AQA Core 2 Trigonometry

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Section 2: Trigonometric identities and equations

Notes and Examples

In this section you learn how to solve trigonometric equations.

These notes contain subsections on
- Solving trigonometric equations
- Trigonometric identities


Solving trigonometric equations

There are infinitely many roots to an equation like
1
2
sinu = , so you are only
ever asked to find a few of them! Any question at this level asking you to solve
a trigonometric equation will also give you the interval or range of values in
which the solutions must lie, e.g. you might be asked to solve tan 2 u = for
0 360 u s s .

Your calculator will only give one solution to the equation
1
2
sinu = . You find
this by pressing the calculator keys for arcsin 0.5 (or sin
-1
0.5 or invsin 0.5).
Check that you can get the answer of 30.

You can find other roots by looking at the symmetry of the appropriate graph.

360 270 180 90 90 180 270 360
1
1
x
y

360 270 180 90 90 180 270 360
1
1
x
y

y = sin
When you use the inverse sine
function, your calculator will
always give you an answer from
-90 to 90.
y = cos
When you use the inverse
cosine function, your calculator
will always give you an answer
from 0 to 180.
A second solution in a
360 cycle can be
found by 360-
A second solution in a
360 cycle can be
found by 180-
AQA C2 Trigonometry 2 Notes and Examples
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360 270 180 90 90 180 270 360
4
3
2
1
1
2
3
4
x
y





Alternatively, you can use the quadrant diagram to find other solutions, by
thinking about which quadrants the solutions will be in.

Here is an example.


Example 1
Solve
3
sin
2
u = for 360 360 u s s .

Solution
3
sin 60
2
u u = =
There will be a second solution in the second quadrant.
180 - 60 = 120 is also a solution.

Since sin y u = has a period of 360 any other solutions can be found by
adding/subtracting 360 to these two solutions.

So the other solutions are:
60 - 360 = -300
and 120 - 360 = -240
So the values of for which
3
sin
2
u = are -300, -240, 60, 120.


You can see some more examples like the one above using the Flash
resource Solving basic trigonometric equations. Look at the graph each
time.
y = tan
When you use the inverse tan
function, your calculator will
always give you an answer
between -90 and 90.
A second solution in a
360 cycle can be found
by + 180 or - 180
AQA C2 Trigonometry 2 Notes and Examples
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Almost all equations of the type in Example 1 have two solutions in the range
0 360 s < x . However, equations of the form sin = ax k may have different
numbers of solutions.

Sketching a graph can be very useful in helping to solve equations like
sin2 0.5 = x . To do this, you need to use the earlier work on transformations of
graphs.

Remember that the graph of f ( ) = y ax is obtained from the graph of f ( ) = y x
by a stretch parallel to the x-axis, scale factor
1
a
. This means that the graph of
sin2 = y x is obtained from the graph of sin = y x by a stretch parallel to the
x-axis, scale factor
1
2
.

Notice that the graph of sin2 = y x repeats itself every 180, whereas the
graph of sin = y x repeats itself every 360. This means that the equation
sin2 0.5 = x has four solutions in the range 0 360 s < x , as shown in the
graph below.

90 90 180 270 360 450
1
1
x
y


sin 2 0.5
2 30 , 150 , 390 , 510
15 , 75 , 195 , 255
=
=
=
x
x
x


Example 2
Solve each of the following equations in the given range:
(i) tan3 1 = x for 0 360 s < x
(ii)
1
2
sin 0.5 = x for 180 180 < s x

Solution
(i)
tan3 = y x
Since four solutions are expected in the
range 0 360 s < x , add 360 to each of
the first two values for 2x to give two more.
Halving each value for 2x gives four
solutions for x in the range 0 360 s < x
sin2 = y x
AQA C2 Trigonometry 2 Notes and Examples
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90 90 180 270 360
2
1
1
2
x
y



tan3 1
3 45 , 225 , 405 , 585 , 765 , 945
15 , 75 , 135 , 195 , 255 , 315
=
=
=
x
x
x

(ii)
180 90 90 180
1
1
x
y


1
2
1
2
sin 0.5
30
60
=
=
=
x
x
x




The next two examples show how more complicated trigonometric equations
can be solved, using a combination of algebraic techniques and trigonometry.

In Example 3 you need to factorise the equation.


Example 3
Solve 2cos sin cos 0 u u u + = for 0 360 u s s .

