How do you simplify the expression (tant)/(tant+cott)?

1 Answer
Oct 15, 2016

This expression can be simplified to sin^2t.

Explanation:

For this problem, the following identities will be important:

•tantheta = sintheta/costheta

•cot theta = 1/tantheta= 1/(sintheta/costheta) = costheta/sintheta

Start simplifying:

=(sint/cost)/(sint/cost + cost/sint)

= (sint/cost)/((sin^2t + cos^2t)/(costsint))

We can now apply the identity sin^2alpha + cos^2alpha = 1 to the numerator of the lower expression.

=(sint/cost)/(1/(costsint))

=sint/cost xx (costsint)

= sint xx sint

= sin^2t

Hopefully this helps!