MTH 251

Computer Lab 5

Names:

Section 3.6: Trigonometric Functions. Due Wednesday, February 19

In this lab you will find tangent lines to the graph of f (x) = sin(x) at given angles, find the
corresponding x-values, and the slopes of those lines.
Open the applet www.geogebratube.org/student/m7039. You will see a sine curve over a
domain that includes the interval [, 2]. You will also find three movable segments and a
movable equilateral triangle. The midpoint of each segment is included to allow you to read
its coordinates.

Figure 1. Tools for finding slopes of tangent lines.

We can use the Move tool

to drag the segments and triangles by clicking on the segment
(not the point), placing them tangent to the graph, and determine what the corresponding
value of x is.
1. Finding x-values where the tangent line to the graph is horizontal (i.e., slope = 0).
Drag the horizontal segment to places on the graph of f (x) = sin(x) and find the values
of x where the slope of the tangent line is 0. List all the approximate values of x
where the derivative of sine is zero in the domain given. Note that the midpoint of the
horizontal line segment is labeled as V. (Hint: There are three points on f where the
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slope of the tangent line is 0.)

x

2. Finding the x-values where the slope of the tangent line is equal to +1.
Drag the segment at 45 to find points on the graph where the tangent line has a slope
of +1. (Hint: There are two points on f where the slope of the tangent line is +1.)
x

3. Finding the x-values where the slope of the tangent line is equal to 1.
In the same way, drag the segment at 135 to find points on the graph where the tangent
line has a slope of 1. (Hint: There are two points on f where the slope of the tangent
line is 1.)
x
x
4. Finding the x-values where the tangent line forms an angle of 30 .
Use the lower side of the equilateral triangle to find all the points where the tangent to
the graph forms an angle of 30 . (Hint: There are three points on f where the tangent
line forms an angle of 30 .)
x

Also, what is the slope of the tangent line at each of these points? (Hint: Recall from
MTH 112 that the slope of a line that makes an angle with horizontal can be computed
by tan().)
Slope
(Make sure that your calculator is in degree mode!)
5. Finding the x-values where the tangent line forms an angle of 150 .
Use the upper side of the equilateral triangle to find all the points where the tangent to
the graph forms an angle of 150 . (Hint: There are three points on f where the tangent
line forms an angle of 150 .)
x

Also, what is the slope of the tangent line at each of these points?
Slope
(Make sure that your calculator is in degree mode!)

6. Plotting the values of the slopes on an associated graph.

Make a table of values using all of the points you identified above in order of increasing x-values (from to 2).
x

Slope

7. Plot the points (x, s), where s is the slope of the tangent line on the axes below. DO
NOT CONNECT THESE POINTS YET!
s
1
0.75
0.5
0.25

x
3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5

0 0.5

1.5

0.25
0.5
0.75
1
1.25

2.5

3.5

4.5

5.5

8. Should you join the points on the graph that you created with piecewise linear segments
of a continuous smooth curve? Discuss whether the slopes of the tangent lines to the
original function (i.e., f (x) = sin(x)) change gradually or abruptly and how this would
be related to the two ways of joining the points. After discussing with your partner,
go back to #7 and sketch a curve on the axes above connecting the points.

9. What do y-coordinates (technically we should call them the s-coordinates. . .) on

this new graph represent in terms of the corresponding x-values for the original function
f (x) = sin(x)?

10. Use the applet www.geogebratube.org/student/m7111 to trace the values of the slopes
of the tangent lines to f (x) = sin(x) for different values of x. (You can do this by
dragging the point A on the graph of f (x) = sin(x) left and right!) What function
might the new graph represent?

11. Open the applet www.geogebratube.org/student/m7113, which essentially displays the

points you graphed above. Use this applet to check your conjecture above by graphing
the function to see if it goes through the points. (Type y=blah in the input bar,
where blah is your conjectured function.) Was your conjecture correct?

12. Based on this computer lab, we conclude that (fill in the blank)
d
(sin(x)) =
dx

.
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