Confused about the use of arctan and the presence of 180.

trigonometry

In my high school math class I'm currently working on solving trigonometric equations.

Solve for all possible values of x:

$5 = 30\cos(2x + 1) – 5 $

My teacher (on some examples posted online) achieved this result.

$x = \frac{\arctan(\frac{1}{3}) \pm 180 + 1}{2}$

My question is: Why is arctan being used? Is there a relationship between arctan and cos that I'm missing? Why isn't arccos being used instead?

Also the plus-minus 180. I think it has something to do with the range of the cos function but I'm not exactly sure either.

Sorry for any formatting issues, first time poster.

Best Answer

We have: $$5=30\cos(2x+1)-5$$ $$\to \frac 13 =\cos(2x+1)$$ $$\to 2x+1 =\arccos(\frac 13)$$ $$\to x=\frac12(\arccos(\frac13)-1)$$

Now, notice that: $$\cos(x)=\cos(x+360)=\cos(x-360)=\cos(x+720)=...$$

Because $\cos(x)$ is a periodic function with period $360^0$

Because of this, $$\arccos(\frac 13)=I\pm360k$$

Also, because $\cos(x)=\cos(-x)$, we have $-\arccos(\frac 13)$ fittingas well.

For any integer $k$, where $I\approx70.527$ is the initial value of $\arccos(\frac13)$

That's why the $\pm 180$ bit came in to the solution, even if it's slightly off.

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