In
mathematics
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
, sine and cosine are
trigonometric functions
In mathematics, the trigonometric functions (also called circular functions, angle functions or goniometric functions) are real functions which relate an angle of a right-angled triangle to ratios of two side lengths. They are widely used in all ...
of an
angle
In Euclidean geometry, an angle can refer to a number of concepts relating to the intersection of two straight Line (geometry), lines at a Point (geometry), point. Formally, an angle is a figure lying in a Euclidean plane, plane formed by two R ...
. 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
A triangle is a polygon with three corners and three sides, one of the basic shapes in geometry. The corners, also called ''vertices'', are zero-dimensional points while the sides connecting them, also called ''edges'', are one-dimension ...
(the
hypotenuse), and the cosine is the
ratio
In mathematics, a ratio () shows how many times one number contains another. For example, if there are eight oranges and six lemons in a bowl of fruit, then the ratio of oranges to lemons is eight to six (that is, 8:6, which is equivalent to the ...
of the length of the adjacent leg to that of the
hypotenuse. For an angle
, the sine and cosine functions are denoted as
and
.
The definitions of sine and cosine have been extended to any
real value in terms of the lengths of certain line segments in a
unit circle
In mathematics, a unit circle is a circle of unit radius—that is, a radius of 1. Frequently, especially in trigonometry, the unit circle is the circle of radius 1 centered at the origin (0, 0) in the Cartesian coordinate system in the Eucli ...
. More modern definitions express the sine and cosine as
infinite series, or as the solutions of certain
differential equations, allowing their extension to arbitrary positive and negative values and even to
complex number
In mathematics, a complex number is an element of a number system that extends the real numbers with a specific element denoted , called the imaginary unit and satisfying the equation i^= -1; every complex number can be expressed in the for ...
s.
The sine and cosine functions are commonly used to model
periodic phenomena such as
sound
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the br ...
and
light waves, the position and velocity of harmonic oscillators, sunlight intensity and day length, and average temperature variations throughout the year. They can be traced to the
''jyā'' and ''koṭi-jyā'' functions used in
Indian astronomy
Astronomy has a long history in the Indian subcontinent, stretching from History of India, pre-historic to History of India (1947–present), modern times. Some of the earliest roots of Indian astronomy can be dated to the period of Indus Valle ...
during the
Gupta period.
Elementary descriptions
Right-angled triangle definition

