Trig identities and complex numbers help.

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around a mathematical expression related to AC circuits involving complex numbers and trigonometric identities. Participants explore the simplification of a phasor equation to eliminate imaginary components, seeking a formal proof for a specific equality involving trigonometric functions.

Discussion Character

  • Mathematical reasoning
  • Technical explanation
  • Homework-related

Main Points Raised

  • One participant presents a phasor equation and expresses the need for the imaginary unit "i" to drop out, indicating that the final result should be real-valued.
  • The participant provides a specific form of the result derived from plugging in values for θ, suggesting that the expression simplifies to a real number.
  • Another participant suggests a method to simplify the expression by multiplying and dividing by a conjugate, leading to a series of algebraic manipulations.
  • The simplification process is shown to yield the desired result, demonstrating the elimination of the imaginary component.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree on the steps taken to simplify the expression, with one participant confirming the correctness of the simplification process. However, there is no explicit consensus on the formal proof aspect, as the original poster seeks further validation.

Contextual Notes

The discussion includes some assumptions about the behavior of trigonometric functions and their relationships to complex numbers, but these are not fully explored or resolved.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be useful for individuals working with AC circuit analysis, complex numbers, and trigonometric identities, particularly in the context of phasor equations.

Loudhvx
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Please forgive me as I may have to edit this post to get the equations to show properly.

I am doing some work with AC circuits and part of one of my phasor equations has this in it:
\frac {2i} {1+cos(θ) + i sin(θ)} - i,
where i is the imaginary number \sqrt{-1}.

However, knowing the physics of the circuit tells me the end result should have no complex numbers.
This means "i" should drop out of this part of the equation.

When plugging in values for \theta, the i terms do in fact drop out.

By plugging in numbers, I found the result is always of the form:
\frac{a}{b} ( \frac{ai + b}{b + ai}),
where a = 1 - cos (\theta),
and b = sin (\theta).
The portion in the parenthesis, obviously, always equals 1.

This gives me the result:
\frac {1 - cos (\theta)} {sin (\theta)},
which satisfies the requirement of having no imaginary numbers.

Using this in my general equation seems to work as I confirmed with certain specific cases for which the solution was verifiable by other means.

My question, or my request for assistance, is in getting a formal proof that for all angles:
\frac {2i} {1+cos(θ) + i sin(θ)} - i = \frac {1 - cos (\theta)} {sin (\theta)}.

I tried using some trig identities and even Euler's identity, but, unfortunately, my trig is a little rusty.

Thank you for your time in advance.
 
Last edited:
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The math typing looks OK; what is you question?
 
I finished editing the post above, with my question.
 
Multiply and divide by ##1+\cos\theta-i\sin\theta##.

$$\frac{2i}{1+\cos\theta+i\sin\theta}-i=\frac{2i(1+\cos\theta-i\sin\theta)}{(1+\cos\theta)^2+\sin^2\theta}-i=\frac{i(1+\cos\theta-i\sin\theta)}{1+\cos\theta}-i$$
$$=i+\frac{\sin\theta}{1+\cos\theta}-i=\frac{\sin\theta}{1+\cos\theta}\times \frac{1-\cos\theta}{1-\cos\theta}=\frac{1-\cos\theta}{\sin\theta}$$
 
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Thank you very very much! :)

and I guess I put this in the wrong forum. Sorry about that.
 

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