References: Trig derivatives from geometry
Source material
Section titled “Source material”Source curriculum (structural mirror, cited as further study):• 3Blue1Brown, Essence of Calculus, Chapter 4: "Trig Derivatives through geometry" Creator: Grant Sanderson Lesson page: https://www.3blue1brown.com/lessons/derivatives-trig-functions Series index: https://www.3blue1brown.com/?topic=calculus License: copyright Grant Sanderson; videos published on his site and YouTubeClawdemy's lessons are original prose that follows the pedagogical arc of thisseries. We do not reproduce or transcribe the videos; we cite them as therecommended companion. All rights to the original videos remain with the creator.Watch this next
Section titled “Watch this next”- Trig Derivatives through geometry (3Blue1Brown) by Grant Sanderson. The video this lesson mirrors. Watching the point travel around the unit circle while its velocity arrow stays perpendicular to the radius makes the derivatives
(-sin x, cos x)something you see rather than memorize, and the link between the circular motion and the wave-shaped graphs is much clearer animated. About ten minutes.
Going deeper
Section titled “Going deeper”-
Essence of Calculus (full series) by 3Blue1Brown. The series this track follows. The previous chapter derived the power rule from growing squares and cubes; the next (Visualizing the chain rule and product rule) handles functions that are multiplied together or nested inside one another.
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Khan Academy: Calculus for a slower, exercise-driven treatment of the derivatives of trigonometric functions, with practice problems and immediate feedback.
Adjacent topics
Section titled “Adjacent topics”Where this sits in the track.
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The power rule from geometry (previous lesson). The power rule covered powers of
t; sine and cosine are not powers, so they needed their own picture. Same nudge-and-look method, different shape: a point on a circle instead of a growing square. -
Taylor series (final lesson). The small-angle approximation
sin(x) ≈ xglimpsed here is the first term of the sine’s Taylor series. The capstone lesson generalizes that move, approximating any function near a point by reading off its derivatives, with sine as a recurring example.