Which trigonometric functions can take the value 0 ?

1 Answer
May 8, 2016

Of the six basic trigonometric functions, the ones which take the value 0 for some value of the argument are:

sin, cos, tan, cot

The other two do not:

sec, csc

Explanation:

sin theta = 0 and tan theta = 0 when theta = k pi for some integer k

cos theta = 0 and cot theta = 0 when theta = pi/2 + k pi for some integer k

For any Real angle theta, we have:

abs(sec theta) >= 1

abs(csc theta) >= 1

so these functions are never zero.