Reference Angle

lewch45

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Sep 29, 2005
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Can someone please help with 2 problems dealing with reference angles. The directions say to find the measure of the reference angle for the given angle.

(1) theta = 18/7 pi

(2) theta = -650 degrees

Thanks in advance for any help!!
 
I will assume that "reference angle" means "the angle between 0° and 360° the corresponds with the given angle". If this is not (equivalent to) the definition you're supposed to be using, please reply with corrections. Thank you.

Under the above assumption, you can find equivalent angles by adding or subtracting "once around" (2pi or 360°, depending on whether you're in radians or degrees) as often as you need, until you get something that is between 0 and 2pi (or 0° and 360°).

1) Hint: (18/7)pi = (14/7 + 4/7)pi = (2 + 4/7)pi = 2pi + (4/7)pi

How many "once around's" should you add to or subtract from this to leave something that is between 0 and 2pi?

2) Hint: 2(360°) = 720°

Eliz.
 
We can ‘throw away’ multiples of \(\displaystyle 2\pi\) and of \(\displaystyle 360^0\)

\(\displaystyle \frac{{18\pi }}{7} = \frac{{4\pi }}{7} + \frac{{14\pi }}{7}\) hence the reference angle is \(\displaystyle \frac{{4\pi }}{7}\).

Also \(\displaystyle - 650^o = 70^o - 2(360^o )\) so the reference angle is \(\displaystyle 70^o\)
 
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