The three basic trigonometric functions occur so often as the denominator of a fraction that it is convenient to give names to their reciprocals. We define three new trigonometric functions as follows.
For example, is not equal to . Remember that is an angle, namely the angle whose cosine is 0.8, while is the reciprocal of the cosine of 0.8 radians, or . You can check on your calculator that
Each of the reciprocal functions is undefined when its denominator is equal to zero. For example, the secant is undefined when , or when is an odd multiple of .
In Chapter 2 we defined three trigonometric ratios for an acute angle; namely, sine, cosine, and tangent. When we take the reciprocals of those ratios, we obtain expressions for the secant, cosecant, and cotangent.
Although we can express any relationship between the sides of a right triangle using sine, cosine, and tangent, sometimes it is more convenient to use one of the reciprocal functions.
The length, , of the shadow cast by a flagpole on a sunny day depends on the height, , of the flagpole and the angle, , that the sun’s rays make with ground.
We can obtain graphs of the reciprocal trig functions by plotting points, as we did for the sine, cosine and tangent functions. However, it is more enlightening to construct these graphs as the reciprocals of the three basic functions.
To find some points on the graph, we look at points on the graph of . At each -value, the -coordinate of the point on the graph of is the reciprocal of .
For example, at and , we have , so . Thus, we plot the points and on the graph of . Similarly, at and ,, so the value of is , and we plot the points and on the graph of .
The graphs of the three new functions are shown below, with in radians. Note that the secant function is undefined at odd multiples of , the values at which . The cosecant is undefined where , namely at multiples of . The cotangent is also undefined at multiples of , because at those values.
Because the cosine is defined for all real numbers, the domain of the secant includes all real numbers except for values where the cosine is zero. These values are the odd multiples of , that is, , and their opposites.
From the graph of the secant function, we can see that the equation has two solutions between and if or , but no solution for . The same is true of the cosecant function: the equation has no solution for .
Because is one of the special values, we recognize that one of the solutions is . The sine and the cosecant are also positive in the second quadrant, so the second solution is .
Because lies in the fourth quadrant, where the sine function is negative, we choose the negative square root for . Once we know , we calculate its reciprocal to find .
Identities are especially useful if the trig ratios are algebraic expressions, rather than numerical values. In the next example, we use the cotangent identity.
There are two alternate versions of the Pythagorean identity which involve the reciprocal trig functions. These identities are useful when we know the value of or and want to find the other trig values.
We cannot find the sine and cosine of an angle directly from the value of the tangent; in particular, it is not true that and ! (Do you see why?) Instead, we begin with the Pythagorean identity for the tangent.
Because is in the third quadrant, both its sine and cosine are negative. Therefore the reciprocals of cosine and sine, namely secant and cosecant, must also be negative, and hence . The cosine of is the reciprocal of the secant, so .
The figure shows a unit circle centered at . The line through is tangent to the circle at . (Recall that a tangent to a circle is perpendicular to the radius that meets it.)
The distance that sunlight must travel to pass through a layer of Earth’s atmosphere depends on both the thickness of the atmosphere and the angle of the sun.
Use the figure to write an expression for the radius, , of a curve whose degree of curvature is . (Hint: The bisector of the angle is perpendicular to the chord.)
Find the radius of a curve whose degree of curvature is .
When a plane is tilted by an angle from the horizontal, the time required for a ball starting from rest to roll a horizontal distance of feet on the plane is
The figure shows a unit circle and an angle in standard position. Each of the six trigonometric ratios for is represented by the length of a line segment in the figure. Find the line segment for each ratio, and explain your choice.