A student found the exact value of cos 30 degrees using the fact that 30 degrees = 60 degrees minus 30 degrees and got zero. What was his error? What do you think he did wrong?
Question
Answer:
let
A=60 degrees
B=30 degrees
Β
we know that
cos (A-B)=cos A*cos B+sinA*sinB
so
cos (60-30)=cos60*cos30+sin60*sin30-- > (1/2)*( β3/2)+( β3/2)*(1/2)---
> β3/4+ β3/4---- > β3/2
so
cos (60-30)= β3/2
theΒ mistake is that the student used the formula
for the cosine of the difference: cos ( A-B) but confused the sign, and use -
instead of + getting the wrong value. cos (60-30)=cos60*cos30-sin60*sin30----- > β3/4- β3/4---- > 0---- > wrong value obtained by the student
solved
general
10 months ago
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