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.

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( + ) = sin()cos() + cos()sin()

sin( ) = sin()cos() cos()sin()
cos( + ) = cos()cos() sin()sin()
cos( ) = cos()cos() + sin()sin()

Double-Angle Identities

sin(2x) = 2sin(x)cos(x)

cos(2x) = cos2(x) sin2(x) = 1 2sin2(x) = 2cos2(x) 1

Half-Angle Identities Copyright Elizabeth Stapel 2010-2011 All Rights Reserved

The above identities can be re-stated as:

sin2(x) = [1 cos(2x)]

cos2(x) = [1 + cos(2x)]

Sum Identities

Product Identities