Arkansas Tech University

MATH 1203: Trigonometry

Dr. Marcel B. Finan
20 The Double-Angle and Half-Angle Identi-
ties
The sum formulas discussed in the previous section are used to derive for-
mulas for double angles and half angles.
To be more specic, consider the sum formula for the sine function
sin (x +y) = sin x cos y + cos x sin y.
Then letting y = x to obtain
sin 2x = 2 sin x cos x. (1)
This is the rst double angle formula. To obtain the formula for cos 2x we
use the sum formula for the cosine function
cos (x +y) = cos x cos y sin x sin y.
Letting y = x we obtain
cos 2x = cos
2
x sin
2
x. (2)
Since sin
2
x + cos
2
x = 1, there are two alternatives to Eq (2), namely
cos 2x = 2 cos
2
x 1 (3)
and
cos 2x = 1 2 sin
2
x. (4)
Letting y = x in the sum formula of the tangent function we obtain
tan (2x) = tan (x +x) =
2 tan x
1 tan
2
x
. (5)
Formulas (1) - (5) are examples of double angle identities.
1
Example 20.1
Given cos =
5
13
,
3
2
< < 2, nd sin 2, cos 2, and tan 2.
Solution.
The fact is in quadrant IV implies sin =

1 cos
2
=
12
13
. Thus,
sin 2 =2 sin cos =
120
169
cos 2 =2 cos
2
1 =
119
169
tan 2 =
sin 2
cos 2
=
120
119
Example 20.2
Develop a formula for cot 2 in terms of .
Solution.
Using the formula for tan 2 we have
cot 2 =
1
tan (2)
=
1 tan
2

2 tan
=
1
2
(
1
tan
tan ) =
1
2
(cot tan )
Using Eq (3) we nd 2 sin
2
x = 1 cos 2x and therefore
sin
2
x =
1 cos 2x
2
. (6)
Similarly, using Eq (4) to obtain
cos
2
x =
1 + cos 2x
2
(7)
and
tan
2
x =
sin
2
x
cos
2
x
=
1 cos 2x
1 + cos 2x
. (8)
Formulas (6) - (8) are known as the square identities.
2
Example 20.3
Show that
sin
4
=
3
8

1
2
cos 2 +
1
8
cos 4.
Solution.
We have
sin
4
=(sin
2
)
2
= (
1 cos 2
2
)
2
=
1
4
(1 + cos
2
2 2 cos 2)
=
1
4
(1 + (
1 + cos 4
2
) 2 cos 2)
=
3
8

1
2
cos 2 +
1
8
cos 4
We close this section by deriving identities for the sine, cosine, and tangent
for half-angle

2
.
Let =

2
in Eq ( 6) through Eq ( 8) we obtain
sin
2

2
=
1 cos
2
cos
2

2
=
1 + cos
2
tan
2

2
=
1 cos
1 + cos
.
Taking square roots to obtain
sin

2
=

1 cos
2
cos

2
=

1 + cos
2
tan

2
=

1 cos
1 + cos
.
where + or is determined by the quadrant of the angle

2
.
Alternative formulas for tan

2
can be obtained geometrically by means of
3
Figure 20.1.
Figure 20.1
Indeed, we have cos = |OB|, sin = |AB|, and
tan

2
=
|AB|
|BC|
=
sin
1 + cos
.
If we mutliply the top and bottom of the last identity by 1 cos and then
using the identity cos
2
+ sin
2
= 1 we obtain
tan

2
=
sin (1 cos )
1 cos
2

=
1 cos
sin
.
Example 20.4
Given sin =
3
5
and in quadrant II. Determine the values of sin

2
, cos

2
,
and tan

2
.
Solution.
Since is in quadrant II, we have cos =

1 sin
2
=
4
5
. Thus,
sin

2
=

1 cos
2
=

1 +
4
5
2
=
3

10
10
cos

2
=

1 + cos
2
=

1
4
5
2
=

10
10
tan

2
=

1 cos
1 + cos
= 3 (9)
4