Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Identities for angles that are twice as large as one of the common angles (double angles) are used frequently in trig. These identities allow you to deal with a larger angle in the terms of a smaller and more-manageable one. A double-angle function is written, for example, as sin 2θ, cos 2α, or tan 2x, where 2θ, 2α, and 2x are the angle measures and the assumption is that you mean sin(2θ), cos(2α), or tan(2x).