To define the sine and cosine of an acute angle
, start with a
right triangle that contains an angle of measure
; in the accompanying figure, angle
in a right triangle
is the angle of interest. The three sides of the triangle are named as follows:
* The ''opposite side'' is the side opposite to the angle of interest; in this case, it is
.
* The ''hypotenuse'' is the side opposite the right angle; in this case, it is
. The hypotenuse is always the longest side of a right-angled triangle.
* The ''adjacent side'' is the remaining side; in this case, it is
. It forms a side of (and is adjacent to) both the angle of interest and the right angle.
Once such a triangle is chosen, the sine of the angle is equal to the length of the opposite side divided by the length of the hypotenuse, and the cosine of the angle is equal to the length of the adjacent side divided by the length of the hypotenuse:
The other trigonometric functions of the angle can be defined similarly; for example, the
tangent
In geometry, the tangent line (or simply tangent) to a plane curve at a given point is, intuitively, the straight line that "just touches" the curve at that point. Leibniz defined it as the line through a pair of infinitely close points o ...
is the ratio between the opposite and adjacent sides or equivalently the ratio between the sine and cosine functions. The
reciprocal of sine is cosecant, which gives the ratio of the hypotenuse length to the length of the opposite side. Similarly, the reciprocal of cosine is secant, which gives the ratio of the hypotenuse length to that of the adjacent side. The cotangent function is the ratio between the adjacent and opposite sides, a reciprocal of a tangent function. These functions can be formulated as:
Special angle measures
As stated, the values
and
appear to depend on the choice of a right triangle containing an angle of measure
. However, this is not the case as all such triangles are
similar, and so the ratios are the same for each of them. For example, each
leg
A leg is a weight-bearing and locomotive anatomical structure, usually having a columnar shape. During locomotion, legs function as "extensible struts". The combination of movements at all joints can be modeled as a single, linear element cap ...
of the 45-45-90 right triangle is 1 unit, and its hypotenuse is
; therefore,
. The following table shows the special value of each input for both sine and cosine with the domain between
. The input in this table provides various unit systems such as degree, radian, and so on. The angles other than those five can be obtained by using a calculator.
Laws
The
law of sines
In trigonometry, the law of sines (sometimes called the sine formula or sine rule) is a mathematical equation relating the lengths of the sides of any triangle to the sines of its angles. According to the law,
\frac \,=\, \frac \,=\, \frac \,=\ ...
is useful for computing the lengths of the unknown sides in a triangle if two angles and one side are known. Given a triangle
with sides
,
, and
, and angles opposite those sides
,
, and
, the law states,
This is equivalent to the equality of the first three expressions below:
where
is the triangle's
circumradius.
The
law of cosines
In trigonometry, the law of cosines (also known as the cosine formula or cosine rule) relates the lengths of the sides of a triangle to the cosine of one of its angles. For a triangle with sides , , and , opposite respective angles , , and (see ...
is useful for computing the length of an unknown side if two other sides and an angle are known. The law states,
In the case where
from which
, the resulting equation becomes the
Pythagorean theorem
In mathematics, the Pythagorean theorem or Pythagoras' theorem is a fundamental relation in Euclidean geometry between the three sides of a right triangle. It states that the area of the square whose side is the hypotenuse (the side opposite t ...
.
Vector definition
The
cross product
In mathematics, the cross product or vector product (occasionally directed area product, to emphasize its geometric significance) is a binary operation on two vectors in a three-dimensional oriented Euclidean vector space (named here E), and ...
and
dot product
In mathematics, the dot product or scalar productThe term ''scalar product'' means literally "product with a Scalar (mathematics), scalar as a result". It is also used for other symmetric bilinear forms, for example in a pseudo-Euclidean space. N ...
are operations on two
vectors in
Euclidean vector space
Euclidean space is the fundamental space of geometry, intended to represent physical space. Originally, in Euclid's ''Elements'', it was the three-dimensional space of Euclidean geometry, but in modern mathematics there are ''Euclidean spaces'' ...
. The sine and cosine functions can be defined in terms of the cross product and dot product. If
and
are vectors, and
is the angle between
and
, then sine and cosine can be defined as:
Analytic descriptions
Unit circle definition
The sine and cosine functions may also be defined in a more general way by using
unit circle
In mathematics, a unit circle is a circle of unit radius—that is, a radius of 1. Frequently, especially in trigonometry, the unit circle is the circle of radius 1 centered at the origin (0, 0) in the Cartesian coordinate system in the Eucli ...
, a circle of radius one centered at the origin
, formulated as the equation of
in the
Cartesian coordinate system
In geometry, a Cartesian coordinate system (, ) in a plane (geometry), plane is a coordinate system that specifies each point (geometry), point uniquely by a pair of real numbers called ''coordinates'', which are the positive and negative number ...
. Let a line through the origin intersect the unit circle, making an angle of
with the positive half of the axis. The and coordinates of this point of intersection are equal to
and
, respectively; that is,
This definition is consistent with the right-angled triangle definition of sine and cosine when
because the length of the hypotenuse of the unit circle is always 1; mathematically speaking, the sine of an angle equals the opposite side of the triangle, which is simply the coordinate. A similar argument can be made for the cosine function to show that the cosine of an angle when
, even under the new definition using the unit circle.
Graph of a function and its elementary properties

Using the unit circle definition has the advantage of drawing a graph of sine and cosine functions. This can be done by rotating counterclockwise a point along the circumference of a circle, depending on the input
. In a sine function, if the input is
, the point is rotated counterclockwise and stopped exactly on the axis. If
, the point is at the circle's halfway. If
, the point returned to its origin. This results that both sine and cosine functions have the
range between
.
Extending the angle to any real domain, the point rotated counterclockwise continuously. This can be done similarly for the cosine function as well, although the point is rotated initially from the coordinate. In other words, both sine and cosine functions are
periodic, meaning any angle added by the circumference's circle is the angle itself. Mathematically,
A function
is said to be
odd if
, and is said to be
even if
. The sine function is odd, whereas the cosine function is even. Both sine and cosine functions are similar, with their difference being
shifted by
. This phase shift can be expressed as cos(θ)=sin(θ+π/2) or sin(θ)=cos(θ−π/2). This is distinct from the cofunction identities that follow below, which arise from right-triangle geometry and are not phase shifts:

Zero is the only real
fixed point of the sine function; in other words the only intersection of the sine function and the
identity function
Graph of the identity function on the real numbers
In mathematics, an identity function, also called an identity relation, identity map or identity transformation, is a function that always returns the value that was used as its argument, unc ...
is
. The only real fixed point of the cosine function is called the
Dottie number. The Dottie number is the unique real root of the equation
. The decimal expansion of the Dottie number is approximately 0.739085.
Continuity and differentiation

The sine and cosine functions are infinitely differentiable. The derivative of sine is cosine, and the derivative of cosine is negative sine:
Continuing the process in higher-order derivative results in the repeated same functions; the fourth derivative of a sine is the sine itself. These derivatives can be applied to the
first derivative test, according to which the
monotonicity of a function can be defined as the inequality of function's first derivative greater or less than equal to zero. It can also be applied to
second derivative test, according to which the
concavity of a function can be defined by applying the inequality of the function's second derivative greater or less than equal to zero. The following table shows that both sine and cosine functions have concavity and monotonicity—the positive sign (
) denotes a graph is increasing (going upward) and the negative sign (
) is decreasing (going downward)—in certain intervals. This information can be represented as a Cartesian coordinates system divided into four quadrants.
Both sine and cosine functions can be defined by using differential equations. The pair of
is the solution
to the two-dimensional system of
differential equations
and
with the
initial conditions and
. One could interpret the unit circle in the above definitions as defining the
phase space trajectory of the differential equation with the given initial conditions. It can be interpreted as a phase space trajectory of the system of differential equations
and
starting from the initial conditions
and
.
Integral and the usage in mensuration
Their area under a curve can be obtained by using the
integral
In mathematics, an integral is the continuous analog of a Summation, sum, which is used to calculate area, areas, volume, volumes, and their generalizations. Integration, the process of computing an integral, is one of the two fundamental oper ...
with a certain bounded interval. Their antiderivatives are:
where
denotes the
constant of integration. These antiderivatives may be applied to compute the mensuration properties of both sine and cosine functions' curves with a given interval. For example, the
arc length
Arc length is the distance between two points along a section of a curve. Development of a formulation of arc length suitable for applications to mathematics and the sciences is a problem in vector calculus and in differential geometry. In the ...
of the sine curve between
and
is
where
is the
incomplete elliptic integral of the second kind with modulus
. It cannot be expressed using
elementary function
In mathematics, an elementary function is a function of a single variable (typically real or complex) that is defined as taking sums, products, roots and compositions of finitely many polynomial, rational, trigonometric, hyperbolic, a ...
s. In the case of a full period, its arc length is
where
is the
gamma function
In mathematics, the gamma function (represented by Γ, capital Greek alphabet, Greek letter gamma) is the most common extension of the factorial function to complex numbers. Derived by Daniel Bernoulli, the gamma function \Gamma(z) is defined ...
and
is the
lemniscate constant.
Inverse functions

The
inverse function
In mathematics, the inverse function of a function (also called the inverse of ) is a function that undoes the operation of . The inverse of exists if and only if is bijective, and if it exists, is denoted by f^ .
For a function f\colon ...
of sine is arcsine or inverse sine, denoted as "arcsin", "asin", or
. The inverse function of cosine is arccosine, denoted as "arccos", "acos", or
. As sine and cosine are not
injective
In mathematics, an injective function (also known as injection, or one-to-one function ) is a function that maps distinct elements of its domain to distinct elements of its codomain; that is, implies (equivalently by contraposition, impl ...
, their inverses are not exact inverse functions, but partial inverse functions. For example,
, but also
,
, and so on. It follows that the arcsine function is multivalued:
, but also
,
, and so on. When only one value is desired, the function may be restricted to its
principal branch. With this restriction, for each
in the domain, the expression
will evaluate only to a single value, called its
principal value. The standard range of principal values for arcsin is from
, and the standard range for arccos is from
to
.
The inverse function of both sine and cosine are defined as:
where for some integer
,
By definition, both functions satisfy the equations:
and
Other identities
According to
Pythagorean theorem
In mathematics, the Pythagorean theorem or Pythagoras' theorem is a fundamental relation in Euclidean geometry between the three sides of a right triangle. It states that the area of the square whose side is the hypotenuse (the side opposite t ...
, the squared hypotenuse is the sum of two squared legs of a right triangle. Dividing the formula on both sides with squared hypotenuse resulting in the
Pythagorean trigonometric identity
The Pythagorean trigonometric identity, also called simply the Pythagorean identity, is an identity expressing the Pythagorean theorem in terms of trigonometric functions. Along with the sum-of-angles formulae, it is one of the basic relations ...
, the sum of a squared sine and a squared cosine equals 1:
Sine and cosine satisfy the following double-angle formulas:

