Cosecant, Secant, and Cotangent

In this chapter well introduced three more trigonometric functions: the

cosecant, the secant, and the cotangent. These functions are written as csc(),
sec(), and cot() respectively. They are the functions defined by the formulas
below:

1
csc() = sin()

1
sec() = cos()

cos()
cot() = sin()

Graphs of cosecant, secant, and cotangent

0
0

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Periods
Cosecant, secant, and cotangent are periodic functions. Cosecant and se-
cant have the same period as sine and cosine do, namely 2. Cotangent
has period , just as tangent does. In terms of formulas, the previous two
sentences mean that

csc( + 2) = csc() sec( + 2) = sec() cot( + ) = cot()

Its easy to check why these functions have the periods that they do. For
example, because sine has period 2that is, because sin( + 2) = sin()
we can check that
1 1
csc( + 2) = = = csc()
sin( + 2) sin()
Similarly, the secant function has the same period, 2, as the function used
to define it, cosine.

Even and odd

Recall that an even function is a function f (x) with the property that
f (x) = f (x). Examples include x2 , x4 , x6 , and cosine.
We can add secant to the list of functions that we know are even functions.
That is, sec() = sec(). The reason secant is even is that cosine is even:

1 1
sec() = = = sec()
cos() cos()

An odd function is a function f (x) with the property that f (x) = f (x).
Examples include x3 , x5 , x7 , sine, and tangent.
Cosecant and cotangent are odd functions, meaning that csc() = csc()
and cot() = cot(). We can check that these identities are true by using
that sine is an odd function and that cosine is even:

1 1
csc() = = = csc()
sin() sin()

cos() cos()
cot() = = = cot()
sin() sin()
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Cofunction identities
Sine and cosine, secant and cosecant, tangent and cotangent; these pairs of
functions satisfy a common identity that is sometimes called the cofunction
identity:

sin 2 = cos()

sec 2 = csc()

tan 2 = cot()

These identities also go the other way:

cos 2 = sin()

csc 2 = sec()

cot 2 = tan()

Lets check one of these six identities, the identity cos 2 =
sin(). In

order to see that this identity is true, well start with cos 2 and well
use that cosine is an even function, so
   h i

cos = cos = cos
2 2 2



Now we can use the identity cos 2 = sin() (Lemma 9 from the Sine
and Cosine chapter) so that we have
   
cos = cos = sin()
2 2
as we had claimed.
Using the cofunction identity that we just examined, sin() = cos 2 ,


we can check that the first cofunction identity from the list above is true:
   h i
sin = cos = cos()
2 2 2
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 Exercises
For #1-12, find the given value.

1.) csc 6

2.) csc 4

3.) csc 3

4.) csc 2

5.) sec(0)

6.) sec 6

7.) sec 4

8.) sec 3

9.) cot 6



10.) cot 4



11.) cot 3



12.) cot 2

Find the solutions of the following equations in one variable.

13.) loge (x) = loge (12) loge (x + 1)

14.) (x 4)2 = 36

15.) e3x2 = 4

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