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It is said that there are six ratios possible for the lengths of the sides of a right triangle. You have learned about the sine (sin), cosine (cos), and tangent (tan) ratios. The three other trigonometric ratios are their reciprocals.

Cotangent (cot): is the reciprocal of tan, i.e. the ratio of the length of the adjacent side to the length of the opposite side.

cot θ = _1_ tanθ = adj opp

Important note:There is a big difference between cot θ and tan^-1x. The first one means "1/tan θ". The second one involves finding an angle whose tangent is x. So on your calculator, don't use your tan^-1 button to find cot θ.