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Q.Find: ∫tan⁡3xcos⁡3x dx\displaystyle\int \dfrac{\tan^3 x}{\cos^3 x}\, dx

CBSECBSE Class XII Board 2020Subjective· 2mImportance★★★★★
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Rewrite tan⁡3x\tan^3 x as sin⁡3x/cos⁡3x\sin^3 x / \cos^3 x so the integrand becomes sin⁡3x/cos⁡6x\sin^3 x / \cos^6 x, then express sin⁡3x=sin⁡x(1−cos⁡2x)\sin^3 x = \sin x (1 - \cos^2 x) and substitute u=cos⁡xu = \cos x to reduce it to a polynomial in uu. The result is 15sec⁡5x−13sec⁡3x+C\boxed{\frac{1}{5}\sec^5 x - \frac{1}{3}\sec^3 x + C}.

The key insight is recognizing that when you have powers of tangent and secant (or equivalently, sine and cosine in the denominator), a substitution based on cos⁡x\cos x often works beautifully because d(cos⁡x)=−sin⁡x dxd(\cos x) = -\sin x\, dx, and we can manufacture that sin⁡x\sin x factor.

Start by converting everything to sines and cosines:

tan⁡3xcos⁡3x=sin⁡3xcos⁡3x⋅cos⁡3x=sin⁡3xcos⁡6x\frac{\tan^3 x}{\cos^3 x} = \frac{\sin^3 x}{\cos^3 x \cdot \cos^3 x} = \frac{\sin^3 x}{\cos^6 x}

Now the strategy becomes clear. We have an odd power of sine in the numerator, which means we can peel off one sin⁡x\sin x to pair with dxdx for our substitution, and convert the remaining even power using sin⁡2x=1−cos⁡2x\sin^2 x = 1 - \cos^2 x.

  1. Rewrite sin⁡3x\sin^3 x to prepare for substitution:

sin⁡3x=sin⁡2x⋅sin⁡x=(1−cos⁡2x)sin⁡x\sin^3 x = \sin^2 x \cdot \sin x = (1 - \cos^2 x) \sin x

  1. Substitute into the integral:

∫sin⁡3xcos⁡6x dx=∫(1−cos⁡2x)sin⁡xcos⁡6x dx\int \frac{\sin^3 x}{\cos^6 x}\, dx = \int \frac{(1 - \cos^2 x) \sin x}{\cos^6 x}\, dx

  1. Let u=cos⁡xu = \cos x, so du=−sin⁡x dxdu = -\sin x\, dx, which means sin⁡x dx=−du\sin x\, dx = -du:

∫(1−cos⁡2x)sin⁡xcos⁡6x dx=∫1−u2u6⋅(−du)=−∫1−u2u6 du\int \frac{(1 - \cos^2 x) \sin x}{\cos^6 x}\, dx = \int \frac{1 - u^2}{u^6} \cdot (-du) = -\int \frac{1 - u^2}{u^6}\, du

  1. Split the fraction: …

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