Question

use idnetities to simplify ?
sinx^4 - cosx^4

Answer 1

it's irreducible if it's like that...if it's sin^4 x - cos^4 x..it might have an answer

Answer 2

the book gives me sin^2x -cos^2 as the answer, but i dont understand how they came up with that.

Answer 3

then it is what i wrote! sin^4x - cos^4x

cos it's like
(sin^2 x)^2 - (cos^2 x)^2
so...(sin^2 x + cos ^2 x)(sin^2 x - cos^2 x)

sin^2 x + cos^2 x = 1 so...

sin^2 x - cos^2 x is the final answer

the placement of the exponents in trig is important

sinx^2 is not equal to sin^2 x

Answer 4

thx