The cosine double angle formula implies that sin
2 and cos
2 are, themselves, shifted and scaled sine waves. Specifically,
The graph shows both sine and sine squared functions, with the sine in blue and the sine squared in red. Both graphs have the same shape but with different ranges of values and different periods. Sine squared has only positive values, but twice the number of periods.
Series and polynomials

Both sine and cosine functions can be defined by using a
Taylor series
In mathematics, the Taylor series or Taylor expansion of a function is an infinite sum of terms that are expressed in terms of the function's derivatives at a single point. For most common functions, the function and the sum of its Taylor ser ...
, a
power series involving the higher-order derivatives. As mentioned in , the
derivative
In mathematics, the derivative is a fundamental tool that quantifies the sensitivity to change of a function's output with respect to its input. The derivative of a function of a single variable at a chosen input value, when it exists, is t ...
of sine is cosine and that the derivative of cosine is the negative of sine. This means the successive derivatives of
are
,
,
,
, continuing to repeat those four functions. The th derivative, evaluated at the point 0:
where the superscript represents repeated differentiation. This implies the following Taylor series expansion at
. One can then use the theory of
Taylor series
In mathematics, the Taylor series or Taylor expansion of a function is an infinite sum of terms that are expressed in terms of the function's derivatives at a single point. For most common functions, the function and the sum of its Taylor ser ...
to show that the following identities hold for all
real number
In mathematics, a real number is a number that can be used to measure a continuous one- dimensional quantity such as a duration or temperature. Here, ''continuous'' means that pairs of values can have arbitrarily small differences. Every re ...
s
—where
is the angle in radians. More generally, for all
complex number
In mathematics, a complex number is an element of a number system that extends the real numbers with a specific element denoted , called the imaginary unit and satisfying the equation i^= -1; every complex number can be expressed in the for ...
s:
Taking the derivative of each term gives the Taylor series for cosine:
Both sine and cosine functions with multiple angles may appear as their
linear combination
In mathematics, a linear combination or superposition is an Expression (mathematics), expression constructed from a Set (mathematics), set of terms by multiplying each term by a constant and adding the results (e.g. a linear combination of ''x'' a ...
, resulting in a polynomial. Such a polynomial is known as the
trigonometric polynomial. The trigonometric polynomial's ample applications may be acquired in
its interpolation, and its extension of a periodic function known as the
Fourier series
A Fourier series () is an Series expansion, expansion of a periodic function into a sum of trigonometric functions. The Fourier series is an example of a trigonometric series. By expressing a function as a sum of sines and cosines, many problems ...
. Let
and
be any coefficients, then the trigonometric polynomial of a degree
—denoted as
—is defined as:
The
trigonometric series can be defined similarly analogous to the trigonometric polynomial, its infinite inversion. Let
and
be any coefficients, then the trigonometric series can be defined as:
In the case of a Fourier series with a given integrable function
, the coefficients of a trigonometric series are:
Complex numbers relationship
Complex exponential function definitions
Both sine and cosine can be extended further via
complex number
In mathematics, a complex number is an element of a number system that extends the real numbers with a specific element denoted , called the imaginary unit and satisfying the equation i^= -1; every complex number can be expressed in the for ...
, a set of numbers composed of both
real and
imaginary number
An imaginary number is the product of a real number and the imaginary unit , is usually used in engineering contexts where has other meanings (such as electrical current) which is defined by its property . The square (algebra), square of an im ...
s. For real number
, the definition of both sine and cosine functions can be extended in a
complex plane
In mathematics, the complex plane is the plane (geometry), plane formed by the complex numbers, with a Cartesian coordinate system such that the horizontal -axis, called the real axis, is formed by the real numbers, and the vertical -axis, call ...
in terms of an
exponential function as follows:
Alternatively, both functions can be defined in terms of
Euler's formula:
When plotted on the
complex plane
In mathematics, the complex plane is the plane (geometry), plane formed by the complex numbers, with a Cartesian coordinate system such that the horizontal -axis, called the real axis, is formed by the real numbers, and the vertical -axis, call ...
, the function
for real values of
traces out the
unit circle
In mathematics, a unit circle is a circle of unit radius—that is, a radius of 1. Frequently, especially in trigonometry, the unit circle is the circle of radius 1 centered at the origin (0, 0) in the Cartesian coordinate system in the Eucli ...
in the complex plane. Both sine and cosine functions may be simplified to the imaginary and real parts of
as:
When
for real values
and
, where
, both sine and cosine functions can be expressed in terms of real sines, cosines, and
hyperbolic functions as:
Polar coordinates

