Why is $\frac{\cos(\alpha + \beta) + \cos(-\alpha)}{\sin(\alpha + \beta) + \sin(-\alpha)}$ independent of $\alpha$?

87 Views Asked by At

By accident I found (numerically) that the expression

$$\frac{\cos(\alpha + \beta) + \cos(-\alpha)}{\sin(\alpha + \beta) + \sin(-\alpha)}$$

only depends on $\beta$. This looks like it shouldn't be hard to prove, but I didn't manage. Can someone think of a nice proof?

Additionally, I would be interested in any geometric interpretation of this result.

1

There are 1 best solutions below

1
On BEST ANSWER

$$\cos(\alpha+\beta)+\cos(-\alpha)=2\cos{\frac{\alpha+\alpha+\beta}{2}}\cos{\frac{\alpha+\beta-\alpha}{2}}=2\cos{\frac{\beta}{2}}\cos\left(\alpha+\frac{\beta}{2}\right)$$

$$\sin(\alpha+\beta)+\sin(-\alpha)=2\sin{\frac{\alpha+\beta-\alpha}{2}}\cos{\frac{\alpha+\beta-(-\alpha)}{2}}=2\sin{\frac{\beta}{2}}\cos\left(\alpha+\frac{\beta}{2}\right)$$