Cosecant | Mathematics | Britannica

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cosecant, one of the six trigonometric functions, which, in a right triangle ABC, for an angle A, iscsc A = length of hypotenuse/length of side opposite angle A.(The other five trigonometric functions are sine [sin], cosine [cos], tangent [tan], secant [sec], and cotangent [cot]. Cosecant is also abbreviated as cosec.)

From the definition of the cotangent of angle A,cot A = length of side adjacent to angle A/length of side opposite to angle A, and the Pythagorean theorem, one has the useful identitycot2 A + 1 = csc2 A.

The reciprocal of the cosecant is the sine: 1/csc A = sin A.

When A is expressed in radians, the cosecant function has a period of 2π. The function has a value of 1 at π/2 and −1 at 3π/2. At π the function diverges to positive infinity when approaching that number from x < π and diverges to negative infinity when approaching that number from x > π. Similar behaviour occurs at 0 and 2π, but the function diverges to negative infinity when approaching 0 from x < 0 and 2π from x < 2π; it diverges to positive infinity when approaching 0 from x > 0 and 2π from x > 2π. Also, csc (−A) = −csc A.

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With respect to x, the derivative of csc x is −csc x cot x, and the indefinite integral of csc x is ∫csc x dx = ln |csc x + cot x|,where ln is the natural logarithm.

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