How to simplify $(\frac{\sin\alpha - \sin\beta}{\cos\beta -\cos\alpha})\cdot \cos\alpha \cdot \cos\beta$?

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There is this problem:$$\left(\frac{\sin\alpha - \sin\beta}{\cos\beta -\cos\alpha}\right)\cdot \cos\alpha \cdot \cos\beta = \frac{1}{\tan\alpha -\tan\beta}$$I started as $$\left(\frac{\sin\alpha - \sin\beta}{\cos\beta -\cos\alpha}\right)\cdot \cos\alpha \cdot \cos\beta = \frac{\sin2\alpha \cos\beta-\sin2\beta \cos\alpha}{2(\cos\beta -\cos\alpha)}$$ but I'm stuck here, because I don't see how could I use $\sin(x-y)$ but also don't see how could I use any other identity without complicating this even more.

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1 Answer

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The proposed identity is not true (even though after the correction).

Indeed, take $\alpha = \pi/4$ and $\beta = 0$. Then we obtain:\begin{align*} \left(\frac{\sin(\pi/4) - \sin(0)}{\cos(0) - \cos(\pi/4)}\right)\times\cos(\pi/4)\cos(0) = \frac{\sqrt{2}}{2 - \sqrt{2}}\times\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2} = \frac{1}{2-\sqrt{2}} \end{align*}

On the other hand, one has that\begin{align*} \frac{1}{2(\tan(\pi/4) - \tan(0))} = \frac{1}{2} \end{align*}

EDIT

The proposed equation is equivalent to\begin{align*} \frac{(\sin(a) - \sin(b))\sin(a-b)}{\cos(b) - \cos(a)} = 1 \end{align*}

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