# Deriving trigonometric identities¶

Let’s assume that we need a formula for $$\sin(a + b)$$ in terms of $$\sin(a)$$, $$\sin(b)$$, $$\cos(a)$$ and $$\cos(b)$$, but we don’t remember it, nor do we know how to get it easily with SymPy. We will derive this formula from scratch using Taylor series expansions and a little symbolic manipulation.

>>> var('a,b')
(a, b)

>>> f = sin(a + b)
>>> f
sin(a + b)


Now let’s expand $$f$$ as a power series with respect to $$b$$ around 0:

>>> f.series(b, 0, 10)
2           3           4           5           6           7           8           9
b ⋅sin(a)   b ⋅cos(a)   b ⋅sin(a)   b ⋅cos(a)   b ⋅sin(a)   b ⋅cos(a)   b ⋅sin(a)   b ⋅cos(a)
sin(a) + b⋅cos(a) - ───────── - ───────── + ───────── + ───────── - ───────── - ───────── + ───────── + ───────── + O(b**10)
2           6           24         120         720         5040       40320       362880


This isn’t very readable but we can clearly see a pattern around $$\sin(a)$$ and $$\cos(a)$$. Let’s collect terms with respect to those two expressions:

>>> collect(_, [sin(a), cos(a)])
⎛   9       7      5    3    ⎞          ⎛   8      6    4    2    ⎞
⎜  b       b      b    b     ⎟          ⎜  b      b    b    b     ⎟
⎜────── - ──── + ─── - ── + b⎟⋅cos(a) + ⎜───── - ─── + ── - ── + 1⎟⋅sin(a) + O(b**10)
⎝362880   5040   120   6     ⎠          ⎝40320   720   24   2     ⎠

>>> _.removeO()
⎛   8      6    4    2    ⎞          ⎛   9       7      5    3    ⎞
⎜  b      b    b    b     ⎟          ⎜  b       b      b    b     ⎟
⎜───── - ─── + ── - ── + 1⎟⋅sin(a) + ⎜────── - ──── + ─── - ── + b⎟⋅cos(a)
⎝40320   720   24   2     ⎠          ⎝362880   5040   120   6     ⎠

>>> g = _


We got two subexpression that look very familiar. Let’s expand $$\sin(b)$$ in $$b$$ around 0 and remove the order term:

>>> sin(b).series(b, 0, 10)
3     5     7       9
b     b     b       b
b - ── + ─── - ──── + ────── + O(b**10)
6    120   5040   362880

>>> _.removeO()
9       7      5    3
b       b      b    b
────── - ──── + ─── - ── + b
362880   5040   120   6


This is clearly the second subexpression, so let’s substitute it for $$\sin(b)$$:

>>> g.subs(_, sin(b))
⎛   8      6    4    2    ⎞
⎜  b      b    b    b     ⎟
⎜───── - ─── + ── - ── + 1⎟⋅sin(a) + sin(b)⋅cos(a)
⎝40320   720   24   2     ⎠

>>> h = _


Now let’s repeat this procedure for $$\cos(b)$$:

>>> cos(b).series(b, 0, 10)
2    4     6      8
b    b     b      b
1 - ── + ── - ─── + ───── + O(b**10)
2    24   720   40320

>>> _.removeO()
8      6    4    2
b      b    b    b
───── - ─── + ── - ── + 1
40320   720   24   2

>>> h.subs(_, cos(b))
sin(a)⋅cos(b) + sin(b)⋅cos(a)


This gave us a formula for $$\sin(a + b)$$:

>>> Eq(f, _)
sin(a + b) = sin(a)⋅cos(b) + sin(b)⋅cos(a)


There is, however, a much simpler way to get the same result:

>>> Eq(f, sin(a + b).expand(trig=True))
sin(a + b) = sin(a)⋅cos(b) + sin(b)⋅cos(a)


1. Repeat this procedure but expand with respect to $$a$$ in the first step.

(solution)

2. Use this procedure to derive a formula for $$\cos(a + b)$$.

(solution)