5.3 Solving Trigonometric Equations

To solve a Trigonometric equation use standard algebraic techniques such as collecting like terms and factoring.

The goal is to isolate the trigonometric function involved in the equation.

Sometimes this involves changing sines and cosines in order to isolate one of the variables in the equation.

This is the answer in degree form it can easily be changed into radians if you know your unit circle.

Example 1: Solving a Trigonometric Equation

( In reverse order, look at the part above)

Now that you have used the quadratic formula to find the solutions to the problem you must plug them into your calculator as they are not on the unit circle. In this case you would plug the solution to the inverse of pi to find the answer.

The domain must be restricted on from [0,2pi).

Many other problems need factoring in order to solve them.