Evaluate sin(x)=-1/2

$\sin (x) = - \frac{1}{2}$

Step 1

Take the inverse sine of both sides of the equation to extract $x$ from inside the sine.

$x = \arcsin (- \frac{1}{2})$

Step 2

Simplify the right side.

The exact value of $\arcsin (- \frac{1}{2})$ is $- \frac{π}{6}$ .

$x = - \frac{π}{6}$

Step 3

The sine function is negative in the third and fourth quadrants. To find the second solution, subtract the solution from $2 π$ , to find a reference angle. Next, add this reference angle to $π$ to find the solution in the third quadrant.

$x = 2 π + \frac{π}{6} + π$

Step 4

Simplify the expression to find the second solution.

Subtract $2 π$ from $2 π + \frac{π}{6} + π$ .

$x = 2 π + \frac{π}{6} + π - 2 π$

The resulting angle of $\frac{7 π}{6}$ is positive, less than $2 π$ , and coterminal with $2 π + \frac{π}{6} + π$ .

$x = \frac{7 π}{6}$

Step 5

Find the period of $\sin (x)$ .

The period of the function can be calculated using $\frac{2 π}{| b |}$ .

$\frac{2 π}{| b |}$

Replace $b$ with $1$ in the formula for period.

$\frac{2 π}{| 1 |}$

The absolute value is the distance between a number and zero. The distance between $0$ and $1$ is $1$ .

$\frac{2 π}{1}$

Divide $2 π$ by $1$ .

$2 π$

Step 6

Add $2 π$ to every negative angle to get positive angles.

Add $2 π$ to $- \frac{π}{6}$ to find the positive angle.

$- \frac{π}{6} + 2 π$

To write $2 π$ as a fraction with a common denominator, multiply by $\frac{6}{6}$ .

$2 π \cdot \frac{6}{6} - \frac{π}{6}$

Combine fractions.

Combine $2 π$ and $\frac{6}{6}$ .

$\frac{2 π \cdot 6}{6} - \frac{π}{6}$

Combine the numerators over the common denominator.

$\frac{2 π \cdot 6 - π}{6}$

Simplify the numerator.

Multiply $6$ by $2$ .

$\frac{12 π - π}{6}$

Subtract $π$ from $12 π$ .

$\frac{11 π}{6}$

List the new angles.

$x = \frac{11 π}{6}$

Step 7

The period of the $\sin (x)$ function is $2 π$ so values will repeat every $2 π$ radians in both directions.

$x = \frac{7 π}{6} + 2 π n, \frac{11 π}{6} + 2 π n$ , for any integer $n$

Evaluate sin(x)=-1/2

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