# Trigonometry - good visual resources?



## Bleddyn (Aug 29, 2018)

Hello All,

Currently in school for my 2nd term and working on series & parallel R L circuits, and wow, my brain is just melting....

I'm an older apprentice (2nd career guy), and it's been 25 years since I last did trig in school. Instructor just handed out a page with about 100 formulas for for impedance, inductance, theta angle, etc - and I'm having a really rough time wrapping my head around it all. I'm more of a visual learner, so pages of equations don't do much to help me understand whats going on.

Wondering if any of you have any resources (books, videos, websites) that you found helpful and could recommend?

Cheers,
Neil


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## splatz (May 23, 2015)

You'll find tons out there ... 



https://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/sohcahtoa.html 


https://www.mathwarehouse.com/trigonometry/ 



https://www.dummies.com/education/math/trigonometry/trigonometry-for-dummies-cheat-sheet/ 



https://www.skillsyouneed.com/num/trigonometry.html


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## Bird dog (Oct 27, 2015)

Come up with your own real world examples. Ask your instructor for some. IIRC trig is used to lay out concentric bends for a pipe rack.


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## macmikeman (Jan 23, 2007)

I made an A+ in Trig in 1st year junior college. I never made anything better than a c in any math class before that. But I studied my ass off in Grade 13 as it were. Cause I didn't wan't to end up banging nails on them hot Florida roofs or working on a shrimp boat for my whole life. Luckily I ended up getting into electrician school. And I cannot remember one thing at all after all that there study time of Trig. 

As far as Trig and electrical work goes, it's a 30 deg when the handle is straight up so double the measurement and make the second pencil mark. Those other multipliers are the ones you can look up on that Benfield Card you keep in your wallet. Macmikeman has spoken!


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## telsa (May 22, 2015)

Bleddyn said:


> Hello All,
> 
> Currently in school for my 2nd term and working on series & parallel R L circuits, and wow, my brain is just melting....
> 
> ...


All of that junk is used strictly by electrical engineers -- not electricians.

You're instructor can't figure that stuff out, either.

BTW, such equations drift off into physics.


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## dronai (Apr 11, 2011)

telsa said:


> All of that junk is used strictly by electrical engineers -- not electricians.
> 
> You're instructor can't figure that stuff out, either.
> 
> BTW, such equations drift off into physics.



Telsa- " Special Skills, Interests, and Hobbies
"Polymath]"


Help him !


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## MikeFL (Apr 16, 2016)

Khan Academy is a very good, and free, website for learning. Math is the topic he started on. Check it out. https://www.khanacademy.org/


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## Navyguy (Mar 15, 2010)

What I remember from Trig = SOH CAH TOA...

Search NancyPi - good basics and not to hard to look at either... MIT grad that does a good job at breaking down the basics. Each video is about 10 mins or so - easy amount of info to haul-in

Cheers
John


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## Bird dog (Oct 27, 2015)

Navyguy said:


> What I remember from Trig = SOH CAH TOA...
> 
> Search NancyPi - good basics and not to hard to look at either... MIT grad that does a good job at breaking down the basics. Each video is about 10 mins or so - easy amount of info to haul-in
> 
> ...


Is there a Canadian "Ugly's" book? If not is there a good alternative for the OP? TIA


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## 99cents (Aug 20, 2012)

I thought Ugly’s was about American women. It’s electrical?


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## Navyguy (Mar 15, 2010)

@Bird dog The main publication that the students use in Canada (at least where I am) is the “Nelson” books. They are divided into Residential, Commercial and Industrial. The books don’t exactly match the course layout. As an example according to the OP’s post he is looking for impedance calculations, which is covered in the industrial book (Industrial 3rd year). The book he has (Commercial 2nd year) talks about impedance for short-circuit calculations, but uses the given number, not a calculated number.

I am not sure what his requirements are specifically…but I would think any of the common Ugly’s would work fine for him – any of the books on things like conduit bending, motor control, electrical fundamentals, etc would be good. A number of years ago I picked up an Ugly’s for grounding and bonding… the principles were sound, but the examples and citations were not good because they were NEC and not CEC.

