Visualization in Mathematics using Geometer's Sketchpad

Jon Wilkin, Northern Virginia Community College.  www.nvcc.edu/home/jwilkin 

These models require the user have The Geometer's Sketchpad, version 4, installed on their computer. The software is available from the publisher at www.keypress.com 

Trigonometry

sine_with_arc - illustrates obtaining the graph of the first period of the sine function by "unwrapping" the sine function defined on the unit circle

cosine_first_period - illustrates obtaining the graph of the first period of the cosine function by "unwrapping" the cosine function defined on the unit circle.

sine&csc - traces the graphs of both the sine function and the cosecant function as a point traverses the unit circle.

arcsin - traces two periods of the sine graph and its inverse relation, then allows the user to overlay the graph of the arcsin function.

tangent - traces the tangent graph as a point traverses the unit circle

tangent&cot - traces both the tangent function and the cotangent function graphs as a point traverses the unit circle.

tan&inverse - traces the graph of the tangent function, then its inverse relation, then overlays the graph of the arctan function.

tan&arctan - similar to above, but traces only the fundamental period of the tangent function. By Bryan Dorner, PLU

y=A sin(Bx+C)+D - this is the graph of the sine function, with A, B, C, and D as parameters whose values can be changed by dragging points on line segments. As the value of a parameter changes, the graph changes appropriately. The function can be easily changed to any other trig function by right clicking the function and choosing "edit."