Trigonometric Proofs VII, Double-Angle Formula for Tangent

Here we will show an expansion for \(\tan(2x)\). 

Note that for any angle:

$$\tan x = \frac{\sin x}{\cos x}$$

Therefore

$$\tan 2x = \frac{\sin 2x}{\cos 2x}$$

We can use the double-angle identities for sine and cosine to rewrite this as

$$\tan 2x = \frac{2\sin x\cos x}{1 - 2\sin^2 x}$$

Now, divide both the numerator and the denominator of the fraction by \(\cos^2 x\), which gives

$$\tan 2x = \frac{\frac{2\sin x\cos x}{\cos^2 x}}{\frac{\cos^2 x - \sin^2 x}{\cos^2 x}} = \frac{2\tan x}{1 - \tan^2 x}$$

This is the end of the proof. We see that

$$\tan 2x = \frac{2\tan x}{1 - \tan^2 x}$$