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sin and cos in terms of complex numbers

We know how to get trig relations from complex numbers already. Recall that eθi=cos⁡θ+isin⁡θe^{\theta i} = \cos\theta + i\sin\theta. Then, we want to find sin⁡θ\sin\theta and cos⁡θ\cos\theta. How do we do this? Well, conjugates!

Let z=eθiz=e^{\theta i}. Then z‾=e−θi\overline z = e^{-\theta i}. Let's try adding these, as conjugates tend to make things cancel out. We have: z+z‾=eθi+e−θi=cos⁡θ+isin⁡θ+cos⁡(−θ)+isin⁡(−θ)=cos⁡θ+isin⁡θ+cos⁡θ−isin⁡θ=2cos⁡θ\begin{align} z + \overline z &= e^{\theta i} + e^{-\theta i} \\ &= \cos\theta + i\sin\theta + \cos(-\theta) + i\sin(-\theta) \\ &= \cos\theta + i\sin\theta + \cos\theta - i\sin\theta \\ &= 2\cos\theta \end{align} Aha! We have it! We can divide both sides by 22 to get: eθi+e−θi2=cos⁡θ\dfrac{e^{\theta i} + e^{-\theta i}}2 = \cos\theta

Now, finding sin⁡θ\sin \theta should be easy now. We need to cancel out the real terms now while keeping the imaginary parts. Think about what we should do, and press continue when you think you have it.

We subtract the conjugate of the complex number from the number instead of adding it. Then, we have: z+z‾=eθi−e−θi=cos⁡θ+isin⁡θ−cos⁡(−θ)−isin⁡(−θ)=cos⁡θ+isin⁡θ−cos⁡θ+isin⁡θ=2isin⁡θ\begin{align} z + \overline z &= e^{\theta i} - e^{-\theta i} \\ &= \cos\theta + i\sin\theta - \cos(-\theta) - i\sin(-\theta) \\ &= \cos\theta + i\sin\theta - \cos\theta + i\sin\theta \\ &= 2i\sin\theta \end{align} Then, we can divide both sides by 2i2i to get: eθi−e−θi2i=sin⁡θ\dfrac{e^{\theta i} - e^{-\theta i}}{2i} = \sin\theta

That's all there is for this explanation about expressing trig functions with complex numbers. Thank you for reading!

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