The Unit Circle


You should know the sines, cosines and tangents that come from 30-60-90 right triangles and isosceles right triangles. Remember that $\pi/6$ radians is 30 degrees, $\pi/4$ radians is 45 degrees, and $\pi/3$ radians is 60 degrees:

$\sin(\pi/6) = 1/2;$ $\cos(\pi/6) = \sqrt{3}/2;$ $\tan(\pi/6)= \sqrt{3}/3$
$\sin(\pi/4)=\sqrt{2}/2;$$\cos(\pi/4) = \sqrt{2}/2;$ $\tan(\pi/4)=1$
$\sin(\pi/3)=\sqrt{3}/2,$ $\cos(\pi/3)=1/2;$ $\tan(\pi/3)=\sqrt{3}$

From these values, we can figure out the trig functions of common angles in the second, third and fourth quadrant. These are developed in the following two videos: