PDA

View Full Version : How do you solve this?


answer_seeker
Nov 11, 2011, 02:54 PM
any help would be greatly appreciated!

(1 csc(a))/(cos(a) cot(a)) = sec(a)

ma0641
Nov 11, 2011, 03:17 PM
?? Solve What??

answer_seeker
Nov 11, 2011, 03:23 PM
Haha sorry. (1 + Csc[θ])/(Cos[θ] - Cot[θ])

answer_seeker
Nov 11, 2011, 03:33 PM
(1 + Csc[a])/(Cos[a] - Cot[a]) = sec[a]

ma0641
Nov 11, 2011, 04:45 PM
Sorry, not a math major, at least for this. Chemistry, building layout with pythagorean theorem and geometry are my limit, even though I had trig 50+ yrs ago.

jcaron2
Nov 12, 2011, 09:31 AM
If you do all of the trig simplications, you'll find you end up getting som crazy equation, like 0=2. That's usually a pretty good indication that there's no solution.

If you plot the left side of the equation, then you plot the right side of the equation, the place(s) where the two plots intersect is where they would be equal to each other. As you can see from the plot below (from this simple online plotting tool (http://zonalandeducation.com/ezGraph/ezGraph.html)), they never intersect, so the indications of there being no solution were correct.