User:Temperal/The Problem Solver's Resource1

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Trigonometric Formulas

Note that all measurements are in radians.

Basic Facts

$\sin (-A)=-\sin A$

$\cos (-A)=\cos A$

$\tan (-A)=-\tan A$

$\sin (\pi-A) = \sin A$

$\cos (\pi-A) = -\cos A$

$\cos (-A) = \cos A$

$\tan (\pi+A) = \tan A$

$\cos (\pi/2-A)=\sin A$

$\tan (\pi/2-A)=\cot A$

$\sec (\pi/2-A)=\csc A$

$\cos (\pi/2-A) = \sin A$

$\cot (\pi/2-A)=\tan A$

$\csc (\pi/2-A)=\sec A$

The above can all be seen clearly by examining the graphs or plotting on a unit circle - the reader can figure that out themselves.

Terminology and Notation

$\cot A=\frac{1}{\tan A}$ , but $\cot A\ne\tan^{-1} A}$ (Error compiling LaTeX. Unknown error_msg), the former being the reciprocal and the latter the inverse.

$\csc A=\frac{1}{\sin A}$ , but $\csc A\ne\sin^{-1} A}$ (Error compiling LaTeX. Unknown error_msg).

$\sec A=\frac{1}{\sin A}$ , but $\sec A\ne\cos^{-1} A}$ (Error compiling LaTeX. Unknown error_msg).

Speaking of inverses:

$\tan^{-1} A=\text{atan } A=\arctan A$

$\cos^{-1} A=\text{acos } A=\arccos A$

$\sin^{-1} A=\text{asin } A=\arcsin A$

Sum of Angle Formulas

$\sin (A \pm B)=\sin A \cos B \pm \cos A \sin B$

If we can prove this one, the other ones can be derived easily using the "Basic Facts" identities above. In fact, we can simply prove the addition case, for plugging $A=-B$ into the addition case gives the subtraction case.

As it turns out, there's quite a nice geometric proof of the addition case, though other methods, such as de Moivre's Theorem, exist. The following proof is taken from the Art of Problem Solving, Vol. 2 and is due to Masakazu Nihei of Japan, who originally had it published in Mathematics @ Informatics Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 2:

$[asy] pair A,B,C; C=(0,0); B=(10,0); A=(6,4); draw(A--B--C--cycle); label("$A$",A,N); label("$B$",B,E); label("$C$",C,W); draw(A--(6,0)); label("$\beta$",A,(-1,-2)); label("$\alpha$",A,(1,-2.5)); label("$H$",(6,0),S); draw((6,0)--(5.5,0)--(5.5,0.5)--(6,0.5)--cycle); [/asy]$