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In mathematics, trigonometric identities are equalities 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.

    List of trigonometric identities
        Notation
        Definitions
        Periodicity, symmetry, and shifts
            Periodicity
            Symmetry
            Shifts
            Linear combinations
        Pythagorean identities
        Angle sum and difference identities
        Double-angle formula
        Triple-angle formula
        Multiple-angle formula
        Power-reduction formulæ
        Half-angle formula
        Product-to-sum identities
        Sum-to-product identities
        Other sums of trigonometric functions
        Inverse trigonometric functions
        Trigonometric conversions
        Exponential forms
        Infinite product formulæ
        The Gudermannian function
        Identities without variables
        Calculus
            Implications
            sin(x + y)
            cos(x + y)
        Proofs of cos(x − y) and sin(x − y) formulæ
            sin(x − y)
            cos(x − y)
        See also

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.

arcsin(x) can also be written sin⁻¹(x); this must not be confused with (sin(x))⁻¹.

Definitions

$cos(x) = sinleft( x +$

ight)

$an (x) = rac qquad operatorname(x) = rac = rac$

$operatorname(x) = rac qquad operatorname(x) = rac$

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

Periodicity, symmetry, and shifts
These are most easily shown from the unit circle:

Periodicity

The sine, cosine, secant, and cosecant functions have period 2π (a full circle):

$sin(x) = sin(x + 2kpi) ,$

$cos(x) = cos(x + 2kpi) ,$

$sec(x) = sec(x + 2kpi) ,$

$csc(x) = csc(x + 2kpi) ,$

The tangent and cotangent functions have period π (a half-circle):

$an(x) = an(x + kpi) ,$

$cot(x) = cot(x + kpi) ,$

Symmetry
The symmetries along x → −x, x → π/2 − x and x → π − x for the trigonometric functions are:

egin sin(-x) = -sin(x), & & sinleft( - x ight) = cos(x), & & sinleft(pi - x ight) =

;sin(x) \

cos(-x) =;;cos(x), & & cosleft( - x ight) = sin(x), & & cosleft(pi - x ight) = -cos(x) \ an(-x) = - an(x), & & anleft( - x ight) = cot(x), & & anleft(pi - x ight) = - an(x) \ cot(-x) = -cot(x), & & cotleft( - x ight) = an(x), & & cotleft(pi - x ight) = -cot(x) \ sec(-x) =;;sec(x), & & secleft( - x ight) = csc(x), & & secleft(pi - x ight) = -sec(x) \ csc(-x) = -csc(x), & & cscleft( - x ight) = sec(x), & & cscleft(pi - x ight) =

;csc(x)

end

Shifts

Among the simplest shifts (other than shifts by the period of each of these periodic functions) are shifts by π/2 and π:

egin sinleft(x + ight) =

;cos(x), & & sinleft(x + pi

ight) = - sin(x) \ cosleft(x + ight) = - sin(x), & & cosleft(x + pi ight) = - cos(x) \ anleft(x + ight) = - cot(x), & & anleft(x + pi ight) =

; an(x) \

cotleft(x + ight) = - an(x), & & cotleft(x + pi ight) =

;cot(x) \

secleft(x + ight) = - csc(x), & & secleft(x + pi ight) = - sec(x) \ cscleft(x + ight) =

;sec(x), & & cscleft(x + pi

ight) = - csc(x) end

Linear combinations

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

$asin x+bcos x=sqrtcdotsin(x+varphi),$

where

varphi= left egin (b/a),&&mboxage0;

\ (b/a) pm pi,&&mboxa<0.

end ight.

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

$sin^2(x) + cos^2(x) = 1$

$an^2(x) + 1 = sec^2(x)$

$1 + cot^2(x) = csc^2(x)$

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 formulæ.
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.

$sin(x pm y) = sin(x) cos(y) pm cos(x) sin(y),$

(When "+" is on the left side, then "+" is on the right, and vice versa.)

$cos(x pm y) = cos(x) cos(y) mp sin(x) sin(y),$

(When "+" is on the left side, then "−" is on the right, and vice versa.)

$an(x pm y) = rac$

$(x+y)=(x),(y)$

$(x-y)=$

where

$(x) = exp(i x) = e^ = cos(x)+i sin(x),$

and

$i^=-1.,$

See also Ptolemaios' theorem.

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

$sin(2x) = 2 sin (x) cos(x) = rac$

$cos(2x) = cos^2(x) - sin^2(x)$

= 2 cos^2(x) - 1 = 1 - 2 sin^2(x) = rac

$an(2x) = rac$

$cot(2x) = rac$

The double-angle formula can also be used to find Pythagorean triples. If (a, b, c) are the lengths of the sides of a right triangle, then (a² − b², 2ab, c²) also form a right triangle, where angle B is the angle being doubled. If a² − b² is negative, take its opposite and use the supplement of 2B in place of 2B.

