Friday, 11 October 2019

trigonometry - Proving sine of sum identity for all angles



Could anyone present a proof of sine of sum identity for any pair of angles a, b?




sin(a+b)=sin(a)cos(b)+cos(a)sin(b)



Most proofs are based on geometric approach (angles are <90 in this case). But please note the formula is supposed to work for any pair of angles.



The other derivation I know is using Euler's formula, namely this one.



There's one thing I don't feel comfortable with - we know that we add angles when multiplying two complex numbers. This is proven with sine of sum identity. So first we prove how multiplication of two complex exponentials works using sine of sum identity, and then use multiplication of complex exponentials to prove sine of sum identity. Can you tell me how it's not a circular argument?


Answer



here is a geometric proof i saw in an old american mathematics monthly which uses the unit circle. first show that the square of the chord connecting (1,0) and (cost,sint) is 2(1cost) using the distance formula. now reinterpret

 length of chord making an angle t at the center is 22cost



now compute the length squared between cost,sint),(coss,sins) in two different ways:



(i) distance formula gives you 2costcosssintsins



(ii) chord making an angle ts is 2cos(ts)



equating the two gives you cos(ts)=costcoss+sintsins




now use the fact cosπ/2 to derive cos(π/2s)=sins by putting t=π/2 in (1)



put t=0, to derive cos is an even function. put t=π/2, to show sin is an odd function. after all these you derive
sin(ts)=sintcostcostsins

and two for the sums.


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