Towards Math Proficiency: Trigonometry

Over the last few months, I’ve traded my keyboard for a pen, paper, and calculator to self-study maths. The motivation came from wanting to be more skilled and a newfound appreciation for the subject. Fortunately, one of my New Year’s Resolutions for 2026 was to stop using Discord and the amount of time I’ve reclaimed was enough to learn Calc I, Calc II, and more. My favorite resource so far has been KhanAcademy. It has been great for building foundational skills, but it is lacking in real-world application.

In this post (and in future #math posts), I want to share math that I find interesting for these reasons:

1. To log my progression (“learn in public”)
2. To have another reason to explore new ideas
3. To share with others who may have similar motivations
4. To solidify what I think I’ve learned (à la Feynman technique)

Originally, this post was going to be my attempt at succinctly describing trigonometry with commentary about ideas I found challenging. But halfway through I realized that I was mostly rehashing what has already been said 1,000 times. To save us the time, I’m going to leave the essentials to Khan and his Academy; in my blog, I want to focus on the stuff that is taught less and that I find fun.

In lieu of a redundant blog post rehashing trigonometry, here is a worksheet that helped me with trig identities. The worksheet assumes you’re familiar with integration and basic trigonometry. For the sake of transparency, the worksheet was mostly created by AI. I have zero interest in posting AI slop, so rest assured this has been proof-read and adjusted to my standards.

I will continue to write about code and technology, but for right now, I need to prioritize math to accomplish my goals. Until next time!