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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 that is 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 ...
If the denominator, b, is multiplied by additional factors of 2, the sine and cosine can be derived with the half-angle formulas. For example, 22.5° (π /8 rad) is half of 45°, so its sine and cosine are: [11]
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.
Ptolemy's theorem states that the sum of the products of the lengths of opposite sides is equal to the product of the lengths of the diagonals. When those side-lengths are expressed in terms of the sin and cos values shown in the figure above, this yields the angle sum trigonometric identity for sine: sin(α + β) = sin α cos β + cos α sin β.
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 ]
English: SINE and COSINE-Graph of the sine- and cosine-functions sin(x) and cos(x). One period from 0 to 2π is drawn. x- and y-axis have the same units. All labels are embedded in "Computer Modern" font. The x-scale is in appropriate units of pi.
Approximately equal behavior of some (trigonometric) functions for x → 0. For small angles, the trigonometric functions sine, cosine, and tangent can be calculated with reasonable accuracy by the following simple approximations:
The trigonometric functions sine and cosine are common periodic functions, with period (see the figure on the right). The subject of Fourier series investigates the idea that an 'arbitrary' periodic function is a sum of trigonometric functions with matching periods.