sin(2x) less than or equal to 2sin(x), for smallish x (!)

Once upon a time, when I was deep into trigonometry, I followed the trail of sine and cosine sums, with sin(A + B) = sin(A)cos(B) + cos(A)sin(B).
Then two more:
sin(A) + sin(B) = 2sin((A + B)/2)cos((A – B)/2)
and 2sin(A)cos(B) = sin(A + B) + sin(A – B)

Being unable to remember these last formulae (there are 8 altogether) I learned the basic one and derived, over and over again, the others.
In all of this I was never able to derive the basic formula until de Moivre’s theorem appeared.
So I had another go with trig and the simple version, and this is the result:

Aim of the game : sin(2x) = 2sin(x)cos(x)
First diagram:This does not look promising !
But what about sensible labelling –
Second diagram:

The vertical from F meets AD in J
and the line from F at right angles to AB meets AB in K.
So we have two pairs of congruent triangles, BH and HD are both equal to sin(x),
and BHD is A STRAIGHT LINE
Final diagram:
Now the vertical from B is sin(2x)

so sin(2x)/(2sin(x)) is the ratio which should be cos(x)

Fix it

Linear transformations, geometrically

 

Following a recent blog post relating a transformation of points on a line to points on another line to the graph of the equation relating the input and output I thought it would be interesting to explore the linear and affine mappings of a plane to itself from a geometrical construction perspective.

It was ! (To me anyway)

These linear mappings  (rigid and not so rigid motions) are usually  approached in descriptive and manipulative  ways, but always very specifically. I wanted to go directly from the transformation as equations directly to the transformation as geometry.

Taking an example, (x,y) maps to (X,Y) with the linear equations

X = x + y + 1 and Y = -0.5x +y

it was necessary to construct a point on the x axis with the value of X, and likewise a point on the y axis with the value of Y. The transformed (x,y) is then the point (X,Y) on the plane.

The construction below shows the points and lines needed to establish the point(X,0), which is G in the picture, starting with the point D as the (x,y)

 

The corresponding construction was done for Y, and the resulting point (X,Y) is point J. Point D was then forced to lie on a line, the sloping blue line, and as it is moved along the line the transformed point J moves on another line

Now the (x,y) point (B in the picture below, don’t ask why!) is forced to move on the blue circle. What does the transformed point do? It moves on an ellipse, whose size and orientation are determined by the actual transformation. At this point matrix methods become very handy.(though the 2D matrix methods cannot deal with translations)

All this was constructed with my geometrical construction program (APP if you like) called GEOSTRUCT and available as a free web based application from

http://www.mathcomesalive.com/geostruct/geostructforbrowser1.html

The program produces a listing of all the actions requested, and these are listed below for this application:

Line bb moved to pass through Point A
New line cc created, through points B and C
New Point D
New line dd created, through Point D, at right angles to Line aa
New line ee created, through Point D, at right angles to Line bb
New line ff created, through Point D, parallel to Line cc
New point E created as the intersection of Line ff and Line aa
New line gg created, through Point E, at right angles to Line aa
New line hh created, through Point B, at right angles to Line bb
New point F created as the intersection of Line hh and Line gg
New line ii created, through Point F, parallel to Line cc
New point G created as the intersection of Line ii and Line aa

G is the X coordinate, from X = x + y + 1 (added by me)

New line jj created, through Point G, at right angles to Line aa
New line kk created, through Point D, at right angles to Line cc
New point H created as the intersection of Line kk and Line bb
New point I created, as midpoint of points H and B
New line ll created, through Point I, at right angles to Line bb
New point J created as the intersection of Line ll and Line jj

J is the Y coordinate, from Y = -x/2 + y  (added by me)
and K is the transformed point (X,Y) Point J chosen as the tracking point (added by me)

New Line mm
Point D moved and placed on Line mm

 

GEOSTRUCT now with Save and Fetch for your constructions

Thanks to intense use of the internet I finally found a simple, understandable way of implementing Save and Fetch operations, enabling the keeping and reusing of any construction.

Here is a reminder of the application (app, program, software, whatever), with the file handling operations:

The user panel and a simple example of three points on a circle, with the bisectors of the pairs of points.

The history panel showing the actions that have been carried out

The Save popup,and, below, the resulting text file.

There is now a not quite finished Spanish option – just click “ESPANOL”

Also a modified “move object” procedure for use with a tablet,or even a smartphone.

The whole application is constructed as a web page, and to run it just click this link: geostruct

The full url is http://www.mathcomesalive.com/mathsite/geostruct/geostructforbrowser1.html