Triple-angle formula

$sin(3x)= 3 sin(x)- 4 sin^3(x) ,$

$cos(3x)= 4 cos^3(x) - 3 cos(x) ,$

$an(3x)= rac$

Multiple-angle formula
If T_n is the nth Chebyshev polynomial then

$cos(nx)=T_n(cos(x)). ,$

If S_n is the nth spread polynomial, then

$sin^2(n heta) = S_n(sin^2 heta).,$

de Moivre's formula:

$cos(nx)+isin(nx)=(cos(x)+isin(x))^n ,$

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

$1+2cos(x)+2cos(2x)+2cos(3x)+cdots+2cos(nx) = rac.$

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

$sin^2(x) =$

$cos^2(x) =$

$sin^2(x) cos^2(x) =$

$sin^3(x) = rac$

$cos^3(x) = rac$

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

$cosleft(rac$

ight) = pm, sqrt

$sinleft(rac$

ight) = pm, sqrt

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

$anleft(rac$

ight) = = pm, sqrt. qquad qquad (1)

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

$anleft(rac$

ight) = pm, sqrt = pm, sqrt

$= .$

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

$anleft(rac$

ight) = pm, sqrt = pm, sqrt

$= .$

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

$anleft(rac$

ight) = rac = rac.

We also have

$anleft($

ight) = csc(x) - cot(x),

$cotleft($

ight) = csc(x) + cot(x).

If we set

$t = anleft(rac$

ight),

then

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 sin(x) and cos(x) to functions of t in order to find their antiderivatives. For more information see tangent half-angle formula.

Product-to-sum identities
These can be proven by expanding their right-hand sides using the angle addition theorems.

$cosleft (x$

ight ) cosleft (y ight ) =

$sinleft (x$

ight ) sinleft (y ight ) =

$sinleft (x$

ight ) cosleft (y ight ) =

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

$cos(x) + cos(y) = 2 cosleft( rac$

ight) cosleft( rac ight)

$sin(x) + sin(y) = 2 sinleft( rac$

ight) cosleft( rac ight)

$cos(x) - cos(y) = -2 sinleft($

ight) sinleft( ight)

$sin(x) - sin(y) = 2 cosleft($

ight) sinleft( ight)

If x, y, and z are the three angles of any triangle, or in other words

$mboxx + y + z = pi = mbox,$

$mbox an(x) + an(y) + an(z) = an(x) an(y) an(z),,$

$mboxsin(2x) + sin(2y) + sin(2z) = 4sin(x)sin(y)sin(z).,$

(If any of x, y, z is a right angle, one should take both sides to be ∞. This is neither +∞ nor −∞; for present purposes it makes sense to add just one point at infinity to the real line, that is approached by tan(θ) as tan(θ) either increases through positive values or decreases through negative values. This is a one-point compactification of the real line.)

Other sums of trigonometric functions

For any a and b:

$a cos(x) + b sin(x) = sqrt cos(x - arctan(b, a))$

where arctan(y, x) is the generalization of arctan(y/x) which covers the entire circular range (see also the account of this same identity in "symmetry, periodicity, and shifts" above for this generalization of arctan).

$an(x) + sec(x) = anleft( +$

ight).

The above identity is sometimes convenient to know when thinking about the Gudermanian function.

If

x

,

y

, and

z

are the three angles of any triangle, i.e.

x + y + z = pi

then,

$cot(x)cot(y) + cot(y)cot(z) + cot(z)cot(x) = 1.,$

Inverse trigonometric functions

$arcsin(x)+arccos(x)=pi/2;$

$arctan(x)+arccot(x)=pi/2.;$

$arctan(x)+arctan(1/x)=leftegin pi/2, & mboxx > 0 \ -pi/2, & mboxx < 0 end$

ight.

$arctan(x)+arctan(y)=arctanleft(rac$

ight)+leftegin pi, & mboxx,y>0 \ -pi, & mboxx,y<0 \ 0, & mbox end ight.

$sin(arccos(x))=sqrt ,$

$cos(arcsin(x))=sqrt ,$

$sin(arctan(x))=rac$

$cos(arctan(x))=rac$

$an(arcsin (x))=rac$

$an(arccos (x))=rac$

Trigonometric conversions
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 formulæ 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:

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:

:

f(varphi(u), psi(u)) = 0

Let

u = operatornamepsi(x)

, so that:

:

f(varphi(psi(x)),psi(psi(x)) = 0

:

f(varphi(psi(x)),x) = 0

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

$cot^2 u + 1 = csc^2 u$ .

Second, let u = arccsc(x):

$cot^2(arccsc(x)) + 1 = csc^2(arccsc(x))$ ,

$cot^2(arccsc(x)) + 1 = x^2$ .

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

$cot^2(arccsc(x)) = x^2 - 1,$

$cot(arccsc(x)) = pmsqrt,$

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

Exponential forms

$cos(x) = rac$

$sin(x) = rac$

where

i^=-1.,

Infinite product formulæ
For applications to special functions, the following infinite product formulæ for trigonometric functions are useful:

$sin x = x prod_^inftyleft(1 - rac$

ight)

$sinh x = x prod_^inftyleft(1 + rac$

ight)

$cos x = prod_^inftyleft(1 - rac$

ight)

$cosh x = prod_^inftyleft(1 + rac$

ight)

$rac = prod_^inftycosleft(rac$

ight)

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

Identities without variables
Richard Feynman is reputed to have learned as a boy, and always remembered, the following curious identity:

$cos 20^circcdotcos 40^circcdotcos 80^circ=rac.$

However, this is a special case of an identity that contains one variable:

$prod_^cos(2^j x)=rac.$

The following is perhaps not as readily generalized to an identity containing variables:

$cos 24^circ+cos 48^circ+cos 96^circ+cos 168^circ=rac$ .

