Trigonometric Identities
What is a trigonometric identity?
- Trigonometric identities are statements about trigonometric functions like , and
- They are true for all values of the angle
- They can be used to help simplify trigonometric equations before solving them
- Sometimes you may see identities written with the symbol instead of an equals sign
- This means 'identical to' or 'equivalent to'
What trigonometric identities do I need to know?
- You must know these two trigonometric identities:
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- This is the identity for
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- This is sometimes called the Pythagorean identity
- Note that the notation is the same thing as
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- The second identity is often used in one of its rearranged forms
Exam Tip
- When asked to show that one thing is equal or identical to another, look at what parts are 'missing'
- This can help you spot which identity to use
Worked example
Show that the equation can be written in the form , where , and are integers to be found with .
Note that in the 'target' form there is no or
That means we want to use a substitution to get rid of the in the original form
We can do this using the identity , rearranged as
Substitute that back into the original equation
Multiply both sides of the equation by to make the coefficient positive
This gets the equation into the required form with , and