audio read-through Fundamental Trigonometric Identities

Index card: 58ab

Trigonometry is abundant with identities—they provide important renaming tools when working with trigonometric expressions.

Three of the most basic trigonometric identities are discussed in this section, after a quick review of the word ‘identity’.

The Pythagorean Identity: $\,\sin^2 t + \cos^2 t = 1\,$
Cosine is an Even Function: $\,\cos (-t) = \cos t\,$
Sine is an Odd Function: $\,\sin (-t) = -\sin t\,$

What is an ‘Identity’?

An identity is a mathematical sentence that is always true.

Strictly speaking, ‘1 + 1 = 2’ is an identity. However, the word ‘identity’ is typically reserved for a sentence with one or more variables, that is true for every possible choice of variable(s).

For example, $\,(x+y)^2 = x^2 + 2xy + y^2\,$ is an identity from algebra. No matter what real numbers are chosen for $\,x\,$ and $\,y\,,$ the equation is true. For example, letting $\,x = 2\,$ and $\,y = -3\,$ gives:

The left and right sides will always be equal, regardless of the choices made for $\,x\,$ and $\,y\,.$

In this case, it is a simple application of FOIL to see why the equation is always true:

$$\cssId{s22}{(x+y)^2 = (x+y)(x+y) = x^2 + 2xy + y^2}$$

However, identities are not always this obvious—it is not always this easy to prove that a given sentence is an identity!

What Good are Identities?

Identities can provide tremendous renaming power.

For example, the identity above allows the expressions $\,(x+y)^2\,$ and $\,x^2 + 2xy + y^2\,$ to be substituted, one for the other, whenever it is convenient to do so.

In particular, renaming $\,x^2 + 2xy + y^2\,$ as $\,(x+y)^2\,$ (a perfect square) shows that it is always nonnegative. The sum $\,x^2 + 2xy + y^2\,$ doesn't readily reveal that it can't ever be negative—but the perfect square $\,(x+y)^2\,$ does. Different names can reveal different properties of numbers!

The Pythagorean Identity: $\,\sin^2 t + \cos^2 t = 1$

The Pythagorean Identity, $\,\sin^2 t + \cos^2 t = 1\,,$ is perhaps the most used and most famous trigonometric identity. Remember—when a mathematical result is given a special name, there's a reason!

The Pythagorean Identity follows immediately from the unit circle definition of sine and cosine :

the Pythagorean Identity

Why the Name ‘the Pythagorean Identity’?

Look at the green triangle shown below, in the first quadrant, in the unit circle:

Why the name 'the Pythagorean Identity'?

A quick application of the Pythagorean Theorem gives:

$$ \cssId{s56}{\sin^2 t + \cos^2 t = 1^2 = 1} $$

Voila! The Pythagorean Identity!

Cosine is an Even Function

Recall that even functions have the property that when inputs are opposites, outputs are the same:

Cosine has this property:

cosine is an even function
cosine is an even function

By definition:

From symmetry, these two $x$-values are always the same!

Sine is an Odd Function

Recall that odd functions have the property that when inputs are opposites, outputs are also opposites:

Sine has this property:

sine is an odd function
sine is an odd function

By definition:

From symmetry, these two $y$-values are always opposites:

$$ \cssId{s81}{\overbrace{\strut\sin(-t)}^{\text{sine of $-t$}}\ \ \ \overbrace{\strut =}^{\text{is}}\ \ \ \overbrace{\strut -}^{\text{the opposite of}}\ \ \ \overbrace{\strut\sin(t)}^{\text{sine of $t$}}} $$

Concept Practice