Draw a right triangle and mark an angle q
We look at the first equation
x =
Since the cosecant is the hypotenuse over the opposite, and
since x can be written as and x = ,
we can put x as the length of the hypotenuse and 1 as the
length of the opposite.
And by the Pythagorean theorem we can get the adjacent side
c² = a² + b²
x² = a² + 1²
x² = a² + 1
x² - 1 = a²
√x² - 1 = √a²
√x² - 1 = a
We label the length of the adjacent side
Now we look at the second equation
y =
The cotangent is the adjacent over the opposite, so we substitute
for cot(q) or just .
in the second equation:
y =
Edwin