The angle 60 is shown below in standard position, together with a unit circle.

The image shows a unit circle and a right triangle in quadrant 1 with a 60-degree angle in standard position. The hypotenuse, which is also the terminal side of the angle, has a length of 1. The terminal side intersects the circle at (one half, the square root of 3 over 2).

Use the coordinates of the point of intersection of the terminal side and the circle to compute cot 60.

1 answer

To find cot 60, we first need to find the x and y coordinates of the point of intersection.

From the given information, we have:
x = 1/2
y = sqrt(3)/2

Now, cot 60 is equal to adjacent over opposite. In this case, the adjacent side is x and the opposite side is y. Therefore, cot 60 can be calculated as follows:

cot 60 = x/y = (1/2) / (sqrt(3)/2) = 1/sqrt(3) = sqrt(3)/3

So, cot 60 is equal to sqrt(3)/3.