# Trigonometry Examples

Factor the left side of the equation.
Let . Substitute for all occurrences of .
Factor by grouping.
For a polynomial of the form , rewrite the middle term as a sum of two terms whose product is and whose sum is .
Factor out of .
Rewrite as plus
Apply the distributive property.
Remove parentheses.
Factor out the greatest common factor from each group.
Group the first two terms and the last two terms.
Factor out the greatest common factor (GCF) from each group.
Factor the polynomial by factoring out the greatest common factor, .
Replace all occurrences of with .
Replace the left side with the factored expression.
If any individual factor on the left side of the equation is equal to , the entire expression will be equal to .
Set the first factor equal to and solve.
Set the first factor equal to .
Add to both sides of the equation.
Divide each term by and simplify.
Divide each term in by .
Reduce the expression by cancelling the common factors.
Cancel the common factor.
Divide by .
Simplify the expression to find the first solution.
Take the inverse cosine of both sides of the equation to extract from inside the cosine.
Evaluate .
The cosine function is positive in the first and fourth quadrants. To find the second solution, subtract the reference angle from to find the solution in the fourth quadrant.
Simplify the expression to find the second solution.
Multiply by .
Subtract from .
Find the period.
The period of the function can be calculated using .
Replace with in the formula for period.
Solve the equation.
The absolute value is the distance between a number and zero. The distance between and is .
Divide by .
The period of the function is so values will repeat every radians in both directions.
Set the next factor equal to and solve.
Set the next factor equal to .
Subtract from both sides of the equation.
Simplify the expression to find the first solution.
Take the inverse cosine of both sides of the equation to extract from inside the cosine.
The exact value of is .
The cosine function is negative in the second and third quadrants. To find the second solution, subtract the reference angle from to find the solution in the third quadrant.
Subtract from .
Find the period.
The period of the function can be calculated using .
Replace with in the formula for period.
Solve the equation.
The absolute value is the distance between a number and zero. The distance between and is .
Divide by .
The period of the function is so values will repeat every radians in both directions.
The final solution is all the values that make true.