Hey, everyone. In this problem, we're asked to simplify the expression. And the expression that we're given is the cosine of theta plus the cosecant of theta divided by the cosine of theta plus the sine of theta minus the secant of theta over the sine of theta. Now we want to fully simplify this expression. And remember that for an expression to be fully simplified, we want all of our arguments to be positive, which here they already are. We want no fractions, and we want as few trig functions as possible. So let's go ahead and take a look at our strategies here. Now here I have 2 fractions that are being added together, and one of my strategies tells me to go ahead and add any fractions using a common denominator here. So, looking at these two fractions, what is our common denominator going to be? Well, in this first fraction, I have a denominator of cosine, and in my second fraction, I have a denominator of sine. So what is our common denominator going to be here? Well, I can multiply these two things together in order to give me a common denominator of the cosine times the sine. Now, in order to do that, to get that common denominator and add these two fractions together, remember that we need to multiply the top and the bottom of each fraction in order to get that common denominator. So here I'm going to multiply this first fraction by the sine of theta over the sine of theta. And then I'm going to multiply my second fraction by the cosine of theta over the cosine of theta. Now looking at this, multiplying that bottom is going to give me that common denominator there. But we need to multiply the top as well. So we need to go ahead and distribute that sine into these two terms here, starting off my denominator with sine of theta times cosine of theta plus the sine of theta times the cosecant of theta. So that is my first fraction fully multiplied, giving me that common denominator. Then for my second fraction, I need to do the same thing. I need to distribute that cosine into both of my terms. Now that first term will give me plus the cosine of theta times the sine of theta and then minus, because that's a subtraction right there, minus the cosine of theta times the secant of theta. Okay. This fraction looks a little crazy right now, but let's look back to our strategies. Now remember, we want to be constantly scanning for identities, and something that can be helpful is to break down in terms of sine and cosine. Now looking down to my identities here I know that the cosecant is equal to 1 over sine, and the secant is equal to 1 over cosine. So I can break this entire thing down in terms of sine and cosine by using those identities to replace the cosecant and the secant in this expression. So let's go ahead and do that here. Now everything is staying the same besides the cosecant and the secant. So I still have that first term, sine of theta times cosine of theta, but now my second term is sine of theta times one over the sine of theta using that cosecant reciprocal identity. Then that other term will stay the same, cosine of theta times the sine of theta. And then this term becomes cosine of theta times 1 over the cosine of theta. Now remember we still have a fraction, denominator here, and it is still the cosine of theta times the sine of theta. Now the only thing that I changed was this to 1 over sine and this to 1 over cosine. But let's look at what happens here. Now here I have a sine on the top and I have it being multiplied by 1 over the sine. So those are going to cancel out. Now when those cancel out that's just going to leave me with a value of positive 1. Then over here this cosine cancels with this cosine and I'm left with a negative one. So here I have a positive one and I have a negative one. What happens when I take 1 and subtract 1? I get 0. So those fully go away, canceling each other out. Now all that I'm left with in that numerator is sine theta times cosine theta plus cosine theta times sine theta. Those are the only two terms that I have left in that numerator with everything else having canceled out. Now we do still have a fraction, so my denominator is still the cosine of theta times the sine of theta. But let's make sure that we take a break and we pause and we look at what's actually happening here. I have the sine of theta times the cosine of theta plus the cosine of theta times the sine of theta. Now those are the same 2 trig functions being multiplied together so these are actually the same exact term. So if I take one of those terms and I add it to another one of those terms, how many of those terms do I have? I have 2. So this is really just 2 times the sine of theta times the cosine of theta in that numerator. Now this is still being, of course, divided by the cosine of theta times the sine of theta. But, again, let's look at what's really happening here. I have a sine on the top. I have a sine on the bottom. I have a cosine on the top and I have a cosine on the bottom. So what's the only thing that I'm left with? 2. And that's my final answer here because I don't have any fractions and I have as few trig functions as possible because I have literally no trig functions. So our original expression here, this long mess of fractions, is really just equal to 2. So I know that that was a lot. So let me know if you have any questions. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next one.
Table of contents
- 0. Review of College Algebra4h 43m
- 1. Measuring Angles39m
- 2. Trigonometric Functions on Right Triangles2h 5m
- 3. Unit Circle1h 19m
- 4. Graphing Trigonometric Functions1h 19m
- 5. Inverse Trigonometric Functions and Basic Trigonometric Equations1h 41m
- 6. Trigonometric Identities and More Equations2h 34m
- 7. Non-Right Triangles1h 38m
- 8. Vectors2h 25m
- 9. Polar Equations2h 5m
- 10. Parametric Equations1h 6m
- 11. Graphing Complex Numbers1h 7m
6. Trigonometric Identities and More Equations
Introduction to Trigonometric Identities
Video duration:
5mPlay a video:
Related Videos
Related Practice
Introduction to Trigonometric Identities practice set