I probably have a half-dozen books that I have picked up over the years (well before you-tube) that I still have. I am a reader, so in the OP’s case, I would probably be happy with pages of formulas 

Cheers
John


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## eddy current (Feb 28, 2009)

telsa said:


> All of that junk is used strictly by electrical engineers -- not electricians.
> 
> You're instructor can't figure that stuff out, either.
> 
> BTW, such equations drift off into physics.


Regardless of who actually uses it, apprentices here must learn it. It is part of our curriculum.


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## eddy current (Feb 28, 2009)

@Navyguy, do the students where you are not use the “Delmar” text book? It covers all of this theory and is required here for all levels of trade school. 



The Nelson books are also used here but they are used for prints class, not theory class.


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## Cosmorok (Jun 3, 2019)

eddy current said:


> @Navyguy, do the students where you are not use the “Delmar” text book? It covers all of this theory and is required here for all levels of trade school.
> 
> 
> 
> The Nelson books are also used here but they are used for prints class, not theory class.


Delmar has a big section at the back that covers all formulas. AC, DC, parallel, series. The instructor I had teaching me in second term made booklets for the class. Basically comes down to triangles and manipulating formulas. When I get home I'll take some photos of the booklets.


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## Navyguy (Mar 15, 2010)

@eddy current I would have to look at the requirements for the other courses. There might be other electronics / electrical theory books that are required.

In my courses I only use the CEC and the "Nelson" books for Installations (all three levels), Monitoring / Communications. I also use the CSA book for C of Q prep, but that course is set-up so you are just required to follow the CSA program.

There is an effort to move away from the published books and go to a institutional supplied reference for all three levels. In the end I am not sure if the cost to produce can be recouped and the effort / resources cannot be spent in other parts of the program... but not my call and way above my pay grade.

Cheers
John


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## Navyguy (Mar 15, 2010)

I just searched our bookstore and found the Herman "Practical Problems in Math for Electricians" (ISBN 9781111313470). Not sure if that is one of our course books or just generally available... sounds like it might be a possible source.

https://www.bkstr.com/niagarawellan...al-problems-in-math-for-electricians-787323-1

Cheers

John


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## eddy current (Feb 28, 2009)

@Navyguy the Delmar has been a major staple here for a long time. I even used it when I went to school in the 90’s, and it is still used here now for theory in all levels. It covers pretty much everything except electronics. 

I used to teach monitoring and communications 15 years ago at Algonquin, it was all fire alarm back then. 

Interesting how all the colleges are supposed to follow the same provincial curriculum, yet they can be very different.


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## Bleddyn (Aug 29, 2018)

MikeFL said:


> Khan Academy is a very good, and free, website for learning. Math is the topic he started on. Check it out. https://www.khanacademy.org/


Thanks for that MikeFL!

I hadn't even considered looking at Kahn Academy .... my kids have done stuff on there before at school, so in my mind I thought it was more kid-stuff (hadn't really looked properly before). Just spent the past couple of hours watching their videos on AC analysis. They're very helpful.

Cheers,
Neil


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## Bleddyn (Aug 29, 2018)

Navyguy said:


> What I remember from Trig = SOH CAH TOA...
> 
> Search NancyPi - good basics and not to hard to look at either... MIT grad that does a good job at breaking down the basics. Each video is about 10 mins or so - easy amount of info to haul-in
> 
> ...


Thanks John. 

Just looked her up on YouTube. *Looks* like that'll be an easy way to kill a few hours on a Saturday too... :wink:


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## Navyguy (Mar 15, 2010)

eddy current said:


> @Navyguy the Delmar has been a major staple here for a long time. I even used it when I went to school in the 90’s, and it is still used here now for theory in all levels. It covers pretty much everything except electronics.
> 
> I used to teach monitoring and communications 15 years ago at Algonquin, it was all fire alarm back then.
> 
> Interesting how all the colleges are supposed to follow the same provincial curriculum, yet they can be very different.


