macy is told that an angle has a sine of √5/5 and is in quadrant 2 find cosine and tangent using identities and the quadrant

1 answer

To find the cosine and tangent of the angle given that \(\sin(\theta) = \frac{\sqrt{5}}{5}\) and that the angle \(\theta\) is in the second quadrant, we can use the following identities:

  1. The Pythagorean identity: \[ \sin^2(\theta) + \cos^2(\theta) = 1 \]

  2. The definition of tangent: \[ \tan(\theta) = \frac{\sin(\theta)}{\cos(\theta)} \]

Step 1: Find Cosine

Using the Pythagorean identity:

\[ \sin^2(\theta) + \cos^2(\theta) = 1 \]

Plugging in the known value of sine:

\[ \left(\frac{\sqrt{5}}{5}\right)^2 + \cos^2(\theta) = 1 \] \[ \frac{5}{25} + \cos^2(\theta) = 1 \] \[ \frac{1}{5} + \cos^2(\theta) = 1 \]

Subtracting \(\frac{1}{5}\) from both sides:

\[ \cos^2(\theta) = 1 - \frac{1}{5} \] \[ \cos^2(\theta) = \frac{5}{5} - \frac{1}{5} = \frac{4}{5} \]

Now take the square root to find cosine:

\[ \cos(\theta) = \pm \sqrt{\frac{4}{5}} = \pm \frac{2}{\sqrt{5}} = \pm \frac{2\sqrt{5}}{5} \]

Since \(\theta\) is in the second quadrant, where cosine is negative, we have:

\[ \cos(\theta) = -\frac{2\sqrt{5}}{5} \]

Step 2: Find Tangent

Now we can find the tangent using the sine and cosine we found:

\[ \tan(\theta) = \frac{\sin(\theta)}{\cos(\theta)} \]

Plugging in the values:

\[ \tan(\theta) = \frac{\frac{\sqrt{5}}{5}}{-\frac{2\sqrt{5}}{5}} \]

The \(\frac{5}{5}\) cancels out:

\[ \tan(\theta) = \frac{\sqrt{5}}{-2\sqrt{5}} = -\frac{1}{2} \]

Summary

So the values are:

  • \(\cos(\theta) = -\frac{2\sqrt{5}}{5}\)
  • \(\tan(\theta) = -\frac{1}{2}\)