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How Do I Plot a Triangular Sine Wave?

A triangle wave is a type of sinusoidal wave that has no curves; it has peaks just like a sine wave, but between each peak is a straight line. While one would think this would be easier to plot than a normal sine wave, it is in fact much harder. The current conventions that most systems use to plot a wave are based on the normal sine wave and converting that to a triangle wave can be rather tricky.

Things You'll Need

Graphing calculator
or Graphing software

Instructions

- 1
  Find the function graphing part of the software or the calculator. This can be kind of difficult depending on the software, but some of them are designed solely for this purpose. Any graphing calculator should have some way to graph functions because that is the purpose for which they are designed.
- 2
  Input the formula. When you input a formula the left side should be "f(x) =" or something equivalent, in some calculators it is "y = ", to the right of this symbol is where you input this formula.
  "(2/ (Pi) )* sin^-1[sin(Pi *X)]" This is a simple sinusoidal formula where the Pi's are equivalent to the number Pi, they can be approximated to be 3.14 if you don't have a Pi value preprogrammed.
- 3
  Customize the function. You can vary the amplitude and the period by changing the two terms "2/Pi" and the term "Pi". The term "2/Pi" affects the amplitude and the "Pi" term affects the period. A larger amplitude makes the triangles taller and a larger period makes the triangles longer.

Insects & Science