Topic: Trigonometry

Trigonometry (from Ancient Greek τρίγωνον (trígōnon) 'triangle', and μέτρον (métron) 'measure')
is a branch of mathematics that studies relationships between side lengths and angles of
triangles. The field emerged in the Hellenistic world during the 3rd century BC from applications
of geometry to astronomical studies. The Greeks focused on the calculation of chords, while
mathematicians in India created the earliest-known tables of values for trigonometric ratios (also
called trigonometric functions) such as sine.Throughout history, trigonometry has been applied
in areas such as geodesy, surveying, celestial mechanics, and navigation.Trigonometry is
known for its many identities. These

trigonometric identities are commonly used for rewriting trigonometrical expressions with the aim
to simplify an expression, to find a more useful form of an expression, or to solve an equation.

History
Sumerian astronomers studied angle measure, using a division of circles into 360 degrees.
They, and later the Babylonians, studied the ratios of the sides of similar triangles and
discovered some properties of these ratios but did not turn that into a systematic method for
finding sides and angles of triangles. The ancient Nubians used a similar method.In the 3rd
century BC, Hellenistic mathematicians such as Euclid and Archimedes studied the properties
of chords and inscribed angles in circles, and they proved theorems that are equivalent to
modern trigonometric formulae, although they presented them geometrically rather than
algebraically. In 140 BC, Hipparchus (from Nicaea, Asia Minor) gave the first tables of chords,
analogous to modern tables of sine values, and used them to solve problems in trigonometry
and spherical trigonometry. In the 2nd century AD, the Greco-Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy
(from Alexandria, Egypt) constructed detailed trigonometric tables (Ptolemy's table of chords) in
Book 1, chapter 11 of his Almagest. Ptolemy used chord length to define his trigonometric
functions, a minor difference from the sine convention we use today. (The value we call sin(θ)
can be found by looking up the chord length for twice the angle of interest (2θ) in Ptolemy's
table, and then dividing that value by two.) Centuries passed before more detailed tables were
produced, and Ptolemy's treatise remained in use for performing trigonometric calculations in
astronomy throughout the next 1200 years in the medieval Byzantine, Islamic, and, later,
Western European worlds.

The modern sine convention is first attested in the Surya Siddhanta, and its properties were
further documented by the 5th century (AD) Indian mathematician and astronomer Aryabhata.
These Greek and Indian works were translated and expanded by medieval Islamic
mathematicians. By the 10th century, Islamic mathematicians were using all six trigonometric
functions, had tabulated their values, and were applying them to problems in spherical
geometry. The Persian polymath Nasir al-Din al-Tusi has been described as the creator of
trigonometry as a mathematical discipline in its own right. Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī was the first to
treat trigonometry as a mathematical discipline independent from astronomy, and he developed
spherical trigonometry into its present form. He listed the six distinct cases of a right-angled
triangle in spherical trigonometry, and in his On the Sector Figure, he stated the law of sines for
plane and spherical triangles, discovered the law of tangents for spherical triangles, and
provided proofs for both these laws. Knowledge of trigonometric functions and methods reached
Western Europe via Latin translations of Ptolemy's Greek Almagest as well as the works of
Persian and Arab astronomers such as Al Battani and Nasir al-Din al-Tusi. One of the earliest
works on trigonometry by a northern European mathematician is De Triangulis by the 15th
century German mathematician Regiomontanus, who was encouraged to write, and provided
with a copy of the Almagest, by the Byzantine Greek scholar cardinal Basilios Bessarion with
whom he lived for several years. At the same time, another translation of the Almagest from
Greek into Latin was completed by the Cretan George of Trebizond. Trigonometry was still so
little known in 16th-century northern Europe that Nicolaus Copernicus devoted two chapters of
De revolutionibus orbium coelestium to explain its basic concepts.

Driven by the demands of navigation and the growing need for accurate maps of large
geographic areas, trigonometry grew into a major branch of mathematics. Bartholomaeus
Pitiscus was the first to use the word, publishing his Trigonometria in 1595. Gemma Frisius
described for the first time the method of triangulation still used today in surveying. It was
Leonhard Euler who fully incorporated complex numbers into trigonometry. The works of the
Scottish mathematicians James Gregory in the 17th century and Colin Maclaurin in the 18th
century were influential in the development of trigonometric series. Also in the 18th century,
Brook Taylor defined the general Taylor series.

