Trigonometric identity Details, Meaning Trigonometric identity Article and Explanation Guide

Trigonometric identity Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description

In mathematics, trigonometric identities (or trig identities for short) are equations involving trigonometric functions that are true for all values of the occurring variables. These identities are useful whenever expressions involving trigonometric functions need to be simplified. An important application is the integration of non-trigonometric functions: a common trick involves first using the substitution rule with a trigonometric function, and then simplifying the resulting integral with a trigonometric identity.

Notation

The following notations hold for all six trigonometric functions: sine (sin), cosine (cos), tangent (tan), cotangent (cot), secant (sec), and cosecant (csc). For brevity, only the sine case is given in the table.

Notation	Reading	Description	Definition
sin²(x)	"sine squared [of] x"	the square of sine; sine to the second power	sin²(x) = (sin(x))²
arcsin(x)	"arcsine [of] x"	the inverse function for sine	arcsin(x) = y if and only if sin(y) = x and
sin⁻¹(x)	"inverse sine [of] x"	alternate notation for the inverse of sine	same definition, except "sin⁻¹(x)" is used in place of "arcsin(x)"
(sin(x))⁻¹	"sine [of] x, to the negative-one power"	the reciprocal of sine; the multiplicative inverse of sine	(sin(x))⁻¹ = 1 / sin(x)

Definitions

For more information, including definitions based on the sides of a right triangle, see Trigonometric functions.

Periodicity, symmetry, and shifts

These are most easily shown from the unit circle:

For some purposes it is important to know that any linear combination of sine waves of the same period but different phase shifts is also a sine wave with the same period, but a different phase shift. In other words, we have

where

Pythagorean identites

These identities are based on the Pythagorean theorem. The first is sometimes simply called the Pythagorean trigonometric identity.

Note that the second equation is obtained from the first by dividing both sides by cos²(x). To get the third equation, divide the first by sin²(x) instead.

Angle sum and difference identities

These are also known as the addition and subtraction theorems or formulas. The quickest way to prove these is Euler's formula. The tangent formula follows from the other two. A geometric proof of the sin(x + y) identity is given at the end of this article.

where

and

Double-angle formulas

These can be shown by substituting x = y in the addition theorems, and using the Pythagorean formula for the latter two. Or use de Moivre's formula with n = 2.

Multiple-angle formulas

If T_n is the nth Chebyshev polynomial then

De Moivre's formula:

The Dirichlet kernel D_n(x) is the function occurring on both sides of the next identity:

The convolution of any integrable function of period 2π with the Dirichlet kernel coincides with the function's nth-degree Fourier approximation. The same holds for any measure or generalized function.

Power-reduction formulas

Solve the second and third versions of the cosine double-angle formula for cos²(x) and sin²(x), respectively.

Half-angle formulas

Sometimes the formulas in the previous section are called half-angle formulas. To see why, substitute x/2 for x in the power reduction formulas, then solve for cos(x/2) and sin(x/2) to get:

These may also be called the half-angle formulas. Then

Multiply both numerator and denominator inside the radical by 1 + cos x, then simplify (using a Pythagorean identity):

Likewise, multiplying both numerator and denominator inside the radical — in equation (1) — by
1 − cos x, then simplifying:

Thus, the pair of half-angle formulas for the tangent are:

If we set

then

and

This substitution of t for tan(x/2), with the consequent replacement of sin(x) by 2t/(1 + t²) and cos(x) by (1 − t²)/(1 + t²) is useful in calculus for converting rational functions in in sin(x) and cos(x) to functions of t in order to find their antiderivatives. For more information see tangent half-angle formula.

Products-to-sum identities

These can be proven by expanding their right-hand-sides using the addition theorems.

Sum-to-product identities

Replace x by (x + y) / 2 and y by (x – y) / 2 in the product-to-sum formulas.