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

$cosleft( rac$

ight) ,+, cosleft(2cdotrac ight) ,+, cosleft(4cdotrac ight)

,+, cosleft( 5cdotrac ight) ,+, cosleft( 8cdotrac ight) ,+, cosleft(10cdotrac ight)=rac.

The factors 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10 may start to make the pattern clear: they are those integers less than 21/2 that are relatively prime to (or 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 Möbius 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.

An efficient way to compute π is based on the following identity without variables, due to Machin:

$rac = 4 arctanrac - arctanrac$

or, alternatively, by using Euler's formula:

$rac = 5 arctanrac + 2 arctanrac.$

egin sin 0 & = & sin 0^circ & = & 0 & = & cos 90^circ & = & cos left( rac ight) \ \ sin left( rac ight) & = & sin 30^circ & = & 1/2 & = & cos 60^circ & = & cos left( rac ight) \ \ sin left( rac ight) & = & sin 45^circ & = & sqrt/2 & = & cos 45^circ & = & cos left( rac ight) \ \ sin left( rac ight) & = & sin 60^circ & = & sqrt/2 & = & cos 30^circ & = & cos left( rac ight) \ \ sin left( rac ight) & = & sin 90^circ & = & 1 & = & cos 0^circ & = & cos 0 end

$sin=rac-$

rac sum_^ rac !

$sin=$

rac sum_^ rac !

With the golden ratio φ:

$cos left( rac$

ight) = cos 36^circ= = varphi /2

$sin left( rac$

ight) = sin 18^circ = = =

Also see exact trigonometric constants.

Calculus
In calculus the relations stated below require angles to be measured in radians; the relations would become more complicated if angles were measured in another unit such as degrees. If the trigonometric functions are defined in terms of geometry, then their derivatives can be found by verifying two limits. The first is:

$lim_rac=1,$

verified using the unit circle and squeeze theorem. It may be tempting to propose to use L'Hôpital'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'Hôpital's rule, one is reasoning circularly—a logical fallacy. The second limit is:

$lim_rac=0,$

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.

$sin(x) = cos(x)$

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

egin sin x =& cos x &,& arcsin x =& \ cos x =& -sin x &,& arccos x =& \ an x =& sec^2 x &,& arctan x =& \ cot x =& -csc^2 x &,& arccot x =& \ sec x =& an x sec x &,& arcsec x =& \ csc x =& -csc x cot x &,& arccsc x =& end

The integral identities can be found in "list of integrals of trigonometric functions".

Implications
The fact that the differentiation of trigonometric functions (sine and cosine) results in linear combinations of the same two functions is of fundamental importance to many fields of mathematics, including differential equations and fourier transformations.

sin(x + y)

In the figure the angle x is part of right angled triangle ABC, and the angle y part of right angled triangle ACD. Then construct DG perpendicular to AB and construct CE parallel to AB.

Angle x = Angle BAC = Angle ACE = Angle CDE.

EG = BC.

$sin(x + y) ,$

$= rac ,$

$= rac ,$

$= rac ,$

$= rac + rac ,$

$= rac cdot rac + rac cdot rac ,$

$= rac cdot rac + rac cdot rac ,$

$= sin( x ) cos( y ) + cos( x ) sin( y ). ,$

cos(x + y)
Using the above figure:

$cos(x + y) ,$

$= rac ,$

$= rac ,$

$= rac ,$

$= rac - rac ,$

$= rac cdot rac - rac cdot rac ,$

$= rac cdot rac - rac cdot rac ,$

$= cos( x ) cos( y ) - sin( x ) sin( y ). ,$

Proofs of cos(x − y) and sin(x − y) formulæ

The formulæ for cos(x − y) and sin(x − y) are easily proven using the formulæ for cos(x + y) and sin(x + y), respectively

sin(x − y)

To begin, we substitute y with −y into the sin(x + y) formula:

$! sin(x+(-y)) = sin(x)cos(-y) + cos(x)sin(-y).$

Using the fact that sine is an odd function and cosine is an even function, we get

$! sin(x-y) = sin(x)cos(y) - cos(x)sin(y).$

cos(x − y)

To begin, we substitute y with −y into the cos(x + y) formula:

$! cos(x+(-y)) = cos(x)cos(-y) - sin(x)sin(-y).$

Using the fact that sine is an odd function and cosine is an even function, we get

$! cos(x-y) = cos(x)cos(y) + sin(x)sin(y).$

See also

Proofs of trigonometric identities

Uses of trigonometry

Tangent half-angle formula

Law of tangents

Pythagorean theorem

Exact trigonometric constants

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