History of trigonometry

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Trigonometry

 Outline
 History
 Usage
 Functions (inverse)
 Generalized trigonometry

Reference

 Identities
 Exact constants
 Tables
 Unit circle

Laws and theorems

 Sines
 Cosines
 Tangents
 Cotangents
 Pythagorean theorem

Calculus
  Trigonometric substitution
 Integrals (inverse functions)
 Derivatives

 v
 t
 e

Early study of triangles can be traced to the 2nd millennium BC, in Egyptian mathematics (Rhind
Mathematical Papyrus) and Babylonian mathematics. Trigonometry was also prevalent
in Kushite mathematics.[1] Systematic study of trigonometric functions began in Hellenistic
mathematics, reaching India as part of Hellenistic astronomy.[2] In Indian astronomy, the study of
trigonometric functions flourished in the Gupta period, especially due to Aryabhata (sixth century
CE), who discovered the sine function. During the Middle Ages, the study of trigonometry continued
in Islamic mathematics, by mathematicians such as Al-Khwarizmi and Abu al-Wafa. It became an
independent discipline in the Islamic world, where all six trigonometric functions were
known. Translations of Arabic and Greek texts led to trigonometry being adopted as a subject in the
Latin West beginning in the Renaissance with Regiomontanus. The development of modern
trigonometry shifted during the western Age of Enlightenment, beginning with 17th-century
mathematics (Isaac Newton and James Stirling) and reaching its modern form with Leonhard
Euler (1748).

Contents

 1Etymology
 2Development
o 2.1Ancient Near East
o 2.2Classical antiquity
o 2.3Indian mathematics
o 2.4Chinese mathematics
o 2.5Medieval Islamic world
o 2.6European renaissance and afterwards
 3See also
 4Citations and footnotes
 5References