Basic and Pythagorean Identities
Notice how a "co-(something)" trig ratio is always the reciprocal of some "non-co" ratio. You can use this fact to help you keep straight that cosecant goes with sine and secant goes with cosine.
Angle-Sum and -Difference Identities
Half-Angle Identities Copyright © Elizabeth Stapel 2010-2011 All Rights Reserved
The above identities can be re-stated as:
Sum Identities
Product Identities
sin2(t) + cos2(t) = 1 tan2(t) + 1 = sec2(t) 1 + cot2(t) = csc2(t)
The above, because they involve squaring and the number 1, are the "Pythagorean" identities. You can see this clearly if you consider the unit circle, where sin(t) = y, cos(t) = x, and the hypotenuse is 1.
sin(–t) = –sin(t) cos(–t) = cos(t) tan(–t) = –tan(t)
Notice in particular that sine and tangent are odd functions, while cosine is an even function.Angle-Sum and -Difference Identities
sin(α + β) = sin(α)cos(β) + cos(α)sin(β)
sin(α – β) = sin(α)cos(β) – cos(α)sin(β)
cos(α + β) = cos(α)cos(β) – sin(α)sin(β)
cos(α – β) = cos(α)cos(β) + sin(α)sin(β)
Double-Angle Identitiessin(α – β) = sin(α)cos(β) – cos(α)sin(β)
cos(α + β) = cos(α)cos(β) – sin(α)sin(β)
cos(α – β) = cos(α)cos(β) + sin(α)sin(β)
sin(2x) = 2sin(x)cos(x)
cos(2x) = cos2(x) – sin2(x) = 1 – 2sin2(x) = 2cos2(x) – 1
sin2(x) = ½[1 – cos(2x)]
cos2(x) = ½[1 + cos(2x)]