Trigonometry/Trigonometric Unit Circle and Graph Reference

The Unit Circle

The unit circle is a commonly used tool in trigonometry because it helps the user to remember the special angles and their trigonometric functions. The unit circle is a circle drawn with its center at the origin of a graph(0,0), and with a radius of 1. All angles are measured starting from the x-axis in quadrant one and may go around the unit circle any number of degrees. Points on the outside of the circle that are in line with the terminal (ending) sides of the angles are very useful to know, as they give the trigonometric function of the angle through their coordinants. The format is (cos, sin).

Note that in trigonometry, an angle can be of any size, positive or negative. An angle larger than 360º means that you have gone round the circle more than once.