Dear Ms Ong,

i had just taken my class test on simple trigonometric identities and well as further trignonometric identities yesterday.

sadly to say, i left all the proving of trigonometric identities blank which is worth a total of 9 marks.

Im starting to get panic about trigonometric identities for my coming common test,end of year exams as well as the big O Level.

so im actually here to ask you if you may guide me on how to do them in a faster way, because i realised ive no time to tackle those proving questions.

Best Wishes,
Priscilla Fong

I received this email among the many others in my mailbox. I think this is a common problem face in proving Trigo Identity question. I shall provide a few strategies to handle this sort of question.

• Usually start with the left hand side or whichever side which is more complicated.
• When given trigo functions in the form of sec, cosec or cot x , it is advisable to change it to basic trigo functions like sin, cos, tan
• When question involves power (especially square power), formulas should be considered.
• Have the END in mind before you begin i.e if the end result involves only sin, your working should eventually eliminate the other trigo functions and stick on to sin.
• It should take less than 8 steps for a 3-4 marks proving question.
• is sometimes used in proving Trigo Identity. (Algebra rule)

I am going to use an example to illustrate how to use the above strategies

Q: Prove the identity

(Change sec and tan into sin & cos)

=  

=

= (applying formula)

= (applying algebraic rule)

= (Proven)

Total number of steps = 6

Additional resource: You may want to read on A-Math Trigo Graphs here.

trigo graphs, trigo proving Hide

Another question from O Level Additional Mathematics (A-Math).

If p =( 1 + cosx )/sinx, 1/p= ( 1 – cosx )/( sinx ), find sinx and cosx in terms of p.

trigo proving Hide