Trigonometric ratios
Trigonometric ratios are the ratios between edges of a right triangle. These ratios are given by
the following trigonometric functions of the known angle A, where a, b and h refer to the lengths
of the sides in the accompanying figure:

Sine function (sin), defined as the ratio of the side opposite the angle to the hypotenuse.

sin

A
opposite

hypotenuse

{\displaystyle \sin A={\frac {\textrm {opposite}}{\textrm {hypotenuse}}}={\frac {a}{h}}.}

Cosine function (cos), defined as the ratio of the adjacent leg (the side of the triangle joining the
angle to the right angle) to the hypotenuse.
cos

adjacent

hypotenuse

.
{\displaystyle \cos A={\frac {\textrm {adjacent}}{\textrm {hypotenuse}}}={\frac {b}{h}}.}

Tangent function (tan), defined as the ratio of the opposite leg to the adjacent leg.

tan

opposite

adjacent
a

h
sin

cos

{\displaystyle \tan A={\frac {\textrm {opposite}}{\textrm {adjacent}}}={\frac {a}{b}}={\frac

{a/h}{b/h}}={\frac {\sin A}{\cos A}}.}

The hypotenuse is the side opposite to the 90 degree angle in a right triangle; it is the longest
side of the triangle and one of the two sides adjacent to angle A. The adjacent leg is the other
side that is adjacent to angle A. The opposite side is the side that is opposite to angle A. The
terms perpendicular and base are sometimes used for the opposite and adjacent sides
respectively. See below under Mnemonics.

Since any two right triangles with the same acute angle A are similar, the value of a
trigonometric ratio depends only on the angle A.

The reciprocals of these functions are named the cosecant (csc), secant (sec), and cotangent
(cot), respectively:
csc

sin

hypotenuse
opposite

{\displaystyle \csc A={\frac {1}{\sin A}}={\frac {\textrm {hypotenuse}}{\textrm {opposite}}}={\frac

{h}{a}},}

sec

A
1

cos

hypotenuse

adjacent

h
b

{\displaystyle \sec A={\frac {1}{\cos A}}={\frac {\textrm {hypotenuse}}{\textrm {adjacent}}}={\frac

{h}{b}},}

cot

tan

A
adjacent

opposite

cos

sin

A
b

{\displaystyle \cot A={\frac {1}{\tan A}}={\frac {\textrm {adjacent}}{\textrm {opposite}}}={\frac {\cos

A}{\sin A}}={\frac {b}{a}}.}

The cosine, cotangent, and cosecant are so named because they are respectively the sine,
tangent, and secant of the complementary angle abbreviated to "co-".With these functions, one
can answer virtually all questions about arbitrary triangles by using the law of sines and the law
of cosines. These laws can be used to compute the remaining angles and sides of any triangle
as soon as two sides and their included angle or two angles and a side or three sides are
known.

Mnemonics

A common use of mnemonics is to remember facts and relationships in trigonometry. For

example, the sine, cosine, and tangent ratios in a right triangle can be remembered by
representing them and their corresponding sides as strings of letters. For instance, a mnemonic
is SOH-CAH-TOA:

Sine = Opposite ÷ Hypotenuse

Cosine = Adjacent ÷ Hypotenuse

Tangent = Opposite ÷ AdjacentOne way to remember the letters is to sound them out
phonetically (i.e. SOH-kə-TOH-ə, similar to Krakatoa). Another method is to expand the letters
into a sentence, such as "Some Old Hippie Caught Another Hippie Trippin' On Acid".

The unit circle and common trigonometric values

Trigonometric ratios can also be represented using the unit circle, which is the circle of radius 1
centered at the origin in the plane. In this setting, the terminal side of an angle A placed in
standard position will intersect the unit circle in a point (x,y), where

cos

{\displaystyle x=\cos A}

and

sin

⁡
A

{\displaystyle y=\sin A}

. This representation allows for the calculation of commonly found trigonometric values, such as
those in the following table:

Trigonometric functions of real or complex variables

Using the unit circle, one can extend the definitions of trigonometric ratios to all positive and
negative arguments (see trigonometric function).