Maybe I will pick one up for a personal reference; never hurts to have something although I am sure I have it covered off in other books.

I have found with Level II and Level III that there definitely is a difference between graduates of the different colleges, but also even a difference in the graduates in different cohorts of the same school.

Have been teaching adults for a long time (in a military context); I am certainly aware of how / why this happens... in the military there are steps taken to ensure that a student from any course (any cohort) generally has the same learning experience regardless of where / when they took the course or who taught it. Having said that, there is little regard for things like "academic freedom" in that context while in the college system there seems to be a less regimented system of learner outcomes to ensure there is a consistent approach between cohorts and / or institutions.

Not saying one way is better then the other; while I think there should be a "standard" for essentially what is a "Performance Based" program, our (in the "Royal" context) inability to standardize a course of instruction leaves me a bit confused.

I don't think this approach would work in courses of study where the knowledge is purely theoretical such as many university courses or any research type course.

Cheers
John


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## CoolWill (Jan 5, 2019)

99cents said:


> I thought Ugly’s was about American women. It’s electrical?


Ain't that the truth.


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## B-Nabs (Jun 4, 2014)

eddy current said:


> @Navyguy, do the students where you are not use the “Delmar” text book? It covers all of this theory and is required here for all levels of trade school.
> 
> 
> 
> The Nelson books are also used here but they are used for prints class, not theory class.


I have Delmar's, used it in school here in BC. It's a great textbook. 

Sent from my SM-G975W using Tapatalk


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## MikeFL (Apr 16, 2016)

Bleddyn said:


> Thanks for that MikeFL!
> 
> I hadn't even considered looking at Kahn Academy .... my kids have done stuff on there before at school, so in my mind I thought it was more kid-stuff (hadn't really looked properly before). Just spent the past couple of hours watching their videos on AC analysis. They're very helpful.
> 
> ...


IIRC that guy has a Master's or Ph.D. from MIT and was asked by his niece to do a video on algebra. It went viral and he was asked to do them on other areas of math. It got so big, Gates & Buffet dropped bank to make that his full time job. Today you can do EE on there. Not sure if they have nuclear physics (yet).


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## Phillipd (Jan 7, 2020)

I have a super cheap Casio calculator for school, FX-260 ($9.99 in Canada) I’m 27 years out of high school myself so I feel your pain. Anyways there’s an R-P function on the calculator. Once you figure out your inductive minus capacitance or the other way around it’s super easy. On my calculator ALWAYS enter your resistive value first. Say for instance your looking for St, enter your power in watts first, press shift then the + sign(r-p function) then enter in your qt value then press enter. This will give you your st in VA’s. Leave that number on your screen then press shift and x-y and there’s your angle. Then press COS and there’s your power factor. That totally eliminates c square = a square + b square and soa cah toa and pf=p/st.


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## Phillipd (Jan 7, 2020)

I guess I got ahead of myself, RL is just 2 values to form 1. Enter in R then do the rp function then enter in L that’ll give you Z then shift x-y to get angle. Cos that will give you power factor or efficiency if asked. RLC will be after but it’s just C cancelling out L to form a new triangle with R.


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## macmikeman (Jan 23, 2007)

And don't forget to always twist those wires together good and tight with your linemen's before you put the wirenut onto them.............. 






Harry taught me that....


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## Phillipd (Jan 7, 2020)

I know eh? A crap ton of math to learn how to run wires,I guess they’re preparing the students for whichever direction they may choose to go. It would come in handy for power factor corrections


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## Cosmorok (Jun 3, 2019)

Here are the photos of the booklets, hope they help.

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmLHPcKQ


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## Bleddyn (Aug 29, 2018)

Cosmorok said:


> Here are the photos of the booklets, hope they help.
> 
> https://flic.kr/s/aHsmLHPcKQ


Thank you for taking the time to do that. I really appreciate it.

Cheers,
Neil


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## Cosmorok (Jun 3, 2019)

You're welcome, glad to help.


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