Answer:
magine a coordinate plane. Let’s say we want to draw an angle that’s 144° on our plane. We start on the right side of the x-axis, where three o’clock is on a clock. We rotate counterclockwise, which starts by moving up. We keep going past the 90° point (the top part of the y-axis) until we get to 144°. We draw a ray from the origin, which is the center of the plane, to that point. Now we have a ray that we call the terminal side. But we need to draw one more ray to make an angle. We have a choice at this point. Our second ray needs to be on the x-axis. If we draw it from the origin to the right side, we’ll have drawn an angle that measures 144°. If we draw it to the left, we’ll have drawn an angle that measures 36°. This second angle is the reference angle. It’s always the smaller of the two angles, will always be less than or equal to 90°, and it will always be positive. Here’s an animation that shows a reference angle for four different angles, each of which is in a different quadrant. Notice how the second ray is always on the x-axis.
Step-by-step explanation: