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Description:

Sine is the opposite over the hypotenuse; cosine is the adjacent over the hypotenuse; and tangent is the opposite side over the adjacent side. Aha, now you see why there's an abbreviation.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

SOHCAHTOA, a la Shmoop.

00:07

Dorothy took the wrong turn on the yellow brick road and has ended up in the land of Sohcahtoa…

00:12

… where everything is abbreviated…

00:14

…from the meaning of the word Sohcahtoa…

00:16

… to the Sohcahtoan’s height…

00:17

… to their intolerance of small, yippy dogs.

00:23

Fortunately, The Wizard of Sohcahtoa averts a dognapping just in time

00:27

with an explanation of Sohcahtoa’s origins.

00:30

It turns out SOHCAHTOA stands for the three major trig functions, sine, cosine, and tangent.

00:44

Sine equals the opposite over the hypotenuse.

00:48

Cosine equals the adjacent over the hypotenuse.

00:53

And tangent equals the opposite over the adjacent.

00:59

Together, the abbreviations spell Sohcahtoa.

01:04

Let’s try an example…

01:06

Dorothy comes across a triangle in the land of SOHCAHTOA.

01:09

In order to keep going, she needs to solve for the sine, cosine, and tangent of the angle.

01:14

Sine equals opposite over hypotenuse, so sine of the angle equals four over five, or four-fifths.

01:24

Cosine is adjacent over hypotenuse…so three-fifths.

01:28

Finally tangent is opposite over adjacent, so four-thirds.

01:36

Looks like Toto will live to see another day outside the dog pound.

01:39

Because we all know what happens there.

01:41

Yes, Toto. Bacon and treats. Bacon and treats.

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