Figure 1 A right-angled triangle
Trigonometry, the mathematics of angles and the sides of triangles, is frequently used to analyse situations in mechanics. For example, you are often required to visualise how an arrangement of forces can be related to a rightangled triangle, in order to resolve those forces into components or to combine them into a resultant.
A typical example of a question that requires trigonometric ideas is Question 5 in the June 2018 AQA 7408/1 paper. The question has been reproduced here by permission of AQA. The answers that follow are the responsibility of PHYSICS REVIEW, and have neither been provided nor approved by AQA.
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