Answer: Start at the positive
x
-axis, then rotate left by the desired angle.
Explanation-
Standard position means the first arm of the angle is the positive
x
-axis, and the other arm is placed by rotating counter-clockwise from there, by the amount of the angle.
As a basic example, the symbol
∠
is about a 45° angle in standard position.
To get a feel for where the second arm (called the "terminal arm") will go, remind yourself that the axes themselves meet each other at 90°.
If our angle was 90°, the terminal arm would be on the positive
y
-axis.
If our angle was 180°, it would be on the negative
x
-axis.
Wait! 180° is more than 150°, so our angle is somewhere in quadrant 2. In fact, 150° is 2/3 of the way between 90° and 180°, so our terminal arm will be 2/3 of the way into quadrant 2.
graph{(y+tan(pi/6)x)(y^2-.00001x)=0 [-10, 10, -5, 5]}
(ignore the part of the line in quadrant 4)