Trigonometric functions

In mathematics, the trigonometric functions (also called circular functions, angle functions or
goniometric functions)[1][2] are real functions which relate an angle of a right-angled triangle to
ratios of two side lengths. They are widely used in all sciences that are related to geometry, such as
navigation, solid mechanics, celestial mechanics, geodesy, and many others. They are among the
simplest periodic functions, and as such are also widely used for studying periodic phenomena
through Fourier analysis.

Basis of trigonometry: if two right triangles have

equal acute angles, they are similar, so their
corresponding side lengths are proportional.

The trigonometric functions most widely used in modern mathematics are the sine, the cosine, and
the tangent functions. Their reciprocals are respectively the cosecant, the secant, and the cotangent
functions, which are less used. Each of these six trigonometric functions has a corresponding
inverse function, and an analog among the hyperbolic functions.

The oldest definitions of trigonometric functions, related to right-angle triangles, define them only
for acute angles. To extend the sine and cosine functions to functions whose domain is the whole
real line, geometrical definitions using the standard unit circle (i.e., a circle with radius 1 unit) are
often used; then the domain of the other functions is the real line with some isolated points
removed. Modern definitions express trigonometric functions as infinite series or as solutions of
differential equations. This allows extending the domain of sine and cosine functions to the whole
complex plane, and the domain of the other trigonometric functions to the complex plane with some
isolated points removed.
Notation

Conventionally, an abbreviation of each trigonometric function's name is used as its symbol in

formulas. Today, the most common versions of these abbreviations are "sin" for sine, "cos" for
cosine, "tan" or "tg" for tangent, "sec" for secant, "csc" or "cosec" for cosecant, and "cot" or "ctg" for
cotangent. Historically, these abbreviations were first used in prose sentences to indicate particular
line segments or their lengths related to an arc of an arbitrary circle, and later to indicate ratios of
lengths, but as the function concept developed in the 17th–18th century, they began to be
considered as functions of real-number-valued angle measures, and written with functional notation,
for example sin(x). Parentheses are still often omitted to reduce clutter, but are sometimes
necessary; for example the expression would typically be interpreted to mean
so parentheses are required to express

A positive integer appearing as a superscript after the symbol of the function denotes
exponentiation, not function composition. For example and denote
not This differs from the (historically later) general functional notation
in which

However, the exponent is commonly used to denote the inverse function, not the reciprocal. For
example and denote the inverse trigonometric function alternatively written
The equation implies not In this case, the
superscript could be considered as denoting a composed or iterated function, but negative
superscripts other than are not in common use.

Right-angled triangle definitions

In this right triangle, denoting the

measure of angle BAC as A:
a b a
sin A = ⁠c ⁠; cos A = ⁠c ⁠; tan A = ⁠b ⁠.
 Plot of the six trigonometric
functions, the unit circle, and a line for
the angle θ = 0.7 radians. The points
labelled 1, Sec(θ), Csc(θ) represent
the length of the line segment from
the origin to that point. Sin(θ), Tan(θ),
and 1 are the heights to the line
starting from the x-axis, while Cos(θ),
1, and Cot(θ) are lengths along the x-
axis starting from the origin.

If the acute angle θ is given, then any right triangles that have an angle of θ are similar to each other.
This means that the ratio of any two side lengths depends only on θ. Thus these six ratios define six
functions of θ, which are the trigonometric functions. In the following definitions, the hypotenuse is
the length of the side opposite the right angle, opposite represents the side opposite the given angle
θ, and adjacent represents the side between the angle θ and the right angle.[3][4]

sine cosecant

cosine secant

tangent cotangent

Various mnemonics can be used to remember these definitions.

 π
In a right-angled triangle, the sum of the two acute angles is a right angle, that is, 90° or ⁠2 ⁠radians.
Therefore and represent the same ratio, and thus are equal. This identity and
analogous relationships between the other trigonometric functions are summarized in the following
table.

Top: Trigonometric function sin θ for

selected angles θ, π − θ, π + θ, and
2π − θ in the four quadrants.
Bottom: Graph of sine function versus
angle. Angles from the top panel are
identified.

