Ask Your Question
0

Trigonometric equality (with arctan and arcsin)

asked 8 years ago

Romuald_314 gravatar image

updated 8 years ago

Hi,

I found a strange issue:

ex = (arctan(1/2) + arcsin(sqrt(5)/5) == arctan(4/3))
bool(ex)

And it gives False.

A simple numeric approximation allows to see that it's true, and wolfram alpha for instance gives the correct answer. But why is it like that and how can I fix it?

Thanks

Preview: (hide)

Comments

In sagecell, giac('simplify(tExpand((arctan(1/2) + arcsin(sqrt(5)/5) - arctan(4/3))))') returns 0. tExpand is a shortcut for expand trascendental expressions.

mforets gravatar imagemforets ( 8 years ago )

Seems to work. Thanks for the terminology.

Romuald_314 gravatar imageRomuald_314 ( 8 years ago )

2 Answers

Sort by » oldest newest most voted
3

answered 8 years ago

eric_g gravatar image

updated 8 years ago

Actually, Sage returns False whenever it does not manage to prove that an equality is true or false. Therefore only True is a mathematically meaningful output for such a test.

Preview: (hide)
link

Comments

Oh, that's problematical. It's a shame not to be able to verify such an equality. Really, there is no way?

Romuald_314 gravatar imageRomuald_314 ( 8 years ago )
2

answered 8 years ago

dan_fulea gravatar image

I tried:

sage: tan( arctan(1/2) + arcsin(sqrt(5)/5) - arctan(4/3) ).simplify_full()

0

Usually, it is a good idea to put all expressions on one side. The symbolic expression simplifier has a simpler work.

Preview: (hide)
link

Comments

1

Your way is also working, however I find weird having to add a 'tan(...)' to the expression to prove that it's equal to 0. Indeed, tan(0)=0 but that does not always work (tan(2k*pi)=0 too)

Romuald_314 gravatar imageRomuald_314 ( 8 years ago )

Your Answer

Please start posting anonymously - your entry will be published after you log in or create a new account.

Add Answer

Question Tools

1 follower

Stats

Asked: 8 years ago

Seen: 844 times

Last updated: Feb 25 '17