(secx-cosx) / (tanx-sinx) = cosecx+cotx

Spent hours to solve this question but failed. Please help. Thank you

Unless I see an obvious identity I can replace, I usually change everything to sines and cosines.

LS = (1/cosx - cosx)/(sinx/cosx - sinx)
= ( 1 - cos^2 x)/cosx )/( (sinx - sinxcosx)/cosx )
= ( 1 - cos^2 x)/cosx )* cosx/( (sinx - sinxcosx)
= (1 - cos^2 x)/(sinx(1 - cosx))
= (1 - cosx)(1 + cosx)/(sinx(1 - cosx))
= (1 + cosx)/sinx
= 1/sinx + cosx/sinx
= cscx + cotx
+ RS

To solve the given equation:

(sec(x) - cos(x)) / (tan(x) - sin(x)) = csc(x) + cot(x)

First, let's simplify the left side of the equation:

(sec(x) - cos(x)) / (tan(x) - sin(x))

The first step is to recall the definitions of sec(x), tan(x), and sin(x):

sec(x) = 1 / cos(x)
tan(x) = sin(x) / cos(x)

Using these definitions, we can rewrite the expression as:

(1 / cos(x) - cos(x)) / (sin(x) / cos(x) - sin(x))

The next step is to simplify each fraction individually:

For the numerator:

1 / cos(x) - cos(x)

Multiplying the first term by cos(x)/cos(x) to get a common denominator, we have:

(1 - cos^2(x)) / cos(x)

Using the identity sin^2(x) + cos^2(x) = 1, we can rewrite the numerator as:

sin^2(x) / cos(x)

For the denominator:

sin(x) / cos(x) - sin(x)

Multiplying the first term by cos(x)/cos(x) to get a common denominator, we have:

(sin(x) - sin(x) * cos(x)) / cos(x)

Factoring out sin(x), we get:

sin(x) * (1 - cos(x)) / cos(x)

Now, let's substitute these simplified fractions back into the original expression:

(sin^2(x) / cos(x)) / (sin(x) * (1 - cos(x)) / cos(x))

The next step is to divide the fractions by multiplying by the reciprocal of the denominator:

(sin^2(x) / cos(x)) * (cos(x) / (sin(x) * (1 - cos(x))))

Canceling out the common terms, we get:

sin(x) / (sin(x) * (1 - cos(x)))

We can further simplify this expression by canceling out the sin(x) terms:

1 / (1 - cos(x))

Using the identity csc(x) = 1 / sin(x), we can rewrite the expression as:

csc(x) + cot(x)

Therefore, the left side of the equation simplifies to:

csc(x) + cot(x)

which is the same as the right side of the equation.

Thus, we have shown that the given equation holds true for all values of x, except where cos(x) = 1 (since dividing by zero is undefined).

Therefore, the given equation (sec(x) - cos(x)) / (tan(x) - sin(x)) = csc(x) + cot(x) is true for all x, except x = 2πn, where n is an integer.