Question

The reciprocal of the cosine is the ___.

A. secant
B. tangent
C. sine
D. cotangent

Answer 1

A. secant

Explanation:

For trigonometric ratios, we know that cosine is
`(adjacent)/(hypotenuse)`. The reciprocal of something is just flipped over. So the reciprocal of cosine is
`(hypotenuse)/(adjacent)`, which is the ratio for secant.

Another way we can remember this is
`sec x = (1)/(cos x) \\\\cos x = (1)/(sec x)`

Answer 2

The correct answer is A

Explanation:

The secant is the distance from the center to the vertical tangent in a certain direction.