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Table of Contents

Trigonometric identities

There is a number of important relationships between the values of the functions sin and cos. These are known as trigonometric identities. There are three of them which you should memorize, and about a dozen others which are less important.

Formulas

The trigonometric functions are defined as cos(θ)=xP  ,  sin(θ)=yP  ,  tan(θ)=yPxP, where P=(xP,yP) is a point on the unit circle.

The three identities that you must remember are:

1. Unit hypotenuse

sin2(x)+cos2(x)=1. This is true by Pythagoras theorem and the definition of sin and cos. The ratios of the squares of the sides of a triangle is equal to the square of the size of the hypotenuse.

2. sico + sico

sin(a+b)=sin(a)cos(b)+sin(b)cos(a). The mnemonic for this one is “sico sico”.

3. coco - sisi

cos(a+b)=cos(a)cos(b)sin(a)sin(b). The mnemonic for this one is “coco - sisi”—the negative sign is there because it is not good to be a sissy.

Derived formulas

If you remember the above thee formulas, you can derive pretty much all the other trigonometric identities.

Double angle formulas

Starting from the sico-sico identity above, and setting a=b=x we can derive following identity: sin(2x)=2sin(x)cos(x).

Starting from the coco-sisi identity, we derive: cos(2x) = 2cos2(x)1 =2(1sin2(x))1=12sin2(x), or if we rewrite to isolate the sin2 and cos2 we get: cos2(x)=12(1+cos(2x)),sin2(x)=12(1cos(2x)).

Self similarity

Sin and cos are periodic functions with period 2π. So if we add multiples of 2π to the input, we get the same value: sin(x+2π)=sin(x+124π)=sin(x),cos(x+2π)=cos(x).

Furthermore, sin and cos are self similar within each 2π cycle: sin(πx)=sin(x),cos(πx)=cos(x).

Sin is cos, cos is sin

Now it should come and no surprise if I tell you that actually sin and cos are just π2-shifted versions of each other: cos(x)=sin(x+π2)=sin(π2x),  sin(x)=cos(xπ2)=cos(π2x).

Sum formulas

sin(a)+sin(b)=2sin(12(a+b))cos(12(ab)), sin(a)sin(b)=2sin(12(ab))cos(12(a+b)), cos(a)+cos(b)=2cos(12(a+b))cos(12(ab)), cos(a)cos(b)=2sin(12(a+b))sin(12(ab)).

Product formulas

sin(a)cos(b)=12(sin(a+b)+sin(ab)), sin(a)sin(b)=12(cos(ab)cos(a+b)), cos(a)cos(b)=12(cos(ab)+cos(a+b)).

Discussion

The above formulas will come in handy in many situations when you have to find some unknown in an equation or when you are trying to simplify a trigonometric expression. I am not saying you should necessarily memorize them, but you should be aware that they exist.