Coterminal and Reference Angles
Instructions
- The first videos below explain the concepts in this section.
- This page includes exercises that you should attempt to solve yourself. You can check your answers and watch the videos explaining how to solve the exercises.
Concepts
- Draw angles in standard position
- Defining coterminal angles
- Calculate negative and positive coterminal angles
- Locating and calculating the measure of referene angles
Exercises
Directions: You should attempt to solve the problems first and then watch the video to see the solution.
1. Find one negative and one positive coterminal angle for \(60^\circ\) and \(\dfrac{\pi}{3}.\)
2. Draw an angle of \(120^\circ\) in standard position and find its reference angle.
3. Draw an angle of \(\dfrac{7\pi}{4}\) in standard position and find its reference angle.
4. Find an angle between 0 and \(2\pi\) that is coterminal to \(\dfrac{19\pi}{6}.\) Then draw the angle in standard position and find its reference angle.
5. Find an angle between \(0^\circ\) and \(360^\circ\) that is coterminal to \(-660^\circ\). Then draw the angle in standard position and find its reference angle.
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Solution Method: First, to draw the angle in standard position we need to place its vertex on the origin, and its initial side on the positive x-axis. Then we just determine where the terminal side needs to be. The \(120^\circ\) angle is positive so it's measured counterclockwise from the initial side. Each quadrant is \(90^\circ\) so \(120^\circ\) will lie 30 degrees inside quadrant 2.