Solve      2sin^2X - 3cosX = 0     exactly on 0<=x<2pi

I have no clue where to even start. Any help would be much appriciated.
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2 Answers

 

Remember the relation between sine and cosine? sine^2+cosine^2=1, so sin^2X=1-cos^2X. Substitute for sin^2X:

2(1-cos^2X)-3cosX=0; 2-2cos^2X-3cosX=0.

We now have a quadratic equation. If it helps, let y= cosX, then:

2-2y^2-3y=0 or 2y^2+3y-2=0, which factorises:

(2y-1)(y+2)=0, and y=1/2 or -2 which means cosX=1/2 or -2. But we know that cosX can't be bigger than 1 or less than -1, so we can safely reject cosX=-2, and solve cosX=1/2. This is one of those familiar angles, X=60 degrees or (pi)/3 radians. Now you need to remember which quadrants cosine is positive in. ASTC (All Silver Tea Cups: All trigs, sin, tan, cos) for Q1 to 4. So cosine is positive in Q1 and Q4. The solution therefore is (pi)/3 and 2(pi)-(pi)/3=5(pi)/3 or 60 and 360-60=300 degrees.

by Top Rated User (1.1m points)

2sin^2x + 3cosx --3 = 0
=> 2(1 -- cos^2x) + 3cosx --3 = 0
=> 2cos^2x --3cosx + 1 = 0
=> (2cosx --1)(cosx --1) = 0
=> cosx =1= cos0 or cosx = 1/2 = cospi/3
=> x = 2npi radians or x = 2npi +-pi/3 radian

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by Level 8 User (30.1k points)

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