is trigonometry, which topics would you reccomend to study? The reason I ask is that I've never taken a trigonometry class. I took Algebra II in sophomore year of high school so I don't even remember the tiny bit of trig that was covered at the end of that.

Thanks so much I really appreciate it!
Ashley

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[wolverinepwns]

Hi Guys,

I was wondering just how much trigonometry is in Non Calculus based Physics? If there is trigonometry, which topics would you reccomend to study? The reason I ask is that I've never taken a trigonometry class. I took Algebra II in sophomore year of high school so I don't even remember the tiny bit of trig that was covered at the end of that.

Thanks so much I really appreciate it!
Ashley

I'm not sure if this is the right forum to be posting this, but you'll need trig for physics, and as a premed you have to take calculus in college so you'll need it there too!

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

I'm not sure if this is the right forum to be posting this, but you'll need trig for physics, and as a premed you have to take calculus in college so you'll need it there too!

Calculus isn't required by many colleges ( though I will echo Wolfy by saying its highly recommended for you to take it; though if you suck at math or don't need it for your degree then don't do it).
You'll need to know trig before taking physics. Since you're not using calculus to figure out things you'll need to use the liner alternative which is trig.

 

[LuciusVorenus]

Hi Guys,

I was wondering just how much trigonometry is in Non Calculus based Physics? If there is trigonometry, which topics would you reccomend to study? The reason I ask is that I've never taken a trigonometry class. I took Algebra II in sophomore year of high school so I don't even remember the tiny bit of trig that was covered at the end of that.

Thanks so much I really appreciate it!
Ashley

Eh...if you're not doing calc based physics I doubt you'll have to know more than what sin, cos, tan mean. You might also need to know some basic trig identities. It might also help to know this thing pretty well: http://wpcontent.answcdn.com/wikipe...e_angles.svg/720px-Unit_circle_angles.svg.png.

 

[wanderer]

Trig is really easy. It's a very straightforward high school topic. It shouldn't be an issue at all. Your physics textbook will have all trig laws in the appendix and it shouldn't take more than a couple of hours to memorize all the important ones (law of sines, SOH CAH TOA, and a couple of others).

 

[Corpsman Up]

I just finished up my second quarter of non-calc based physics and the truth is, we used trig from the very first day of physics 1. you need to know it to solve anything that involves a vector (forces, magnetic fields, electric fields, etc). Good news, all you really need are the basics. Just remember SOH CAH TOA and you should be fine

 

[kami333]

Yeah, it was really just SOH CAH TOA.

I took non-calc based physics last year, it's been about 12years since I took trig and 10 since I had taken calc so I had pretty much forgotten everything. I was very lost the first few lectures but once I spent 10min going over the basic trig laws I was good to go.

 

[nabeel76]

You'll need trig but only the very basics of it. No trig identities or any of that.

You don't need a trig course, trust me, the trig used in physics can be learned with one day of review. Just review and understand the trig explained in the appendix of your physics book and that's all. You can do it and master it in a day. Ask a friend to explain it to you if your not good at picking up math from a text book.

 

[TTigers70]

Trig should be minimal. However, be sure to have down whatever little amount of trig presents itself. As far as I can remember, trig really only comes up when looking at vectors. Unfortunately, there are manyyyy vector quantities in physics. Fortunately, this will give you tons of practice to nail down how to manipulate numbers with trig. This is a generalization but in non-calc based physics, I would argue that if someone does poorly it would be more attributable to their grasp of content than math skills. If you can draw out SOH CAH TOA, you should be fine (then all you have to worry about is the actual content)

 

[Physicsisphun]

Trig should be minimal. However, be sure to have down whatever little amount of trig presents itself. As far as I can remember, trig really only comes up when looking at vectors. Unfortunately, there are manyyyy vector quantities in physics. Fortunately, this will give you tons of practice to nail down how to manipulate numbers with trig. This is a generalization but in non-calc based physics, I would argue that if someone does poorly it would be more attributable to their grasp of content than math skills. If you can draw out SOH CAH TOA, you should be fine (then all you have to worry about is the actual content)

Agreed with all this. You should be fluent in the basics of trig - the definitions of sin, cos, and tan mainly - but beyond that there shouldn't be much trig. I majored in both physics and math and still refer to trig identity tables for anything more complicated than the very basics.

 

[wolverinepwns]

Calculus isn't required by many colleges ( though I will echo Wolfy by saying its highly recommended for you to take it; though if you suck at math or don't need it for your degree then don't do it).
You'll need to know trig before taking physics. Since you're not using calculus to figure out things you'll need to use the liner alternative which is trig.

I'm still shocked that Calculus isn't a requirement for all medschools!

 

[Wakesc]

I just got done with noncalc physics and we used very little trig other than sin/cos/tan. All you really need to know are the down and dirty basics of trig which you could teach yourself. As for Calculus being required, I know the majority of medical schools in Texas are now switching over to a prerequisite that requires either calculus or mathematical statistics (not taught by psychology dept.). I think statistics are enormously more useful to a doc than calculus.