Cotangent is Cosecant divided by Secant
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Theorem
Let $\theta$ be an angle such that $\sin \theta \ne 0$.
Then:
- $\cot \theta = \dfrac {\cosec \theta} {\sec \theta}$
where $\cot$, $\cosec$ and $\sec$ mean cotangent, cosecant and secant respectively.
Proof
\(\ds \cot \theta\) | \(=\) | \(\ds \dfrac {\cos \theta} {\sin \theta}\) | Cotangent is Cosine divided by Sine, which holds when $\sin \theta \ne 0$ | |||||||||||
\(\ds \) | \(=\) | \(\ds \dfrac {1 / \sec \theta} {1 / \cosec \theta}\) | Secant is Reciprocal of Cosine, Cosecant is Reciprocal of Sine | |||||||||||
\(\ds \) | \(=\) | \(\ds \dfrac {\dfrac 1 {\sec \theta} \cosec \theta \sec \theta} {\dfrac 1 {\cosec \theta} \cosec \theta \sec \theta}\) | multiplying top and bottom by $\cosec \theta \sec \theta$ | |||||||||||
\(\ds \) | \(=\) | \(\ds \dfrac {\cosec \theta} {\sec \theta}\) | after simplification |
$\blacksquare$
Sources
- 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): trigonometric function
- 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): trigonometric function