Summary of relationships between trigonometric functions[5]

Relationship
Function Description
using radians using degrees

opposite
sine ⁠hypotenuse ⁠

adjacent
cosine ⁠hypotenuse ⁠

opposite
tangent ⁠adjacent ⁠

adjacent
cotangent ⁠opposite ⁠

hypotenuse
secant ⁠ adjacent ⁠

hypotenuse
cosecant ⁠ opposite ⁠
Radians versus degrees

In geometric applications, the argument of a trigonometric function is generally the measure of an

angle. For this purpose, any angular unit is convenient. One common unit is degrees, in which a right
angle is 90° and a complete turn is 360° (particularly in elementary mathematics).

However, in calculus and mathematical analysis, the trigonometric functions are generally regarded
more abstractly as functions of real or complex numbers, rather than angles. In fact, the functions
sin and cos can be defined for all complex numbers in terms of the exponential function, via power
series,[6] or as solutions to differential equations given particular initial values[7] (see below), without
reference to any geometric notions. The other four trigonometric functions (tan, cot, sec, csc) can
be defined as quotients and reciprocals of sin and cos, except where zero occurs in the
denominator. It can be proved, for real arguments, that these definitions coincide with elementary
geometric definitions if the argument is regarded as an angle given in radians.[6] Moreover, these
definitions result in simple expressions for the derivatives and indefinite integrals for the
trigonometric functions.[8] Thus, in settings beyond elementary geometry, radians are regarded as
the mathematically natural unit for describing angle measures.

When radians (rad) are employed, the angle is given as the length of the arc of the unit circle
subtended by it: the angle that subtends an arc of length 1 on the unit circle is 1 rad (≈ 57.3°), and a
complete turn (360°) is an angle of 2π (≈ 6.28) rad. For real number x, the notations sin x, cos x, etc.
refer to the value of the trigonometric functions evaluated at an angle of x rad. If units of degrees
are intended, the degree sign must be explicitly shown (e.g., sin x°, cos x°, etc.). Using this standard
notation, the argument x for the trigonometric functions satisfies the relationship x = (180x/π)°, so
that, for example, sin π = sin 180° when we take x = π. In this way, the degree symbol can be
regarded as a mathematical constant such that 1° = π/180 ≈ 0.0175.
Unit-circle definitions

All of the trigonometric functions of the angle θ

(theta) can be constructed geometrically in terms of
a unit circle centered at O.

Sine function on unit circle (top) and

its graph (bottom)
 In this illustration, the six trigonometric
functions of an arbitrary angle θ are
represented as Cartesian coordinates of
points related to the unit circle. The
ordinates of A, B and D are sin θ, tan θ and
csc θ, respectively, while the abscissas of A,
C and E are cos θ, cot θ and sec θ,
respectively.

Signs of trigonometric functions in

each quadrant. The mnemonic "all
science teachers (are) crazy"
indicates when sine, cosine, and
tangent are positive from quadrants I
to IV.[9]

The six trigonometric functions can be defined as coordinate values of points on the Euclidean
plane that are related to the unit circle, which is the circle of radius one centered at the origin O of
this coordinate system. While right-angled triangle definitions allow for the definition of the
trigonometric functions for angles between 0 and radians (90°), the unit circle definitions allow
the domain of trigonometric functions to be extended to all positive and negative real numbers.

Let be the ray obtained by rotating by an angle θ the positive half of the x-axis (counterclockwise
rotation for and clockwise rotation for ). This ray intersects the unit circle at the point
 The ray extended to a line if necessary, intersects the line of equation at
point and the line of equation at point The tangent line to the
unit circle at the point A, is perpendicular to and intersects the y- and x-axes at points
and The coordinates of these points give the values of all
trigonometric functions for any arbitrary real value of θ in the following manner.

The trigonometric functions cos and sin are defined, respectively, as the x- and y-coordinate values
of point A. That is,
[10]
and

In the range , this definition coincides with the right-angled triangle definition, by
taking the right-angled triangle to have the unit radius OA as hypotenuse. And since the equation
holds for all points on the unit circle, this definition of cosine and sine
also satisfies the Pythagorean identity.