Graphs of trigonometric functions

The following table summarizes the properties of the graphs of the six main trigonometric
functions:

Inverse trigonometric functions

Because the six main trigonometric functions are periodic, they are not injective (or, 1 to 1), and
thus are not invertible. By restricting the domain of a trigonometric function, however, they can
be made invertible.: 48ff The names of the inverse trigonometric functions, together with their
domains and range, can be found in the following table:: 48ff : 521ff 

Power series representations

When considered as functions of a real variable, the trigonometric ratios can be represented by
an infinite series. For instance, sine and cosine have the following representations:
sin

+
x

7
7

∞
(

1
(

{\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\sin x&=x-{\frac {x^{3}}{3!}}+{\frac {x^{5}}{5!}}-{\frac

{x^{7}}{7!}}+\cdots \\&=\sum _{n=0}^{\infty }{\frac {(-1)^{n}x^{2n+1}}{(2n+1)!}}\\\end{aligned}}}
cos

!
+

6
6

∞
(

(
2

{\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\cos x&=1-{\frac {x^{2}}{2!}}+{\frac {x^{4}}{4!}}-{\frac

{x^{6}}{6!}}+\cdots \\&=\sum _{n=0}^{\infty }{\frac {(-1)^{n}x^{2n}}{(2n)!}}.\end{aligned}}}

With these definitions the trigonometric functions can be defined for complex numbers. When
extended as functions of real or complex variables, the following formula holds for the complex
exponential:

x
+

cos

sin

.
{\displaystyle e^{x+iy}=e^{x}(\cos y+i\sin y).}

This complex exponential function, written in terms of trigonometric functions, is particularly

useful.

Calculating trigonometric functions

Trigonometric functions were among the earliest uses for mathematical tables. Such tables were
incorporated into mathematics textbooks and students were taught to look up values and how to
interpolate between the values listed to get higher accuracy. Slide rules had special scales for
trigonometric functions.Scientific calculators have buttons for calculating the main trigonometric
functions (sin, cos, tan, and sometimes cis and their inverses). Most allow a choice of angle
measurement methods: degrees, radians, and sometimes gradians. Most computer
programming languages provide function libraries that include the trigonometric functions. The
floating point unit hardware incorporated into the microprocessor chips used in most personal
computers has built-in instructions for calculating trigonometric functions.

Other trigonometric functions

In addition to the six ratios listed earlier, there are additional trigonometric functions that were
historically important, though seldom used today. These include the chord (crd(θ) = 2 sin(θ/2)),
the versine (versin(θ) = 1 − cos(θ) = 2 sin2(θ/2)) (which appeared in the earliest tables), the
coversine (coversin(θ) = 1 − sin(θ) = versin(π/2 − θ)), the haversine (haversin(θ) = 1/2versin(θ)
= sin2(θ/2)), the exsecant (exsec(θ) = sec(θ) − 1), and the excosecant (excsc(θ) = exsec(π/2 −
θ) = csc(θ) − 1). See List of trigonometric identities for more relations between these functions.

Applications
Astronomy

For centuries, spherical trigonometry has been used for locating solar, lunar, and stellar
positions, predicting eclipses, and describing the orbits of the planets.In modern times, the
technique of triangulation is used in astronomy to measure the distance to nearby stars, as well
as in satellite navigation systems.

Navigation

Historically, trigonometry has been used for locating latitudes and longitudes of sailing vessels,
plotting courses, and calculating distances during navigation.Trigonometry is still used in
navigation through such means as the Global Positioning System and artificial intelligence for
autonomous vehicles.
Surveying

In land surveying, trigonometry is used in the calculation of lengths, areas, and relative angles
between objects.On a larger scale, trigonometry is used in geography to measure distances
between landmarks.

Periodic functions

The sine and cosine functions are fundamental to the theory of periodic functions, such as those
that describe sound and light waves. Fourier discovered that every continuous, periodic function
could be described as an infinite sum of trigonometric functions.

Even non-periodic functions can be represented as an integral of sines and cosines through the
Fourier transform. This has applications to quantum mechanics and communications, among
other fields.

Optics and acoustics

Trigonometry is useful in many physical sciences, including acoustics, and optics. In these
areas, they are used to describe sound and light waves, and to solve boundary- and
transmission-related problems.

Other applications

Other fields that use trigonometry or trigonometric functions include music theory, geodesy,
audio synthesis, architecture, electronics, biology, medical imaging (CT scans and ultrasound),
chemistry, number theory (and hence cryptology), seismology, meteorology, oceanography,
image compression, phonetics, economics, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, civil
engineering, computer graphics, cartography, crystallography and game development.

Identities
Trigonometry has been noted for its many identities, that is, equations that are true for all
possible inputs.Identities involving only angles are known as trigonometric identities. Other
equations, known as triangle identities, relate both the sides and angles of a given triangle.

Triangle identities

In the following identities, A, B and C are the angles of a triangle and a, b and c are the lengths
of sides of the triangle opposite the respective angles (as shown in the diagram).

