Your Teacher is WRONG about SOHCAHTOA! (How to do Trigonometric ratios but better)

Your teacher is wrong about trigonometric ratios and SOHCAHTOA. What we really need to be learning instead is a thing called TRIGONOMETRIC SCALARS.
Sin, Cos and Tan are all still there, Opposite, adjacent and hypotenuse are all here too. It's just a different, and BETTER way of thinking about the relationship between the angles and sides of a right angle triangle.
This new way of thinking will make your life easier and better, especially when you move on to learning about vectors in component form later in your school career.
Show this video to your teacher, and (politely) let them know that they're wrong!

There are videos for:
Queensland: General Mathematics
Queensland: Mathematical Methods
Queensland: Mathematics Specialist

Western Australia: Mathematics Applications
Western Australia: Mathematics Methods
Western Australia: Mathematics Specialist

[robertdepesci]

its been taught the wrong way because no one is doing the dance/chant with the teaching

[jeremyconner]

If you know a ratio of sides, you know the angle measure. That is the power of trig ratios. You have illustrated the power of trig scalars nicely. Trig ratios are equivalent to trig scalars, so I don't see where teachers are "wrong." One of the high school standards in algebra is to recognize and make use of equivalent statements, for which your title can be more problematic than helpful.

[benjodgers]

Very nice! I like it. Why so many thumbs down?

[toschestation]

So heres a funny story, one time I missed school, they were teaching SOH COH TOA, i knew they were doing this, but I didn’t know they were doing SCT, and thus I just looked it up I found an equation set, trig scalers! So I started using them, all my classmates were on this method and I thought it was so weird, but who got one of the best grades, me

[pgt]

My favourite part is the grimace in the thumbnail 😀 I'm okay with this idea. The vectors kinda convinced me. It reminds me of the normal way students are taught to generate an equation for a straight line from the gradient and a point. It's so inefficient. I prefer Ax+By=C where the gradient, m = -A/B

[lily.beauty.nailsu]

I always thought that there were a better way to do SOH CAH TOA, I was not sure but now I just learned something that I should learn sooner

[lily.beauty.nailsu]

I have one suggestion:
H = O/Sin0
H = A/Cos0
A = O/Tan0

What do you think?

[orangegorilla]

I always used trignometric scalars because as I found it easier but now, because of your video, I will always remember that trignometric scalars are indeed superior... thank you

[andyjames]

I agree with the sentiment, but I think trying to sell it with “less rearranging is needed” is the wrong call. I am considering trying to teach sin initially as a function that relates the angles to the height when a 1m ladder leans against a wall, and similarly cos as the distance the foot of the ladder is from the wall. This can then lead to both scaling up, supporting vector components, and the unit circle, both of which are far more valuable to understanding trigonometry than SOHCAHTOA, which inhibits pupils’ ability to understand trig graphs intuitively.

[travishunt]

The ratios help the student understand the “why” aspect much better than the scalars. The scalar may be easier to plug in and solve, but after practice they do the “rearrange” portion without writing it down anyway…

[nosretep]

So similar to the techniques for solving matrix. What I had learned self study year old textbook, then exposed to latest... Wow that was ignorant... New technique!

[HallmarkJD]

The Pythagorean identify becomes more intuitive too

[jamesrobbins]

Just a thought but maybe there are a lot of thumbs down because you are taking something simple and compacting it. Just an opinion from someone that hasn't taught math but understands it a little.