How do you express sin(pi/ 4 ) * sin( ( 15 pi) / 8 ) without using products of trigonometric functions?

1 Answer
Mar 10, 2016

sin((5pi)/4)sin((15pi)/8)=1/2(cos((5pi)/8)+cos(pi/8))

Explanation:

For this one uses the identity

cos(A+B)=cosAcosB-sinAsinB and
cos(A-B)=cosAcosB+sinAsinB.

Subtracting upper identity from lower, one gets

cos(A-B)-cos(A+B)=2sinAsinB or

sinAsinB=1/2(cos(A-B)-cos(A+B))

Hence sin((5pi)/4)sin((15pi)/8)

= 1/2(cos((15pi)/8-(5pi)/4)-cos((15pi)/8+(5pi)/4))

= 1/2(cos((5pi)/8)-cos((25pi)/8))

= 1/2(cos((5pi)/8)-cos(3pi+pi/8))

= 1/2(cos((5pi)/8)+cos(pi/8))