The other trigonometric functions can be found along the unit circle as

and
and

By applying the Pythagorean identity and geometric proof methods, these definitions can readily be
shown to coincide with the definitions of tangent, cotangent, secant and cosecant in terms of sine
and cosine, that is

Trigonometric functions: Sine, Cosine, Tangent,

Cosecant (dotted), Secant (dotted), Cotangent
(dotted) – animation (https://upload.wikimedia.org/
wikipedia/commons/2/27/Trigonometric_functions
_derivation_animation.svg)
Since a rotation of an angle of does not change the position or size of a shape, the points A, B,
C, D, and E are the same for two angles whose difference is an integer multiple of . Thus
trigonometric functions are periodic functions with period . That is, the equalities

and

hold for any angle θ and any integer k. The same is true for the four other trigonometric functions.
By observing the sign and the monotonicity of the functions sine, cosine, cosecant, and secant in
the four quadrants, one can show that is the smallest value for which they are periodic (i.e., is
the fundamental period of these functions). However, after a rotation by an angle , the points B
and C already return to their original position, so that the tangent function and the cotangent
function have a fundamental period of . That is, the equalities

and

hold for any angle θ and any integer k.

Algebraic values

The unit circle, with some points

labeled with their cosine and sine (in
this order), and the corresponding
angles in radians and degrees.

The algebraic expressions for the most important angles are as follows:

(zero angle)
 (right angle)

Writing the numerators as square roots of consecutive non-negative integers, with a denominator of
2, provides an easy way to remember the values.[11]

Such simple expressions generally do not exist for other angles which are rational multiples of a
right angle.

For an angle which, measured in degrees, is a multiple of three, the exact trigonometric values of
the sine and the cosine may be expressed in terms of square roots. These values of the sine and
the cosine may thus be constructed by ruler and compass.

For an angle of an integer number of degrees, the sine and the cosine may be expressed in terms
of square roots and the cube root of a non-real complex number. Galois theory allows a proof
that, if the angle is not a multiple of 3°, non-real cube roots are unavoidable.

For an angle which, expressed in degrees, is a rational number, the sine and the cosine are
algebraic numbers, which may be expressed in terms of nth roots. This results from the fact that
the Galois groups of the cyclotomic polynomials are cyclic.

For an angle which, expressed in degrees, is not a rational number, then either the angle or both
the sine and the cosine are transcendental numbers. This is a corollary of Baker's theorem, proved
in 1966.

Simple algebraic values

The following table lists the sines, cosines, and tangents of multiples of 15 degrees from 0 to 90
degrees.
 Angle, θ, in

radians degrees

[a]

Undefined

In calculus

Graphs of sine, cosine and tangent

The sine function (blue) is closely

approximated by its Taylor polynomial
of degree 7 (pink) for a full cycle
centered on the origin.
 Animation for the approximation of
cosine via Taylor polynomials.

together with the first Taylor

polynomials

The modern trend in mathematics is to build geometry from calculus rather than the converse.
Therefore, except at a very elementary level, trigonometric functions are defined using the methods
of calculus.

Trigonometric functions are differentiable and analytic at every point where they are defined; that is,
everywhere for the sine and the cosine, and, for the tangent, everywhere except at π/2 + kπ for every
integer k.

The trigonometric function are periodic functions, and their primitive period is 2π for the sine and
the cosine, and π for the tangent, which is increasing in each open interval (π/2 + kπ, π/2 + (k + 1)π).
At each end point of these intervals, the tangent function has a vertical asymptote.

In calculus, there are two equivalent definitions of trigonometric functions, either using power series
or differential equations. These definitions are equivalent, as starting from one of them, it is easy to
retrieve the other as a property. However the definition through differential equations is somehow
more natural, since, for example, the choice of the coefficients of the power series may appear as
quite arbitrary, and the Pythagorean identity is much easier to deduce from the differential
equations.
Definition by differential equations

Sine and cosine can be defined as the unique solution to the initial value problem:

Differentiating again, and ,

so both sine and cosine are solutions of the same ordinary differential equation

Sine is the unique solution with y(0) = 0 and y′(0) = 1; cosine is the unique solution with y(0) = 1 and
y′(0) = 0.

