Recall the definitions of the trig. functions:
sin
t
= y/r
___________
csc
t
= r/y
cos
t
= x/r
___________
sec
t
= r/x
tan
t
= y/x
___________
cot
t
= x/y
Now the "proofs"
__
csc
t
= r/y
= 1/(y/r)
= 1/sin
t
__
sec
t
= r/x
= 1/(x/r)
= 1/cos
t
__
tan
t
= y/x
= (y/r)/(x/r) dividing both top
_____
= (y/r)/(x/r)
and bottom by r
= sin
t
/cos
t
__
cot
t
= x/y
= 1/(y/x)
= 1/tan
t
= 1/(sin
t
/cos
t
)
= cos
t
/sin
t
Return to the
tutorial