Inverse trigonometric functions

Every trigonometric function can be related directly to every other trigonometric function. Such relations can be expressed by means of inverse trigonometric functions as follows: let φ and ψ represent a pair of trigonometric functions, and let arcψ be the inverse of ψ, such that ψ(arcψ(x))=x. Then φ(arcψ(x)) can be expressed as an algebraic formula in terms of x. Such formulas are shown in the table below: φ can be made equal to the head of one of the rows, and ψ can be equated to the head of a column:

*Table of conversion formulas*
φ \\ ψ	sin	cos	tan	csc	sec	cot
sin
cos
tan
csc
sec
cot

One procedure that can be used to obtain the elements of this table is as follows:
Given trigonometric functions φ and ψ, what is φ(arcψ(x)) equal to?

Find an equation that relates φ(u) and ψ(u) to each other:
Let u = arc ψ(x), so that:
Solve the last equation for φ(arcψ(x)).

Example. What is cot(arccsc(x)) equal to? First, find an equation which relations the functions cot and csc to each other, such as

Second, let u = arccsc(x):

Third, solve this equation for cot(arccsc(x)):

and this is the formula which shows up in the sixth row and fourth column of the table.

The Gudermannian function

The Gudermannian function relates the circular and hyperbolic trigonometric functions without resorting to complex numbers -- see that article for details.

Identities with no variables

Richard Feynman is reputed to have learned as a boy, and always remembered, the following curious identity:

However, this identity is a special case of one that does contain a variable:

The following are perhaps not as readily generalized to identities with variables in them:

Degree-measure ceases to be more felicitous than radian-measure when we consider this identity with 21 in the denominators:

The factors 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10 may start to make the pattern clear: They are the integers less than 21/2 that have no prime factors in common with 21. The last several examples are corollaries of a basic fact about the irreducible cyclotomic polynomials; the cosines are the real parts of the zeroes of those polynomials; the sum of the zeroes is the M�bius function evaluated at (in the very last case above) 21; only half of the zeroes are present above. The two identities preceding this last one arise in the same fashion with 21 replaced by 10 and 15, respectively.

The following identity with no variables can be used to compute π efficiently:

or by using Euler's formula:

Calculus

In calculus it is very convenient if the angles that are arguments to trigonometric functions are measured in radians; if they are measured in degrees or any other units, then the relations stated below fail and must be changed to more difficult ones. If the trigonometric functions are defined in terms of geometry, then their derivatives can be found by first verifying two limits.

(verified using the unit circle & squeeze theorem). It may be tempting to propose to use L'H�pital's rule to establish this limit. However, if one uses this limit in order to prove that the derivative of the sine is the cosine, and then uses the fact that the derivative of the sine is the cosine in applying L'H�pital's rule, one is reasoning circularly — a logical fallacy.

(verified using the identity tan(x/2) = (1 − cos(x))/sin(x))

Having established these two limits, one can use the limit definition of the derivative and the addition theorems to show that sin′ x = cos x and cos′ x = −sin x. If the sine and cosine functions are defined by their Taylor series, then the derivatives can be found by differentiating the power series term-by-term.

The rest of the trigonometric functions can be differentiated using the above identities and the rules of differentiation. We have:

The integral identities can be found in Wikipedia's table of integrals.

Proofs using a differential equation

Consider this differential equation:

Using Euler's formula and the method for solving linear differential equations combined with the uniqueness theorem and the existence theorem we can define sine and cosine as the following:

is the unique solution of

subject to the initial conditions of and

is the unique solution of

subject to the initial conditions of and

Now, let's prove that

First let

Now we find the first and second derivatives of T(x)

but since is a solution of we can say so

Therefore

Therefore we can say

Once again according to our technique of solving linear differential equations and Euler's formula the solution to must be a linear combination of and , therefore

Now we solve for B by plugging in 0 for x

but according to our initial values , therefore

To solve for A we take the derviative of T(x) and plug in 0 for x

Using our initial values and since

Plugging A and B back into our original equation for T(x) we get

But since T(x) was defined as we get

Q.E.D.

Using these rigorous definitions of sine and cosine, you can prove all the other properties of sine and cosine using the same technique.