The Unit Circle
These giant right triangles came in handy as illustrations of a number of trig concepts.
Early on we used these triangles (a 45,45,90 and a 30,60,90) to reinforce the sweet 16 angles of the unite circle.
Here’s the challenge:
You have six minutes to position yourselves so that each member of our class is standing at one of the sweet sixteen angles. You are given the location of the origin, along with these 2 triangles. GO!
An extra challenge: designate 2 students as the only people who are allowed to touch the triangles. I found this to be a good way to involve students who might usually hang back during group activities.
As you might imagine, these triangles became useful as physical demonstrations of trig identities and relationships as well.