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    Basic Trigonometric Equations

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    callum95
    1) Trigonometric equations can be solved by first isolating the trigonometric term and then determining the angle(s) that satisfy that term, considering signs and quadrants. 2) When the trigonometric term has a power, it may need to be solved using square roots or factoring. Dividing both sides by the trigonometric term should be avoided. 3) Trigonometric identities can help reduce equations to a single trigonometric term before solving for angles. The quadratic formula can also be used to solve some trigonometric equations.

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    Basic Trigonometric Equations

    Uploaded by

    callum95
    163 views6 pages
    1) Trigonometric equations can be solved by first isolating the trigonometric term and then determining the angle(s) that satisfy that term, considering signs and quadrants. 2) When the trigonometric term has a power, it may need to be solved using square roots or factoring. Dividing both sides by the trigonometric term should be avoided. 3) Trigonometric identities can help reduce equations to a single trigonometric term before solving for angles. The quadratic formula can also be used to solve some trigonometric equations.

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    1) Trigonometric equations can be solved by first isolating the trigonometric term and then determining the angle(s) that satisfy that term, considering signs and quadrants. 2) When the trigonometric term has a power, it may need to be solved using square roots or factoring. Dividing both sides by the trigonometric term should be avoided. 3) Trigonometric identities can help reduce equations to a single trigonometric term before solving for angles. The quadratic formula can also be used to solve some trigonometric equations.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    163 views6 pages

    Basic Trigonometric Equations

    Uploaded by

    callum95
    1) Trigonometric equations can be solved by first isolating the trigonometric term and then determining the angle(s) that satisfy that term, considering signs and quadrants. 2) When the trigonometric term has a power, it may need to be solved using square roots or factoring. Dividing both sides by the trigonometric term should be avoided. 3) Trigonometric identities can help reduce equations to a single trigonometric term before solving for angles. The quadratic formula can also be used to solve some trigonometric equations.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 6

    Basic Trigonometric Equations:

    When asked to solve

    2x - 1 = 0, we can easily get 2x = 1 and x =

    as the answer.

    When asked to solve 2sinx - 1 = 0, we proceed in a similar manner. We first look at sinx as being the variable of the equation and solve as we did in the first example. 2sinx - 1 = 0 2sinx = 1

    sinx = But, we are only half way to the answer!!! If we recall the graph of , we will remember that there are actually TWO values of for which the = 1/2. These values are at:

    or at 30 and 150.

    If we look at the extended graph of , we see that there are many other solutions to this equation = 1/2. We could arrive at these "other" solutions by adding a multiple of to .

    Most equations, however, limit the answers to trigonometric equations to the domain . (Always read the question carefully to determine the given domain.)

    Signs and Quadrants:


    Solutions of trigonometric equations may also be found by examining the sign of the trig value and determining the proper quadrant(s) for that value.

    Example 1:
    Solution: First, solve for sin x.

    Now, sine is negative in Quadrant III and Quadrant IV.

    Also, a sine value of is a reference angle of 45. So, consider the reference angle of 45 in quadrants III and IV.

    Example 2:
    Solution: First, solve for tan x.

    Now, tangent is negative in Quadrant II and Quadrant IV. Also, a tangent value of is a reference angle of 60 degrees. So, consider the reference angle of 60 in quadrants II and IV.

    Trigonometric Equations involving Powers:


    When the trig function has a power, it will have to be solved by extracting square roots or factoring.

    Example 1:
    Solution:

    Example 2:
    Solution:

    At this point we know that :

    implies that (see graph). Since the sine function has maximum and minimum values of +1 and -1, has no solutions. Thus the answer is the only solution. In this last example, you may have been tempted to divide all the terms by tan x to simplify the equation. If this had been done, the equation would

    Now,

    have been: We lost the tan x term and its solution by dividing by tan x. Not a good move!!!

    Solving Quadratic Equations:


    Remember to first solve for the trig function and then solve for the angle value.

    Example:
    Solution:

    Using Identities in Equation Solving:


    If there is more than one trig function in the equation, identities are needed to reduce the equation to a single function for solving.

    Example:
    Solution:

    Using Quadratic Formula with Trig Equations:


    There are trig equations, just like there are normal equations, where factoring does not work!! In these cases, the quadratic formula comes in handy.

    Example:

    Solution: Since there are two trig functions in this problem, we need to use an identity to eliminate one of them.

    Using the quadratic formula, we get:

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