Find the exact values of the trigonometric functions at an angle of 7π/6 on the unit circle
To solve this problem, let’s first locate the angle $\frac{7\pi}{6}$ on the unit circle. This angle is in the third quadrant because $\frac{7\pi}{6}$ is greater than $\pi$ but less than $\frac{3\pi}{2}$.
The reference angle is calculated by subtracting $\pi$ from $\frac{7\pi}{6}$:
$$\frac{7\pi}{6} – \pi = \frac{7\pi}{6} – \frac{6\pi}{6} = \frac{\pi}{6}$$
In the third quadrant, both sine and cosine are negative. The reference angle $\frac{\pi}{6}$ has sine and cosine values of $\frac{1}{2}$ and $\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}$ respectively.
Therefore, the exact values of the trigonometric functions at $\frac{7\pi}{6}$ are:
$$ \sin \left( \frac{7\pi}{6} \right) = -\frac{1}{2} $$
$$ \cos \left( \frac{7\pi}{6} \right) = -\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2} $$
$$ \tan \left( \frac{7\pi}{6} \right) = \frac{\sin \left( \frac{7\pi}{6} \right)}{\cos \left( \frac{7\pi}{6} \right)} = \frac{-\frac{1}{2}}{-\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}} = \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}} = \frac{\sqrt{3}}{3} $$