General Question
Why do I keep getting stuck when taking the derivative of the inverse cosecant function?
Asked by HeroicZach (195)
October 30th, 2009
Hello all,
So I’m attempting to directly prove that the derivative of the inverse cosecant: (d/dx) csc^-1(x) = -1 / [abs(x) sqrt(x^2 – 1)]
To get started, I swap x and y in the cosecant function expression y = csc^-1(x), and get:
x = csc(y)
Then I go ahead and take the derivative of that expression, and I get:
1 = -csc(y)cot(y) y’
So,
y’ = – 1 / [csc(y)cot(y)]
How do I change csc(y)cot(y) to the required abs(x) sqrt(x^2 -1)? Is this some bizarre trigonometric/Pythagorean identity of which I am not aware?
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