Members: Trigonometry

Trigonometry

Triangles appear everywhere in rope based systems and, while there are many ‘rules-of-thumb’ to help us understand and resolve forces, sometimes it is important to be more precise and calculate exact ratios.

The trigonometry covered in high school explained this but, at the time, most of us could not foresee any real-world application for this work so promptly forgot the principles. One term that is often taught is SOH-CAH-TOA (pronounced ‘sock-a-toe-a’) and many probably recall this but forget its application.