Reciprocal identities define secant, cosecant, and cotangent as reciprocals of cosine, sine, and tangent. They are used to rewrite expressions into simpler forms.
⚠If sine, cosine, or tangent is zero, its reciprocal function is undefined.
How Reciprocal Identities Work
A reciprocal flips a value over 1. In trigonometry, this connects the six functions into three reciprocal pairs.
Secant
sec θ = 1/cos θ.
Cosecant
csc θ = 1/sin θ.
Cotangent
cot θ = 1/tan θ.
Undefined Cases
Zero denominators are not allowed.
💡 Example: If sin=0.5, cos=0.866025, tan=0.57735, then csc=2, sec=1.154701, cot=1.732052.
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