Applying the quotient rule to the tangent ,

so the tangent function satisfies the ordinary differential equation

It is the unique solution with y(0) = 0.

Power series expansion

Applying the differential equations to power series with indeterminate coefficients, one may deduce
recurrence relations for the coefficients of the Taylor series of the sine and cosine functions. These
recurrence relations are easy to solve, and give the series expansions[12]
The radius of convergence of these series is infinite. Therefore, the sine and the cosine can be
extended to entire functions (also called "sine" and "cosine"), which are (by definition) complex-
valued functions that are defined and holomorphic on the whole complex plane.

Being defined as fractions of entire functions, the other trigonometric functions may be extended to
meromorphic functions, that is functions that are holomorphic in the whole complex plane, except
some isolated points called poles. Here, the poles are the numbers of the form for the
tangent and the secant, or for the cotangent and the cosecant, where k is an arbitrary integer.

Recurrences relations may also be computed for the coefficients of the Taylor series of the other
trigonometric functions. These series have a finite radius of convergence. Their coefficients have a
combinatorial interpretation: they enumerate alternating permutations of finite sets.[13]

More precisely, defining

Un, the nth up/down number,

Bn, the nth Bernoulli number, and
En, is the nth Euler number,

one has the following series expansions:[14]

Continued fraction expansion

The following continued fractions are valid in the whole complex plane:

The last one was used in the historically first proof that π is irrational.[15]

Partial fraction expansion

There is a series representation as partial fraction expansion where just translated reciprocal
functions are summed up, such that the poles of the cotangent function and the reciprocal
functions match:[16]
This identity can be proved with the Herglotz trick.[17] Combining the (–n)th with the nth term lead to
absolutely convergent series:

Similarly, one can find a partial fraction expansion for the secant, cosecant and tangent functions:

Infinite product expansion

The following infinite product for the sine is of great importance in complex analysis:

For the proof of this expansion, see Sine. From this, it can be deduced that
Relationship to exponential function (Euler's formula)

and are the real and

imaginary part of respectively.

Euler's formula relates sine and cosine to the exponential function:

This formula is commonly considered for real values of x, but it remains true for all complex values.

Proof: Let and One has for j = 1, 2.

The quotient rule implies thus that . Therefore, is a
constant function, which equals 1, as This proves the formula.

One has

Solving this linear system in sine and cosine, one can express them in terms of the exponential
function:

When x is real, this may be rewritten as

Most trigonometric identities can be proved by expressing trigonometric functions in terms of the
complex exponential function by using above formulas, and then using the identity for
simplifying the result.

Definitions using functional equations

One can also define the trigonometric functions using various functional equations.

For example,[18] the sine and the cosine form the unique pair of continuous functions that satisfy the
difference formula

and the added condition

In the complex plane

The sine and cosine of a complex number can be expressed in terms of real sines,
cosines, and hyperbolic functions as follows:

By taking advantage of domain coloring, it is possible to graph the trigonometric functions as

complex-valued functions. Various features unique to the complex functions can be seen from the
graph; for example, the sine and cosine functions can be seen to be unbounded as the imaginary
part of becomes larger (since the color white represents infinity), and the fact that the functions
contain simple zeros or poles is apparent from the fact that the hue cycles around each zero or pole
exactly once. Comparing these graphs with those of the corresponding Hyperbolic functions
highlights the relationships between the two.
Trigonometric functions in the complex plane

Basic identities

Many identities interrelate the trigonometric functions. This section contains the most basic ones;
for more identities, see List of trigonometric identities. These identities may be proved
geometrically from the unit-circle definitions or the right-angled-triangle definitions (although, for the
latter definitions, care must be taken for angles that are not in the interval [0, π/2], see Proofs of
trigonometric identities). For non-geometrical proofs using only tools of calculus, one may use
directly the differential equations, in a way that is similar to that of the above proof of Euler's
identity. One can also use Euler's identity for expressing all trigonometric functions in terms of
complex exponentials and using properties of the exponential function.
Parity

The cosine and the secant are even functions; the other trigonometric functions are odd functions.
That is:

Periods

All trigonometric functions are periodic functions of period 2π. This is the smallest period, except
for the tangent and the cotangent, which have π as smallest period. This means that, for every
integer k, one has

Pythagorean identity

The Pythagorean identity, is the expression of the Pythagorean theorem in terms of trigonometric
functions. It is

Dividing through by either or gives

and

.
Sum and difference formulas

The sum and difference formulas allow expanding the sine, the cosine, and the tangent of a sum or
a difference of two angles in terms of sines and cosines and tangents of the angles themselves.
These can be derived geometrically, using arguments that date to Ptolemy. One can also produce
them algebraically using Euler's formula.

Sum

Difference

When the two angles are equal, the sum formulas reduce to simpler equations known as the double-
angle formulae.

These identities can be used to derive the product-to-sum identities.

By setting all trigonometric functions of can be expressed as rational fractions of :

Together with
this is the tangent half-angle substitution, which reduces the computation of integrals and
antiderivatives of trigonometric functions to that of rational fractions.

Derivatives and antiderivatives

The derivatives of trigonometric functions result from those of sine and cosine by applying quotient
rule. The values given for the antiderivatives in the following table can be verified by differentiating
them. The number C is a constant of integration.

Note: For the integral of can also be written as and for the
integral of for as where is the inverse hyperbolic
sine.

Alternatively, the derivatives of the 'co-functions' can be obtained using trigonometric identities and
the chain rule:

Inverse functions

The trigonometric functions are periodic, and hence not injective, so strictly speaking, they do not
have an inverse function. However, on each interval on which a trigonometric function is monotonic,
one can define an inverse function, and this defines inverse trigonometric functions as multivalued
functions. To define a true inverse function, one must restrict the domain to an interval where the
function is monotonic, and is thus bijective from this interval to its image by the function. The
common choice for this interval, called the set of principal values, is given in the following table. As
usual, the inverse trigonometric functions are denoted with the prefix "arc" before the name or its
abbreviation of the function.

Function Definition Domain Set of principal values

The notations sin−1, cos−1, etc. are often used for arcsin and arccos, etc. When this notation is
used, inverse functions could be confused with multiplicative inverses. The notation with the "arc"
prefix avoids such a confusion, though "arcsec" for arcsecant can be confused with "arcsecond".

Just like the sine and cosine, the inverse trigonometric functions can also be expressed in terms of
infinite series. They can also be expressed in terms of complex logarithms.

Applications

Angles and sides of a triangle

In this section A, B, C denote the three (interior) angles of a triangle, and a, b, c denote the lengths of
the respective opposite edges. They are related by various formulas, which are named by the
trigonometric functions they involve.

Law of sines

The law of sines states that for an arbitrary triangle with sides a, b, and c and angles opposite those
sides A, B and C:

where Δ is the area of the triangle, or, equivalently,

where R is the triangle's circumradius.

It can be proved by dividing the triangle into two right ones and using the above definition of sine.
The law of sines is useful for computing the lengths of the unknown sides in a triangle if two angles
and one side are known. This is a common situation occurring in triangulation, a technique to
determine unknown distances by measuring two angles and an accessible enclosed distance.

Law of cosines

The law of cosines (also known as the cosine formula or cosine rule) is an extension of the
Pythagorean theorem:

or equivalently,

In this formula the angle at C is opposite to the side c. This theorem can be proved by dividing the
triangle into two right ones and using the Pythagorean theorem.

The law of cosines can be used to determine a side of a triangle if two sides and the angle between
them are known. It can also be used to find the cosines of an angle (and consequently the angles
themselves) if the lengths of all the sides are known.

Law of tangents

The law of tangents says that:

Law of cotangents

If s is the triangle's semiperimeter, (a + b + c)/2, and r is the radius of the triangle's incircle, then rs is
the triangle's area. Therefore Heron's formula implies that:

The law of cotangents says that:[19]

It follows that

Periodic functions

A Lissajous curve, a figure formed

with a trigonometry-based function.

An animation of the additive synthesis of a square wave

with an increasing number of harmonics
 Sinusoidal basis functions (bottom) can form a
sawtooth wave (top) when added. All the basis
functions have nodes at the nodes of the
sawtooth, and all but the fundamental (k = 1) have
additional nodes. The oscillation seen about the
sawtooth when k is large is called the Gibbs
phenomenon.

The trigonometric functions are also important in physics. The sine and the cosine functions, for
example, are used to describe simple harmonic motion, which models many natural phenomena,
such as the movement of a mass attached to a spring and, for small angles, the pendular motion of
a mass hanging by a string. The sine and cosine functions are one-dimensional projections of
uniform circular motion.

Trigonometric functions also prove to be useful in the study of general periodic functions. The
characteristic wave patterns of periodic functions are useful for modeling recurring phenomena
such as sound or light waves.[20]

Under rather general conditions, a periodic function f (x) can be expressed as a sum of sine waves
or cosine waves in a Fourier series.[21] Denoting the sine or cosine basis functions by φk, the
expansion of the periodic function f (t) takes the form:
For example, the square wave can be written as the Fourier series

In the animation of a square wave at top right it can be seen that just a few terms already produce a
fairly good approximation. The superposition of several terms in the expansion of a sawtooth wave
are shown underneath.

History

While the early study of trigonometry can be traced to antiquity, the trigonometric functions as they
are in use today were developed in the medieval period. The chord function was discovered by
Hipparchus of Nicaea (180–125 BCE) and Ptolemy of Roman Egypt (90–165 CE). The functions of
sine and versine (1 – cosine) can be traced back to the jyā and koti-jyā functions used in Gupta
period Indian astronomy (Aryabhatiya, Surya Siddhanta), via translation from Sanskrit to Arabic and
then from Arabic to Latin.[22] (See Aryabhata's sine table.)

All six trigonometric functions in current use were known in Islamic mathematics by the 9th century,
as was the law of sines, used in solving triangles.[23] With the exception of the sine (which was
adopted from Indian mathematics), the other five modern trigonometric functions were discovered
by Persian and Arab mathematicians, including the cosine, tangent, cotangent, secant and
cosecant.[23] Al-Khwārizmī (c. 780–850) produced tables of sines, cosines and tangents. Circa 830,
Habash al-Hasib al-Marwazi discovered the cotangent, and produced tables of tangents and
cotangents.[24][25] Muhammad ibn Jābir al-Harrānī al-Battānī (853–929) discovered the reciprocal
functions of secant and cosecant, and produced the first table of cosecants for each degree from 1°
to 90°.[25] The trigonometric functions were later studied by mathematicians including Omar
Khayyám, Bhāskara II, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Jamshīd al-Kāshī (14th century), Ulugh Beg (14th
century), Regiomontanus (1464), Rheticus, and Rheticus' student Valentinus Otho.

Madhava of Sangamagrama (c. 1400) made early strides in the analysis of trigonometric functions
in terms of infinite series.[26] (See Madhava series and Madhava's sine table.)

The tangent function was brought to Europe by Giovanni Bianchini in 1467 in trigonometry tables he
created to support the calculation of stellar coordinates.[27]

The terms tangent and secant were first introduced by the Danish mathematician Thomas Fincke in
his book Geometria rotundi (1583).[28]
The 17th century French mathematician Albert Girard made the first published use of the
abbreviations sin, cos, and tan in his book Trigonométrie.[29]

In a paper published in 1682, Gottfried Leibniz proved that sin x is not an algebraic function of x.[30]
Though introduced as ratios of sides of a right triangle, and thus appearing to be rational functions,
Leibnitz result established that they are actually transcendental functions of their argument. The
task of assimilating circular functions into algebraic expressions was accomplished by Euler in his
Introduction to the Analysis of the Infinite (1748). His method was to show that the sine and cosine
functions are alternating series formed from the even and odd terms respectively of the exponential
series. He presented "Euler's formula", as well as near-modern abbreviations (sin., cos., tang., cot.,
sec., and cosec.).[22]

A few functions were common historically, but are now seldom used, such as the chord, the versine
(which appeared in the earliest tables[22]), the coversine, the haversine,[31] the exsecant and the
excosecant. The list of trigonometric identities shows more relations between these functions.
θ
crd(θ) = 2 sin(⁠2 ⁠)
θ
versin(θ) = 1 − cos(θ) = 2 sin2(⁠2 ⁠)
π
coversin(θ) = 1 − sin(θ) = versin(⁠2 ⁠− θ)
1 θ
haversin(θ) = ⁠2 ⁠versin(θ) = sin2(⁠2 ⁠)

exsec(θ) = sec(θ) − 1
π
excsc(θ) = exsec(⁠2 ⁠− θ) = csc(θ) − 1

Historically, trigonometric functions were often combined with logarithms in compound functions
like the logarithmic sine, logarithmic cosine, logarithmic secant, logarithmic cosecant, logarithmic
tangent and logarithmic cotangent.[32][33][34][35]

Etymology

The word sine derives[36] from Latin sinus, meaning "bend; bay", and more specifically "the hanging
fold of the upper part of a toga", "the bosom of a garment", which was chosen as the translation of
what was interpreted as the Arabic word jaib, meaning "pocket" or "fold" in the twelfth-century
translations of works by Al-Battani and al-Khwārizmī into Medieval Latin.[37] The choice was based
on a misreading of the Arabic written form j-y-b (‫)جيب‬, which itself originated as a transliteration
from Sanskrit jīvā, which along with its synonym jyā (the standard Sanskrit term for the sine)
translates to "bowstring", being in turn adopted from Ancient Greek χορδή "string".[38]
The word tangent comes from Latin tangens meaning "touching", since the line touches the circle of
unit radius, whereas secant stems from Latin secans—"cutting"—since the line cuts the circle.[39]

The prefix "co-" (in "cosine", "cotangent", "cosecant") is found in Edmund Gunter's Canon
triangulorum (1620), which defines the cosinus as an abbreviation for the sinus complementi (sine of
the complementary angle) and proceeds to define the cotangens similarly.[40][41]

See also

Mnemonics in trigonometry

Bhaskara I's sine approximation formula

Small-angle approximation

Differentiation of trigonometric functions

Generalized trigonometry

Generating trigonometric tables

Hyperbolic functions

List of integrals of trigonometric functions

List of periodic functions

List of trigonometric identities

Polar sine – a generalization to vertex angles

Proofs of trigonometric identities

Versine – for several less used trigonometric functions and unit circle diagrams of all functions

Chord (geometry)#In trigonometry

Notes

a. Also equal to

1. Klein, Christian Felix (1924) [1902]. Elementarmathematik vom höheren Standpunkt aus: Arithmetik, Algebra,
Analysis (in German). Vol. 1 (3rd ed.). Berlin: J. Springer.
 2. Klein, Christian Felix (2004) [1932]. Elementary Mathematics from an Advanced Standpoint: Arithmetic,
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Gerard of Cremona's translation of the Algebra of al-Khwārizmī

Robert of Chester's 1145 translation of the tables of al-Khwārizmī

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7/1-4020-2204-2_16#page-1) in Ceccarelli (ed.), International Symposium on History of Machines and
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38. See Plofker, Mathematics in India, Princeton University Press, 2009, p. 257
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80615133310/http://www.clarku.edu/~djoyce/trig/) from the original on 2008-06-15.
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39. Oxford English Dictionary

40. Gunter, Edmund (1620). Canon triangulorum.

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External links

"Trigonometric functions" (https://www.encyclopediaofmath.org/index.php?title=Trigonometric_f

unctions) , Encyclopedia of Mathematics, EMS Press, 2001 [1994]

Visionlearning Module on Wave Mathematics (https://www.visionlearning.com/library/module_vi

ewer.php?mid=131&l=&c3=)

GonioLab (https://web.archive.org/web/20071006172054/http://glab.trixon.se/) Visualization

of the unit circle, trigonometric and hyperbolic functions

q-Sine (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/q-Sine.html) Article about the q-analog of sin at

MathWorld
q-Cosine (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/q-Cosine.html) Article about the q-analog of cos at
MathWorld