# Trig Identity

1. ### cscott

786

$$\cos \theta (\tan \theta + \cot \theta) = \csc \theta$$

2. ### irony of truth

91
So, are you proving this identity?

Express your tangent and cotangent in terms of sine and cosine. Get their LCD... and your numerator becomes a well-known trigonometric identity..

Can you continue from here? :D

3. ### cscott

786
The easy ones always get me :\

Thanks!

4. ### cscott

786
I can't get this one either:

$$\frac{1 + \tan \theta}{1 - \tan \theta} = \frac{\cot \theta + 1}{\cot \theta - 1}$$

5. ### mezarashi

660
For this one, you can either choose to replace tan x by 1/cot x or replace cot x by 1/tan x. Choose either and do some algebriac manipulations while leaving the other side alone.

6. ### TD

1,021
Or, if that doesn't work for you, substitute tan by sin/cos and cot by cos/sin, then simplify the expressions

Try, if you get stuck, show us!

7. ### cscott

786
I end up with

$$\frac{\cos^2 \theta + \sin \theta \cos \theta}{\cos^2 \theta - \sin \theta \cos \theta}$$

or

$$\frac{\cot^2 \theta + \cot \theta}{\cot^2 \theta - \cot \theta}$$

How do I continue?

8. ### TD

1,021
How did you end up with that?

For the LHS:

$$\frac{{1 + \tan \theta }}{{1 - \tan \theta }} = \frac{{1 + \frac{{\sin \theta }}{{\cos \theta }}}}{{1 - \frac{{\sin \theta }}{{\cos \theta }}}} = \frac{{\frac{{\cos \theta + \sin \theta }}{{\cos \theta }}}}{{\frac{{\cos \theta - \sin \theta }}{{\cos \theta }}}} = \frac{{\cos \theta + \sin \theta }}{{\cos \theta - \sin \theta }}$$

Now try the RHS

9. ### cscott

786
Silly me - I just multiplied out the numerator by the reciprocal of the denomenator instead of just canceling out the cosines. If you factor the top and bottom of my expression you end up with what your answer. If I do this using 1/cot = tan I end up with the RHS.

Don't I need to continue with the LHS until I get the right or vice versa?

10. ### TD

1,021
Well now you have the LHS, the easiest would be trying to get the same starting with the RHS, which will go more or less the same

11. ### cscott

786
Ah, I see. Thank you both of you.

1,021
No problem