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Square roots in trigonometry. I don’t understand please help?

Square roots in trigonometry. I don’t understand please help?-example-1
User Lululu
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1 Answer

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By definitions of the (co)tangent and cosecant function,


3\tan^2x-2=\csc^2x-\cot^2x\iff3(\sin^2x)/(\cos^2x)-2=\frac1{\sin^2x}-(\cos^2x)/(\sin^2x)

Turn everything into fractions with common denominators:


(3\sin^2x-2\cos^2x)/(\cos^2x)=(1-\cos^2x)/(\sin^2x)

Recall that
\cos^2x+\sin^2x=1, so we can simplify both sides a bit.

On the left:


(3\sin^2x+3\cos^2x-5\cos^2x)/(\cos^2x)=(3-5\cos^2x)/(\cos^2x)

On the right:


(1-\cos^2x)/(\sin^2x)=(\sin^2x)/(\sin^2x)=1

(as long as
\sin x\\eq 0, which happens in the interval
0\le x\le\pi when
x=0 or
x=\pi)

So we have


(3-5\cos^2x)/(\cos^2x)=1\implies3-5\cos^2x=\cos^2x


\implies3=6\cos^2x


\implies\cos^2x=\frac12


\implies\cos x=\pm\frac1{\sqrt2}


\implies x=\frac\pi4\text{ or }x=\frac{3\pi}4

User RePierre
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