Solution
2cos sin cos 0 u u u + = can be factorised as there is cosu in both terms on the LHS.
Factorise: cos (2sin 1) 0 u u + =
So either cos 0 u = or 2sin 1 0 u + =
cos 0 90 u u = =
360 - 90 = 270 is also a solution.
It is wrong to divide
through by cosu because
you lose the solutions to
cosu = 0.

There will be six solutions
in the range.
There is just one solution in the range
the solution for
1
2
x of -150 gives a
value for x which is outside the range.
1
2
sin = y x
AQA C2 Trigonometry 2 Notes and Examples
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1
2
2sin 1 0 sin u u + = =
This has solutions in the third and fourth quadrants.
The solutions are 180 + 30 = 210 and 360 - 30 = 330.

So the values of for which 2cos sin cos 0 u u u + = are 90, 210, 270 and 330.


In Example 4 you need to solve a quadratic equation.


Example 4
Solve
2
2cos 3cos 2 u u + = for 0 360 u s s .

Solution
2
2cos 3cos 2 u u + = is a quadratic equation in cosu
Rearrange the quadratic:
2
2cos 3cos 2 0 u u + =
Let cosu = x:
2
2 3 2 0 x x + =
Factorise: (2 1)( 2) 0 x x + =

1
2
x = or 2 x =
1
2
cosu = or cos 2 u =
cos 2 u = has no solutions.

So we need to solve
1
2
cosu =
cos 60 u =
There is also a solution in the 4
th
quadrant, so 360 - 60 = 300 is also a solution.

So the values of for which
2
2cos 3cos 2 u u + = are 60 and 300.


Trigonometric identities

You need to learn the following identities:


sin
tan
cos
u
u
u

2 2
sin cos 1 u u +

An identity is true for all values of .

These identities are demonstrated in the Flash resources Identities: sin x /
cos x =tan x and Identities: sinx +cosx =1.


In this example you need to use the trigonometric identities to rewrite an
expression.


Example 6
You can replace cosu with x
to make things simpler! Or
factorise straightaway to get:
(2cosu 1)(cosu + 2) = 0
and then solve.
e.g.
sin30
tan30
cos30

AQA C2 Trigonometry 2 Notes and Examples
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Show that
2
(sin cos )(sin cos ) 2sin 1 u u u u u + =

Solution
Working with the LHS and expanding the brackets gives:

2 2
(sin cos )(sin cos ) sin cos u u u u u u + =
Since
2 2
sin cos 1 u u + then
2 2
cos 1 sin u u
Substituting into gives:

2 2
(sin cos )(sin cos ) sin (1 sin ) u u u u u u + =
Simplifying:
2
(sin cos )(sin cos ) 2sin 1 u u u u u + = as
required.


These trigonometric identities are sometimes needed to solve trigonometric
equations.

In this example you need to use the identity
sin
tan
cos
u
u
u
.


Example 7
Solve sin 2cos 0 u u = for 0 360 u s s .

Solution
You need to rearrange the equation.
sin 2cos 0 u u =
Dividing by cos u:
sin
2 0
cos
u
u
=
Since
sin
tan
cos
u
u
u
: tan 2 0 u =
tan 2 u =
63.4 u = to 1 d.p.
There is also a solution in the 3
rd
quadrant.
So 63.4 + 180 = 243.4 is also a solution.

So the values of for which sin 2cos 0 u u = are 63.4 and 243.4 to 1 d.p.


You can see more examples like this one using the Flash resource Solving
trig equations using identities (1).
In this example you need to use the trigonometric identity
2 2
sin cos 1 u u + .


Example 8
Solve
2 2
sin sin cos x x x + = for 0 360 x s s

Solution
Rearranging the identity
2 2
sin cos 1 u u +
You can safely divide by cos
because it cant be equal to 0.
If it were then sin would also
have to be 0 and cos and sin
are never both 0 for the same
value of .
AQA C2 Trigonometry 2 Notes and Examples
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gives:
2 2
cos 1 sin x x

Substituting into the equation
2 2
sin sin cos x x x + = gives:

2 2
sin sin 1 sin x x x + =
This is a quadratic in sin x .
Rearranging:
2
2sin sin 1 0 x x + =
This factorises to give: (2sin 1)(sin 1) 0 x x + =
So either: 2sin 1 0 x = or sin 1 0 x + =

1
2
sin x = sin 1 x =
30 or 150 = x 270 = x
So the solutions to
2 2
sin sin cos x x x + = are 30 ,150 or 270 x =


You can see more examples like this one using the Flash resource Solving
trig equations using identities (2).

You may also find the Mathcentre video Trigonometric equations helpful.
(Some of the examples in this video involve the use of radians, which are
covered in a later section).