Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
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.
In mathematics, sine and cosine are trigonometric functions of an angle.The sine and cosine of an acute angle are defined in the context of a right triangle: for the specified angle, its sine is the ratio of the length of the side opposite that angle to the length of the longest side of the triangle (the hypotenuse), and the cosine is the ratio of the length of the adjacent leg to that of the ...
In mathematics, the values of the trigonometric functions can be expressed approximately, as in (/), or exactly, as in (/) = /.While trigonometric tables contain many approximate values, the exact values for certain angles can be expressed by a combination of arithmetic operations and square roots.
1. Between two numbers, either it is used instead of ≈ to mean "approximatively equal", or it means "has the same order of magnitude as". 2. Denotes the asymptotic equivalence of two functions or sequences. 3. Often used for denoting other types of similarity, for example, matrix similarity or similarity of geometric shapes. 4.
Fig. 1a – Sine and cosine of an angle θ defined using the unit circle Indication of the sign and amount of key angles according to rotation direction. Trigonometric ratios can also be represented using the unit circle, which is the circle of radius 1 centered at the origin in the plane. [37]
The first tables of trigonometric functions known to be made were by Hipparchus (c.190 – c.120 BCE) and Menelaus (c.70–140 CE), but both have been lost. Along with the surviving table of Ptolemy (c. 90 – c.168 CE), they were all tables of chords and not of half-chords, that is, the sine function. [1]
A trigonometry table is essentially a reference chart that presents the values of sine, cosine, tangent, and other trigonometric functions for various angles. These angles are usually arranged across the top row of the table, while the different trigonometric functions are labeled in the first column on the left.
The sign of the square root needs to be chosen properly—note that if 2 π is added to θ, the quantities inside the square roots are unchanged, but the left-hand-sides of the equations change sign. Therefore, the correct sign to use depends on the value of θ. For the tan function, the equation is: