3: Trigonometric Identities and Equations
In this chapter, we discuss how to manipulate trigonometric equations algebraically by applying various formulas and trigonometric identities. We will also investigate some of the ways that trigonometric equations are used to model real-life phenomena.
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- 3.2: Sum and Difference Identities
- The sum formula for cosines states that the cosine of the sum of two angles equals the product of the cosines of the angles minus the product of the sines of the angles. The difference formula for cosines states that the cosine of the difference of two angles equals the product of the cosines of the angles plus the product of the sines of the angles. The sum and difference formulas can be used to find the exact values of the sine, cosine, or tangent of an angle.
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- 3.3: Double-Angle, Half-Angle, and Reduction Formulas
- In this section, we will investigate three additional categories of identities. Double-angle identities are derived from the sum formulas of the fundamental trigonometric functions: sine, cosine, and tangent. Reduction formulas are especially useful in calculus, as they allow us to reduce the power of the trigonometric term. Half-angle formulas allow us to find the value of trigonometric functions involving half-angles, whether the original angle is known or not.
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- 3.4: Sum-to-Product and Product-to-Sum Formulas
- From the sum and difference identities, we can derive the product-to-sum formulas and the sum-to-product formulas for sine and cosine. The product-to-sum formulas can rewrite products of sines, products of cosines, and products of sine and cosine as sums or differences of sines and cosines. We can also derive the sum-to-product identities from the product-to-sum identities using substitution. The sum-to-product formulas are used to rewrite sum or difference as products of sines and cosines.
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- 3.5: Solving Trigonometric Equations
- In earlier sections of this chapter, we looked at trigonometric identities. Identities are true for all values in the domain of the variable. In this section, we begin our study of trigonometric equations to study real-world scenarios such as the finding the dimensions of the pyramids.
Contributors and Attributions
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Jay Abramson (Arizona State University) with contributing authors. Textbook content produced by OpenStax College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 license. Download for free at https://openstax.org/details/books/precalculus .