P1 Chapter 10 :: Trigonometric

Identities & Equations

jfrost@tiffin.kingston.sch.uk
www.drfrostmaths.com
@DrFrostMaths

Last modified: 7th August 2024

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Chapter Overview
Those who did IGCSE Further Maths or Additional Maths will be familiar with this
content. Exact trigonometric values for were in the GCSE syllabus.

1:: Know exact trig values 2:: Use identities and

for and understand unit
circle.
Show that can be written in the form

3:: Solve equations of the form

and
4:: Solve equations which are
Solve , for . quadratic in sin/cos/tan.
Solve, for , the equation
sin/cos/tan of
You will frequently encounter angles of in geometric problems. Why?
We see these angles in equilateral triangles and half squares.
?
Although you will always have a calculator, you need to know how to derive these.
All you need to remember:
! Draw half a unit square and half an equilateral triangle of side 2.

1
?
√?2 sin ( 45° )= ?
1 ?

sin (30°)=
1
? ?
30? °2?
?°
45 √?2 √?3 ?

2
1
? ?°
60 ?
1
? ?
?
The Unit Circle and Trigonometry
For values of in the range , But how do we get the rest of the graph for and
you know that and are when ?
lengths on a right-angled
triangle:  The point on a unit circle, such that
makes an angle with the positive -axis, has
coordinates .
has gradient .
1 𝑦
𝐬𝐢𝐧?𝜽 𝑃 ( cos 𝜃 ,sin 𝜃 )
𝜃 1
𝐜𝐨𝐬 𝜃 𝑥
?𝜽 𝑂
And what would be the
gradient of the bold line?
Angles are always measured anticlockwise.
But also: (Further Mathematicians will encounter the same when they get to
Complex Numbers)
?
We can consider the coordinate as increases
from 0 to …
 Mini-Exercise
Use the unit circle to determine each value in the table, using either “0”, “+ve”, “-ve”, “1”, “-1” or “undefined”.
Recall that the point on the unit circle has coordinate and has gradient .

-value -value Gradient of .

cos 𝜃 tan 𝜃
sin 𝜃 𝜃 𝜃
cos sin tan 𝜃
𝜃= 0 𝜃=180 °
𝑦 𝑦
𝑃𝑥
1 0 0
𝑃 𝜃
?𝑥
-1 ?0 0

0 <𝜃 <90 ° 1 80 °< 𝜃<270 °

𝑦 𝑦
1𝑃 +ve +ve? +ve 𝜃
-ve ?
-ve +ve
𝜃𝑥 ?𝑥
𝑃
𝜃= 90 ° 𝜃= 270 °
𝑦 𝑦
𝑃𝜃
?𝑥
0 1 ? Undefined
(vertical lines don’t have
𝜃
?𝑥
0 ?-1 Undefined
a well-defined gradient)
𝑃
90 °<𝜃<180 ° 270 °<𝜃<360 °
𝑦 -ve +ve 𝑦 +ve
𝑃 𝜃
?𝑥 ? -ve 𝑃𝜃
?𝑥 ?-ve -ve
The Unit Circle and Trigonometry
The unit circles explains the behaviour of these trigonometric graphs beyond .
However, the easiest way to remember whether are positive or negative is to just do a very
quick sketch (preferably mentally!) of the corresponding graph.

𝑦 positive
for

𝑦 =sin ( 𝑥 )
𝑥
90 180 270 360
Note: The textbook uses
something called ‘CAST diagrams’.
I will not be using them in these
negative slides, but you may wish to look at
for these technique as an alternative
approach to various problems in
the chapter.
A Few Trigonometric Angle Laws
The following are all easily derivable using a quick sketch of a trigonometric graph, and are
merely a convenience so you don’t always have to draw out a graph every time.
You are highly encouraged to memorise these so that you can do exam questions faster.

𝑦 =sin ( 𝑥 )
1 sin ( 𝑥 )=sin ( 180 ° − 𝑥 ) We saw this in the previous chapter
when covering the ‘ambiguous
case’ when using the sine rule.
e.g. 30 150
180
𝑦 =cos ( 𝑥 )

2 cos ( 𝑥 )=cos ( 360 ° − 𝑥 ) 30 330

360
e.g.

𝑦 =sin ( 𝑥 )
3 and repeat every
but every 30 360
390 720
e.g.

Remember from the previous chapter that “cosine” by

4 definition is the sine of the “complementary” angle.
This was/is never covered in the textbook but caught
e.g. everyone by surprise when it came up in a C3 exam.
Examples
Without a calculator, work out the value of each below.

repeats every so can

subtract Use the ‘laws’ where you can,
? but otherwise just draw out a
quick sketch of the graph.
? For we can subtract
from .
?
For we can subtract
• repeat every but every
? from .

? We have to resort to a sketch for this one.

𝑦 =sin ( 𝑥 ) Froflections: It’s not hard to see from the
1 graph that in general, .

?
cos repeats √2 Even more generally, a function is known as
every .
− 4545 𝑥 an ‘odd function’ if .
is similarly ‘odd’ as .
1
−

? √2 A function is even if . Examples are and as

and . You do not need to know this for the
exam.
Again, let’s just use a graph.

1
𝑦 =cos ( 𝑥 )
2 The graph is rotationally symmetric

60120 𝑥 about . Since is above , we get the

90 180 same value for , except negative.
Test Your Understanding
Without a calculator, work out the value of each below.

?
• repeat every but every

?
?
?
?
Exercise 10A/B
Pearson Pure Mathematics Year 1/AS
Page 207, 209
 Trigonometric Identities
Returning to our point on the
unit circle…
𝑃
1
sin 𝜃 ?

