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Trigonometry: Triangles to Functions

Review question

Which points in the x-y plane satisfy siny=sinx?

Ref: R7374

The graph of all those points (x,y) in the xy-plane which satisfy the equation sin(y)=sin(x) is drawn in

Firstly, we know that the equation is trivially true when x=y, and so we can rule out graphs (b) and (d) as the line y=x is missing.

Secondly, we know y=πx is a solution to the equation, and this line does not appear in (d), which means that by elimination, (c) is the answer.


A fuller answer might run as follows: we know that for all values of x, sin(x)=sin(πx) and sin(x)=sin(x+2nπ), where n is an integer.

Thus if sin(y)=sin(x) then y=x+2nπ, OR y=πx+2nπ=x+(2n1)π.

So the solution is given by the lines ,y=x2π,y=x,y=x+2π,y=x+4π,, together with the lines ,y=xπ,y=x+π,y=x+3π,.

These are the lines shown in (c).