Product-to-sum and sum-to-product are particularly useful formulas, but can be a bit hard to remember.
To start, I want you to expand the result of sin(a+b)+sin(a−b).
sin(a+b)+sin(a−b)=sinacosb+sinbcosa+sinacosb−sinbcosa=2sinacosb
We now have sin(a+b)+sin(a−b)=2sinacosb. Divide by 2 to get
sinacosb=21(sin(a+b)+sin(a−b))
This is one of the product-to-sum formulas, since we turned the product of sines and cosines into a sum of them.
Now, using a similar approach, try to derive formulas for: sinasinb, cosacosb, and sinbcosa.
If you did everything correctly:
cos(a−b)−cos(a+b)sinasinb=cosacosb+sinasinb−cosacosb+sinasinb=2sinasinb=21(cos(a−b)−cos(a+b))
cos(a+b)+cos(a−b)cosacosb=cosacosb+sinasinb+cosacosb−sinasinb=2cosacosb=21(cos(a+b)+cos(a−b))
sin(a+b)−sin(a−b)sinbcosa=sinacosb+sinbcosa−sinacosb+sinbcosa=2sinbcosa=21(sin(a+b)−sin(a−b))
Good, now we're finished with product to sum.
Let's move onto sum-to-product!
We know that by product-to-sum, 21(sin(x+y)+sin(x−y))=sinxcosy. Look what happens when we let a=x+y and b=x−y. Then we have x=2a+b and y=2a−b.
Substitute:
21(sina+sinb)sina+sinb=sin(2a+b)cos(2a−b)=2sin(2a+b)cos(2a−b)
This is a sum-to-product formula! Take a moment to see how we derived that, and then use it to derive the formulas for sina−sinb, cosa+cosb, and cosa−cosb.
If you did everything correctly, you should have
sina−sinbcosa+cosbcosa−cosb=2cos(2a+b)sin(2a−b)=2cos(2a+b)cos(2a−b)=−2sin(2a+b)sin(2a−b)
Well done!
So, to recap,
sinasinbcosacosbsinacosbsinbcosasina+sinbsina−sinbcosa+cosbcosa−cosb=21(cos(a−b)−cos(a+b))=21(cos(a+b)+cos(a−b))=21(sin(a+b)+sin(a−b))=21(sin(a+b)−sin(a−b))=2sin(2a+b)cos(2a−b)=2cos(2a+b)sin(2a−b)=2cos(2a+b)cos(2a−b)=−2sin(2a+b)sin(2a−b)
(Take note of the irregularities in the pattern for the formulas of sinasinb and cosa−cosb.)
I encourage you not to memorize these formulas, as they are really hard to remember. Whenever you need them, however, you can easily derive them.