𝜃
𝑂 cos
? 𝜃

1 Then ?

𝟐 𝟐
2 Pythagoras gives 𝒔𝒊 𝒏 𝜽+𝒄𝒐
?
𝒔 𝜽=𝟏
is a shorthand for . It does NOT mean the sin is being
you... squared – this does not make sense as sin is a function,
You are really uncool if and not a quantity that we can square!
you get this reference.
Application of identities #1: Proofs
Prove that

Fro Tip #1: Turn any tan’s

into sin’s and cos’s.
?

Recall that means ‘equivalent to’,

? and just means the LHS is always
equal to the RHS for all values of .
From Chapter 7 (‘Proofs’) we saw
? that usually the best method is to
manipulate one side (e.g. LHS)
? until we get to the other (RHS).
More Examples
Edexcel C2 June 2012 Paper 1 Q16
Prove that Simplify

? ≡5 ( 1− sin? 𝜃 ) 2

? Fro Tip #3: Look out for and .

Students often don’t spot that these can be
simplified.

Fro Tip #2: In any addition/subtraction

involving at least one fraction (with trig
functions), always combine algebraically
into one.
Test Your Understanding
Prove that Prove that

( cos 𝜃+sin? 𝜃 )( cos 𝜃−sin 𝜃 )

sin 𝑥
cos 𝑥 2 2 2 2
cos 𝑥 sin 𝑥
𝐿𝐻𝑆 ≡ ? ≡ ≡1
√sin 2
𝑥 sin 𝑥
𝐿𝐻𝑆≡ 2
cos 𝜃
AQA IGCSE Further Maths Worksheet
Prove that

?
Exercise 10C
Pearson Pure Mathematics Year 1/AS
Page 211-212

Extension:
For convenience let and . As we’d usually do
[MAT 2008 1C] The simultaneous for simultaneous equations, we could make
equations in , coefficients of terms the same:

are solvable: Then subtracting:

A) for all values of in range
Similarly making terms the same, we yield
B) except for one value of in range are defined for every value of , so the answer
C) except for two values of in range ? not been (A)?
is (A). Why might it have
D) except for three values of in Suppose . This would not be defined
range whenever .
Solving Trigonometric Equations
Remember those trigonometric angle laws (on the Reminder of ‘trig laws’:
right) earlier this chapter? They’re about to become
super freakin’ useful!
• repeat every but every

Solve in the interval .

Froculator Note:
When you do , and on a
or ? calculator, it gives you only one
value, known as the principal
value.

Solve in the interval

Fro Tip: Look out for the solution

range required. is a particularly
or
? common one.

repeats every , so can

add/subtract as we please.
Slightly Harder Ones…

Solve in the interval .

This is not in range. In general you should have

2 solutions per (except when at a peak or
or
or ? trough of the trig graph)

Note that we’ve had to use a second law, i.e.

that repeats every .

Solve in the interval .

Hint: The problem here is that we have

two different trig functions. Is there
? anything we can divide both sides by so
we only have one trig function?
or
Test Your Understanding

Solve in the interval .

or
?

Solve in the interval .

or

?
Exercise 10D
Pearson Pure Mathematics Year 1/AS
Page 215-216
Harder Equations
Harder questions replace the angle with a linear expression.

Solve in the interval .

STEP 1: Adjust the range of

0≤3𝑥<1080°
values for to match the
expression inside the cos.
?
STEP 2: Immediately after
applying an inverse trig
function (and BEFORE dividing
by 3!), find all solutions up to
Froflections: As mentioned before, in general you the end of the interval.
tend to get a pair of values per (for any of
sin/cos/tan), except for or :
𝑦 STEP 3: Then do final
𝑦 =cos ( 𝑥 ) manipulation to each value.

90 180 270 360𝑥

Thus once getting your first pair of values (e.g. using

or to get the second value), keep adding to generate
new pairs.
Further Examples
Solve in the interval .

30°≤2𝑥+30°≤750°
To get from to we double
and add . So do the same to
the upper and lower bound!
?

Solve in the interval

tan 𝑥 = 2 By dividing both sides by , the

becomes and the disappears,
? leaving a trig equation helpfully
only in terms of one trig function.
Test Your Understanding
Edexcel C2 Jan 2013 Q4

?
Exercise 10E
Pearson Pure Mathematics Year 1/AS
Page 218-219
Quadratics in sin/cos/tan
We saw that an equation can be ‘quadratic in’ something, e.g. is ‘quadratic in ’,
meaning that could be replaced with another variable, say , to produce a
quadratic equation .

Solve in the interval .

Method 1: Use a substitution. Method 2: Factorise without substitution.

Let This is the same, but we ‘imagine’ as a

Then single variable and hence factorise
immediately.

? ?

Fropinion: I’d definitely advocate Method 2 provided you feel

confident with it. Method 1 feels clunky.
More Examples
Solve in the interval .
Missing the negative case would result

tan𝜃=2𝑜𝑟 tan 𝜃=−2

in the loss of multiple marks. Beware!

? was outside the range so we had

to add twice.

Solve in the interval .

Tip: We have an
identity involving and ,
so it makes sense to
? change the squared
one that would match
all the others.
Test Your Understanding
Edexcel C2 Jan 2010 Q2

?
Exercise 10F
Pearson Pure Mathematics Year 1/AS
Page 221-222

Extension

1 [MAT 2010 1C] In the range , the equation 2 [MAT 2014 1E] As varies over the
real numbers, the largest value taken
Has how many solutions? by the function
equals what?
There are multiple ways to do this,
including factorising LHS to
, but dividing by gives:
We can make , thus giving a
tan always gives a pair of solutions per , maximum value of .
?
so there are 4 solutions.
?