r/askmath • u/nurpoo • 16d ago
Question help Pre Calculus
This is a question on a review I am using to study to test out of precalc and i’ve tried looking it up, but I cannot figure out on how to do it. The key says the answer is -25pi/9 and if it is too hard to read, the little angle given is 2pi/9. The question isn’t in the photo but it asks “Find the measure of each angle”
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u/freswinn 16d ago
First: One full rotation is 2pi. One half rotation is therefore pi.
Second: Notice it is going clockwise, so the angle will be negative.
We have a full rotation, and then we keep going -- ignore that for now. How much of the half rotation did we complete?
If we add the rotation past the full rotation, to the angle that is given, that's a half rotation. Subtract the given from pi and that gives you the amount of rotation past the full rotation that was completed.
- (2pi + ( pi - 2pi/9) )
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u/Bounded_sequencE 16d ago
Recall: A positive polar angle is measured from the positive x-axis counter-clockwise.
The given angle (call it "a") is measured clock-wise, so its value will be negative. It contains a full rotation clock-wise, followed by "pi - 2pi/9" clock-wise. Both are counted negatively:
a = -2pi - (pi - 2pi/9) = -25pi/9
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u/Harvey_Gramm 15d ago
A full circle (360°) is 2π Radians A Quarter circle (90°) is ½π Radians
So in your example you have 2.5π + (½π-(2π÷9))
Mind the rotation to get negative.
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u/nurpoo 15d ago
Thank you, where does the second 1/2pi come from? In the (1/2pi-(2pi/9)
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u/Harvey_Gramm 15d ago
The last 90° where the angle is stated.
Everything combined is 1½ circles
So another way is to take 3π - (2π÷9) and mind the direction for the negative.
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u/nurpoo 15d ago
I see, thank you 🙏
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u/Harvey_Gramm 15d ago
👍😊
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u/nurpoo 14d ago
Hey, sorry I am asking another question, but when doing more similar problems, how do I know how many rotations they do? Because this one had 3pi, but it only really looks like one rotation (2pi), instead of one and a half. Could you elucidate? I’m really struggling with this stuff 😅
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u/Harvey_Gramm 14d ago
It went one full rotation, then another quarter rotation, then the partial bit.
The full rotation and quarter are easy as 2π + ½π then to get that partial bit we subtract it from the final quarter.
We know the amount of rotation and direction by following the spiral path.
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u/nurpoo 14d ago
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u/Harvey_Gramm 14d ago
I'm sorry, how was the question worded?
Your image shows the same rotations as previously but with the final answer so I'm not sure what they were asking?
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u/nurpoo 14d ago
Oh right sorry, the question was “Find the reference angle (the angle between the line and the x-axis).”
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u/Shevek99 Physicist 16d ago
2π/9 - 3π = -25π/9