Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 12.10
Set the sides to 1 to calculate basic values.
calculate the length of the hypotenuse. If you know the length of the hypotenuse
and the lengths of the two sides, then you can proceed to calculate any of the
values made available to you through the trigonometric ratios.
To extend this notion, consider a right triangle that possesses adjacent
and opposite sides that are 1 unit in length. Figure 12.10 illustrates such a
triangle. Given this version of a right triangle, you can then readily substitute the
values the triangle provides. For the sine and cosine values, the approximate
value of
1
is 0.707. For the secant and cosecant values, the approximate value of
p
p
1
is 1.414.
The important feature of such calculations is that they enable to you familiarize
yourself with a basic way to generate values for different types of angles. Some
angles appear often in trigonometric operations. Among these are 30 and
60 degrees.
Figure 12.11 illustrates an equilateral triangle. The significance of an equilateral
triangle, among other things, rests in the fact that you can create such a triangle
by joining the adjacent sides of two right triangles, as Figure 12.11 shows. If the
length of the opposite side of the right triangles is 1 and the hypotenuse is 2, then
 
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