Law of sines

The law of sines (also known as the "sine rule") for an arbitrary triangle states:
a

sin

sin

B
c

sin

2
Δ

{\displaystyle {\frac {a}{\sin A}}={\frac {b}{\sin B}}={\frac {c}{\sin C}}=2R={\frac {abc}{2\Delta }},}

where

{\displaystyle \Delta }

is the area of the triangle and R is the radius of the circumscribed circle of the triangle:

R
a

b
−

{\displaystyle R={\frac {abc}{\sqrt {(a+b+c)(a-b+c)(a+b-c)(b+c-a)}}}.}

Law of cosines

The law of cosines (known as the cosine formula, or the "cos rule") is an extension of the
Pythagorean theorem to arbitrary triangles:
c

cos
⁡

{\displaystyle c^{2}=a^{2}+b^{2}-2ab\cos C,}

or equivalently:

cos

+
b

.
{\displaystyle \cos C={\frac {a^{2}+b^{2}-c^{2}}{2ab}}.}

Law of tangents

The law of tangents, developed by François Viète, is an alternative to the Law of Cosines when
solving for the unknown edges of a triangle, providing simpler computations when using
trigonometric tables. It is given by:

b
tan

]
tan

]
{\displaystyle {\frac {a-b}{a+b}}={\frac {\tan \left[{\tfrac {1}{2}}(A-B)\right]}{\tan \left[{\tfrac
{1}{2}}(A+B)\right]}}}

Area

Given two sides a and b and the angle between the sides C, the area of the triangle is given by
half the product of the lengths of two sides and the sine of the angle between the two
sides:Heron's formula is another method that may be used to calculate the area of a triangle.
This formula states that if a triangle has sides of lengths a, b, and c, and if the semiperimeter is

b
+

{\displaystyle s={\frac {1}{2}}(a+b+c),}

then the area of the triangle is:

Area

s
−

c
4

{\displaystyle {\mbox{Area}}=\Delta ={\sqrt {s(s-a)(s-b)(s-c)}}={\frac {abc}{4R}}}

,where R is the radius of the circumcircle of the triangle.

Area

2
a

sin

{\displaystyle {\mbox{Area}}=\Delta ={\frac {1}{2}}ab\sin C.}

Trigonometric identities

Pythagorean identities

The following trigonometric identities are related to the Pythagorean theorem and hold for any
value:

sin

2
⁡

cos

{\displaystyle \sin ^{2}A+\cos ^{2}A=1\ }

tan
2

sec

{\displaystyle \tan ^{2}A+1=\sec ^{2}A\ }

cot

csc

{\displaystyle \cot ^{2}A+1=\csc ^{2}A\ }

The second and third equations are derived from dividing the first equation by

cos

{\displaystyle \cos ^{2}{A}}

and

sin
2

{\displaystyle \sin ^{2}{A}}

, respectively.

Euler's formula

Euler's formula, which states that

x
cos

sin

{\displaystyle e^{ix}=\cos x+i\sin x}

, produces the following analytical identities for sine, cosine, and tangent in terms of e and the
imaginary unit i:

sin

e
i

cos
⁡

2
,

tan

e
i

x
.

{\displaystyle \sin x={\frac {e^{ix}-e^{-ix}}{2i}},\qquad \cos x={\frac {e^{ix}+e^{-ix}}{2}},\qquad \tan

x={\frac {i(e^{-ix}-e^{ix})}{e^{ix}+e^{-ix}}}.}

Other trigonometric identities

Other commonly used trigonometric identities include the half-angle identities, the angle sum
and difference identities, and the product-to-sum identities.

See also

References

Bibliography
Boyer, Carl B. (1991). A History of Mathematics (Second ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN
978-0-471-54397-8.

Nielsen, Kaj L. (1966). Logarithmic and Trigonometric Tables to Five Places (2nd ed.). New
York: Barnes & Noble. LCCN 61-9103.

Thurston, Hugh (1996). Early Astronomy. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN
978-0-387-94822-5.

Further reading
"Trigonometric functions", Encyclopedia of Mathematics, EMS Press, 2001 [1994]

Linton, Christopher M. (2004). From Eudoxus to Einstein: A History of Mathematical Astronomy.

Cambridge University Press.
Weisstein, Eric W. "Trigonometric Addition Formulas". MathWorld.

External links
Khan Academy: Trigonometry, free online micro lectures

Trigonometry by Alfred Monroe Kenyon and Louis Ingold, The Macmillan Company, 1914. In
images, full text presented.

Benjamin Banneker's Trigonometry Puzzle at Convergence

Dave's Short Course in Trigonometry by David Joyce of Clark University

Trigonometry, by Michael Corral, Covers elementary trigonometry, Distributed under GNU Free
Documentation License