What is the domain of f(x)=cscxf(x)=cscx?

1 Answer
Jan 23, 2015

The question gets much easier if we recall that, by definition, the function you're dealing with is \frac{1}{\sin(x)}1sin(x).

Being a fraction, we have to make sure that the denominator is non-zero; and since there are no roots or logarithms, it is the only thing we have to study.

The domain of the function will thus be the following set: { x \in \mathbb{R} | \sin(x)\ne0}

The sine function is defined as the projection of a point on the unit circle on the y axis, and thus \sin(x)=0 if and only if the point belongs to the x axis.

The only two points which are on both the unit circle and on the x axis are (1,0) and (-1,0), and they are given by a rotation of 0 and \pi radiants. Because of the periodicity of the sine function, 0 radiants is the same as 2k\pi radians, and pi radians are the same as (2k+1)\pi radians, for each k \in \mathbb{Z}.

Finally, our answer is ready: we need to exclude from the domain all the points of the form 2k\pi, for each k \in \mathbb{Z}. Using a proper notation, the domain is the set D_f={x \in \mathbb{R} | x \ne 2k\pi, \forall k \in \mathbb{Z}}