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Illustration of a unit circle. The variable t is an angle measure. Animation of the act of unrolling the circumference of a unit circle, a circle with radius of 1. Since C = 2πr, the circumference of a unit circle is 2π. In mathematics, a unit circle is a circle of unit radius—that is, a radius of 1. [1]
When radians (rad) are employed, the angle is given as the length of the arc of the unit circle subtended by it: the angle that subtends an arc of length 1 on the unit circle is 1 rad (≈ 57.3°), and a complete turn (360°) is an angle of 2 π (≈ 6.28) rad.
All of the right-angled triangles are similar, i.e. the ratios between their corresponding sides are the same. For sin, cos and tan the unit-length radius forms the hypotenuse of the triangle that defines them. The reciprocal identities arise as ratios of sides in the triangles where this unit line is no longer the hypotenuse.
Illustration of the sine and tangent inequalities. The figure at the right shows a sector of a circle with radius 1. The sector is θ/(2 π) of the whole circle, so its area is θ/2. We assume here that θ < π /2. = = = =
Similar right triangles illustrating the tangent and secant trigonometric functions Trigonometric functions and their reciprocals on the unit circle. The Pythagorean theorem applied to the blue triangle shows the identity 1 + cot 2 θ = csc 2 θ, and applied to the red triangle shows that 1 + tan 2 θ = sec 2 θ.
Trigonometric ratios can also be represented using the unit circle, which is the circle of radius 1 centered at the origin in the plane. [37] In this setting, the terminal side of an angle A placed in standard position will intersect the unit circle in a point (x,y), where = and = . [37]
The trigonometric functions of angles that are multiples of 15°, 18°, or 22.5° have simple algebraic values. These values are listed in the following table for angles from 0° to 45°. [1]
where A is the area of an epicycloid with the smaller circle of radius r and the larger circle of radius kr (), assuming the initial point lies on the larger circle. A = ( − 1 ) k + 3 8 π a 2 {\displaystyle A={\frac {(-1)^{k}+3}{8}}\pi a^{2}}