Simplifying?

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September 20th 2010, 06:06 PM
DannyMath

Simplifying?

I'm a little rusty on my trig and I'm faced with this:

Simplify cos(sin^-1(x))

the -1 just means the inverse.

I've looked the answer up and I know it's sqrt(1-x^2) but I don't remember how to get that. Any help is appreciated.
September 20th 2010, 06:24 PM
Prove It

Remember that $\cos{\theta} = \sqrt{1 - \sin^2{\theta}}$ (from the Pythagorean Identity).

So $\cos{(\sin^{-1}{x})} = \sqrt{1 - [\sin{(\sin^{-1}{x})}]^2}$

$= \sqrt{1 - x^2}$ .
September 20th 2010, 06:45 PM
DannyMath

Ok I understand it until the sin(sin^-1(x)). How does that turn into x specifically?
September 20th 2010, 06:59 PM
mr fantastic

Quote:

Originally Posted by DannyMath

Ok I understand it until the sin(sin^-1(x)). How does that turn into x specifically?

By definition, $f(f^{-1}(x)) = f^{-1}(f(x)) = x$ .
September 20th 2010, 07:06 PM
DannyMath

Oh yes of course, thank you for the clarification! :)

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