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How are secant and cosine related?

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In trigonometry, the secant and cosine functions are reciprocals of each other. This relationship is defined by the following equations:

  • 1secA=cosA1
  • 1cosA=secA2

In a right triangle, the cosine of an angle A is defined as the ratio of the length of the side adjacent to the angle to the length of the hypotenuse. Conversely, the secant of angle A is defined as the ratio of the length of the hypotenuse to the length of the side adjacent to the angle.12