Verifying the identity using double-angle formulas and reciprocal identities
Verify the identity
For verifying this equation, we are bringing together several of the identities. We will use the double-angle formula and the reciprocal identities. We will work with the right side of the equation and rewrite it until it matches the left side.
From the sum and difference identities, we can derive the product-to-sum formulas and the sum-to-product formulas for sine and cosine.
We can use the product-to-sum formulas to rewrite products of sines, products of cosines, and products of sine and cosine as sums or differences of sines and cosines. See
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We can also derive the sum-to-product identities from the product-to-sum identities using substitution.
We can use the sum-to-product formulas to rewrite sum or difference of sines, cosines, or products sine and cosine as products of sines and cosines. See
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Trigonometric expressions are often simpler to evaluate using the formulas. See
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The identities can be verified using other formulas or by converting the expressions to sines and cosines. To verify an identity, we choose the more complicated side of the equals sign and rewrite it until it is transformed into the other side. See
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Section exercises
Verbal
Starting with the product to sum formula
explain how to determine the formula for
Substitute
into cosine and
into sine and evaluate.
Explain a situation where we would convert an equation from a sum to a product and give an example.
Answers will vary. There are some equations that involve a sum of two trig expressions where when converted to a product are easier to solve. For example:
When converting the numerator to a product the equation becomes:
