Trigonometry

All of the trigonometric functions of an angle θ can be

constructed geometrically in terms of a unit circle
centered at O.

Trigonometry (from Greek trigōnon,

"triangle" and metron, "measure"[1]) 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.[2] In particular,
3rd-century astronomers first noted that
the ratio of the lengths of two sides of a
right-angled triangle depends only of one
acute angles of the triangle. These
dependencies are now called
trigonometric functions.

Trigonometry is the foundation of all

applied geometry, including geodesy,
surveying, celestial mechanics, solid
mechanics, navigation.

Trigonometric functions have been

extended as functions of a real or complex
variable, which are today pervasive in all
mathematics.

History

Hipparchus, credited with compiling the first

trigonometric table, has been described as "the father
of trigonometry".[3]
Sumerian astronomers studied angle
measure, using a division of circles into
360 degrees.[4] 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.[5]

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.[6] 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.[7] Ptolemy used chord length to
define his trigonometric functions, a minor
difference from the sine convention we
use today.[8] (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.[9] 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.[10][11][12] 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.[13] 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.[14]
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.[15] 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.[16] At the same
time, another translation of the Almagest
from Greek into Latin was completed by
the Cretan George of Trebizond.[17]
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.[18]
Bartholomaeus Pitiscus was the first to
use the word, publishing his Trigonometria
in 1595.[19] 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.[20] Also in the 18th
century, Brook Taylor defined the general
Taylor series.[21]
Overview

In this right triangle: sin A = a/c; cos A = b/c;

tan A = a/b.

If one angle of a triangle is 90 degrees and

one of the other angles is known, the third
is thereby fixed, because the three angles
of any triangle add up to 180 degrees. The
two acute angles therefore add up to 90
degrees: they are complementary angles.
The shape of a triangle is completely
determined, except for similarity, by the
angles. Once the angles are known, the
ratios of the sides are determined,
regardless of the overall size of the
triangle. If the length of one of the sides is
known, the other two are determined.
These ratios are given by the following
trigonometric functions of the known
angle A, where a, b and c 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.
 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.

Tangent function (tan), defined as the

ratio of the opposite leg to the adjacent
leg.

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).

The reciprocals of these functions are

named the cosecant (csc), secant (sec),
and cotangent (cot), respectively:
The inverse functions are called the
arcsine, arccosine, and arctangent,
respectively. There are arithmetic relations
between these functions, which are known
as trigonometric identities. 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. These laws
are useful in all branches of geometry,
since every polygon may be described as a
finite combination of triangles.

Extending the definitions

Fig. 1a – Sine and cosine of an angle θ defined using

the unit circle
the unit circle.

The above definitions only apply to angles

between 0 and 90 degrees (0 and π/2
radians). Using the unit circle, one can
extend them to all positive and negative
arguments (see trigonometric function).
The trigonometric functions are periodic,
with a period of 360 degrees or 2π radians.
That means their values repeat at those
intervals. The tangent and cotangent
functions also have a shorter period, of
180 degrees or π radians.

The trigonometric functions can be

defined in other ways besides the
geometrical definitions above, using tools
from calculus and infinite series. With
these definitions the trigonometric
functions can be defined for complex
numbers. The complex exponential
function is particularly useful.

See Euler's and De Moivre's formulas.

Graphing process of y = sin(x) using a unit
circle.

Graphing process of y = csc(x), the

reciprocal of sine, using a unit circle.
 Graphing process of y = tan(x) using a unit
circle.

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:[22]

Sine = Opposite ÷ Hypotenuse

Cosine = Adjacent ÷ Hypotenuse
Tangent = Opposite ÷ Adjacent

One way to remember the letters is to

sound them out phonetically (i.e., SOH-
CAH-TOA, which is pronounced 'so-ka-toe-
uh' /soʊkæˈtoʊə/). Another method is to
expand the letters into a sentence, such as
"Some Old Hippie Caught Another Hippie
Trippin' On Acid".[23]

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.

Today, 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.[24]

Applications
This section needs additional citations for
verification.

Sextants are used to measure the angle of the sun or

stars with respect to the horizon Using trigonometry
stars with respect to the horizon. Using trigonometry
and a marine chronometer, the position of the ship can
be determined from such measurements.

There is an enormous number of uses of

trigonometry and trigonometric functions.
For instance, the technique of triangulation
is used in astronomy to measure the
distance to nearby stars, in geography to
measure distances between landmarks,
and in satellite navigation systems. The
sine and cosine functions are fundamental
to the theory of periodic functions, such as
those that describe sound and light waves.

Fields that use trigonometry or

trigonometric functions include astronomy
(especially for locating apparent positions
of celestial objects, in which spherical
trigonometry is essential) and hence
navigation (on the oceans, in aircraft, and
in space), music theory, audio synthesis,
acoustics, optics, electronics, biology,
medical imaging (CT scans and
ultrasound), pharmacy, chemistry, number
theory (and hence cryptology), seismology,
meteorology, oceanography, many
physical sciences, land surveying and
geodesy, architecture, image
compression[25], phonetics, economics,
electrical engineering, mechanical
engineering, civil engineering, computer
graphics, cartography, crystallography and
game development.

Pythagorean identities
The following identities are related to the
Pythagorean theorem and hold for any
value:[26]

Angle transformation
formulae
Common formulae

Triangle with sides a,b,c and respectively opposite

angles A,B,C

Certain equations involving trigonometric

functions are true for all angles and are
known as trigonometric identities. Some
identities equate an expression to a
different expression involving the same
angles. These are listed in List of
trigonometric identities. Triangle identities
that relate the sides and angles of a given
triangle are listed below.

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).[27]

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

where is the area of the triangle and R is

the radius of the circumscribed circle of
the triangle:

Another law involving sines can be used to

calculate the area of a triangle. 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:

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:

or equivalently:
The law of cosines may be used to prove
Heron's formula, which 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

then the area of the triangle is:

where R is the radius of the circumcircle of

the triangle.
Law of tangents

The law of tangents:

Euler's formula

Euler's formula, which states that

, produces the
following analytical identities for sine,
cosine, and tangent in terms of e and the
imaginary unit i:
See also
Trigonometry portal
Aryabhata's sine table
Generalized trigonometry
Lénárt sphere
List of triangle topics
List of trigonometric identities
Rational trigonometry
Skinny triangle
Small-angle approximation
Trigonometric functions
Unit circle
Uses of trigonometry
References
1. "trigonometry" . Online Etymology
Dictionary.
2. R. Nagel (ed.), Encyclopedia of Science,
2nd Ed., The Gale Group (2002)
3. Boyer (1991). "Greek Trigonometry and
Mensuration". A History of Mathematics.
p. 162.
4. Aaboe, Asger (2001). Episodes from the
Early History of Astronomy. New York:
Springer. ISBN 0-387-95136-9
5. Otto Neugebauer (1975). A history of
ancient mathematical astronomy. 1 .
Springer-Verlag. pp. 744–. ISBN 978-3-540-
06995-9.
6. Thurston, pp. 235–236 .
7. Toomer, G. (1998), Ptolemy's Almagest,
Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-
00260-6
8. Thurston, pp. 239–243 .
9. Boyer p. 215
10. "Al-Tusi_Nasir biography" . www-
history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk. Retrieved
2018-08-05. "One of al-Tusi's most
important mathematical contributions was
the creation of trigonometry as a
mathematical discipline in its own right
rather than as just a tool for astronomical
applications. In Treatise on the quadrilateral
al-Tusi gave the first extant exposition of
the whole system of plane and spherical
trigonometry. This work is really the first in
history on trigonometry as an independent
branch of pure mathematics and the first in
which all six cases for a right-angled
spherical triangle are set forth."
11. "the cambridge history of science" .
October 2013.
12. electricpulp.com. "ṬUSI, NAṢIR-AL-DIN i.
Biography – Encyclopaedia Iranica" .
www.iranicaonline.org. Retrieved
2018-08-05. "His major contribution in
mathematics (Nasr, 1996, pp. 208-214) is
said to be in trigonometry, which for the first
time was compiled by him as a new
discipline in its own right. Spherical
trigonometry also owes its development to
his efforts, and this includes the concept of
the six fundamental formulas for the
solution of spherical right-angled triangles."
13. "trigonometry" . Encyclopædia
Britannica. Retrieved 2008-07-21.
14. Berggren, J. Lennart (2007).
"Mathematics in Medieval Islam". The
Mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China,
India, and Islam: A Sourcebook. Princeton
University Press. p. 518. ISBN 978-0-691-
11485-9.
15. Boyer pp. 237, 274
16. "Regiomontanus biography" .
History.mcs.st-and.ac.uk. Retrieved
2017-03-08.
17. N.G. Wilson (1992). From Byzantium to
Italy. Greek Studies in the Italian
Renaissance, London. ISBN 0-7156-2418-0
18. Grattan-Guinness, Ivor (1997). The
Rainbow of Mathematics: A History of the
Mathematical Sciences. W.W. Norton.
ISBN 978-0-393-32030-5.
19. Robert E. Krebs (2004). Groundbreaking
Scientific Experiments, Inventions, and
Discoveries of the Middle Ages and the
Renaissance . Greenwood Publishing
Group. pp. 153–. ISBN 978-0-313-32433-8.
20. William Bragg Ewald (2007). From Kant
to Hilbert: a source book in the foundations
of mathematics . Oxford University Press
US. p. 93. ISBN 0-19-850535-3
21. Kelly Dempski (2002). Focus on Curves
and Surfaces . p. 29. ISBN 1-59200-007-X
22. Weisstein, Eric W. "SOHCAHTOA" .
MathWorld.
23. A sentence more appropriate for high
schools is "'Some Old Horse Came
A''Hopping Through Our Alley". Foster,
Jonathan K. (2008). Memory: A Very Short
Introduction. Oxford. p. 128. ISBN 978-0-19-
280675-8.
24. Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures
Software Developer's Manual Combined
Volumes: 1, 2A, 2B, 2C, 3A, 3B and 3C
(PDF). Intel. 2013.
25. "JPEG Standard (JPEG ISO/IEC 10918-1
ITU-T Recommendation T.81)" (PDF).
International Telecommunications Union.
1993. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
26. Peterson, John C. (2004). Technical
Mathematics with Calculus (illustrated
ed.). Cengage Learning. p. 856. ISBN 978-0-
7668-6189-3. Extract of page 856
27. Lecture 3 | Quantum Entanglements,
Part 1 (Stanford) , Leonard Susskind,
trigonometry in five minutes, law of sin, cos,
euler formula 2006-10-09.

Bibliography
Boyer, Carl B. (1991). A History of
Mathematics (Second ed.). John Wiley &
 Sons, Inc. ISBN 978-0-471-54397-8.
Hazewinkel, Michiel, ed. (2001) [1994],
"Trigonometric functions" , Encyclopedia
of Mathematics, Springer
Science+Business Media B.V. / Kluwer
Academic Publishers, ISBN 978-1-
55608-010-4
Christopher M. Linton (2004). From
Eudoxus to Einstein: A History of
Mathematical Astronomy. Cambridge
University Press.
Weisstein, Eric W. "Trigonometric
Addition Formulas" . MathWorld.

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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

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