Cosine of 0 degrees?

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Cosine of 0 degrees?

Cosine tells you how far along the horizontal axis a point on the unit circle is for a given angle, or the adjacent side over the hypotenuse in a right triangle. At 0 degrees you’re pointing along the positive x-axis, where the unit circle is at (1, 0). The horizontal coordinate there is 1, so cos 0 degrees equals 1. You can also see this with a degenerate right triangle: the adjacent side equals the hypotenuse, giving a ratio of 1. The value 0 would be the sine of 0 degrees, not the cosine, and -1 appears at 180 degrees.

Cosine tells you how far along the horizontal axis a point on the unit circle is for a given angle, or the adjacent side over the hypotenuse in a right triangle. At 0 degrees you’re pointing along the positive x-axis, where the unit circle is at (1, 0). The horizontal coordinate there is 1, so cos 0 degrees equals 1. You can also see this with a degenerate right triangle: the adjacent side equals the hypotenuse, giving a ratio of 1. The value 0 would be the sine of 0 degrees, not the cosine, and -1 appears at 180 degrees.

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