Sine and cosine are used to connect the real and imaginary parts of a
complex number
In mathematics, a complex number is an element of a number system that extends the real numbers with a specific element denoted , called the imaginary unit and satisfying the equation i^= -1; every complex number can be expressed in the for ...
with its
polar coordinates
In mathematics, the polar coordinate system specifies a given point (mathematics), point in a plane (mathematics), plane by using a distance and an angle as its two coordinate system, coordinates. These are
*the point's distance from a reference ...
:
and the real and imaginary parts are
where
and
represent the magnitude and angle of the complex number
.
For any real number
, Euler's formula in terms of polar coordinates is stated as
.
Complex arguments

Applying the series definition of the sine and cosine to a complex argument, ''z'', gives:
:
where sinh and cosh are the
hyperbolic sine and cosine. These are
entire function
In complex analysis, an entire function, also called an integral function, is a complex-valued function that is holomorphic on the whole complex plane. Typical examples of entire functions are polynomials and the exponential function, and any ...
s.
It is also sometimes useful to express the complex sine and cosine functions in terms of the real and imaginary parts of its argument:
:
Partial fraction and product expansions of complex sine
Using the partial fraction expansion technique in
complex analysis
Complex analysis, traditionally known as the theory of functions of a complex variable, is the branch of mathematical analysis that investigates functions of complex numbers. It is helpful in many branches of mathematics, including algebraic ...
, one can find that the infinite series
both converge and are equal to
. Similarly, one can show that
Using product expansion technique, one can derive
Usage of complex sine
sin(''z'') is found in the
functional equation for the
Gamma function
In mathematics, the gamma function (represented by Γ, capital Greek alphabet, Greek letter gamma) is the most common extension of the factorial function to complex numbers. Derived by Daniel Bernoulli, the gamma function \Gamma(z) is defined ...
,
:
which in turn is found in the
functional equation for the
Riemann zeta-function,
:
As a
holomorphic function
In mathematics, a holomorphic function is a complex-valued function of one or more complex variables that is complex differentiable in a neighbourhood of each point in a domain in complex coordinate space . The existence of a complex de ...
, sin ''z'' is a 2D solution of
Laplace's equation:
:
The complex sine function is also related to the level curves of
pendulums.
Complex graphs
Background
Etymology
The word ''sine'' is derived, indirectly, from the
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
word 'bow-string' or more specifically its synonym (both adopted from
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
'string; chord'), due to visual similarity between the arc of a circle with its corresponding chord and a bow with its string (see
jyā, koti-jyā and utkrama-jyā; ''sine'' and ''chord'' are closely related in a circle of unit diameter, see
Ptolemy’s Theorem). This was
transliterated
Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...
in
Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
as , which is meaningless in that language and written as (). Since Arabic is written without short vowels, was interpreted as the
homograph
A homograph (from the , and , ) is a word that shares the same written form as another word but has a different meaning. However, some dictionaries insist that the words must also be pronounced differently, while the Oxford English Dictionar ...
(
جيب), which means 'bosom', 'pocket', or 'fold'. When the Arabic texts of
Al-Battani and
al-Khwārizmī were translated into
Medieval Latin
Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. It was also the administrative language in the former Western Roman Empire, Roman Provinces of Mauretania, Numidi ...
in the 12th century by
Gerard of Cremona, he used the Latin equivalent
''sinus'' (which also means 'bay' or 'fold', and more specifically 'the hanging fold of a
toga over the breast'). Gerard was probably not the first scholar to use this translation; Robert of Chester appears to have preceded him and there is evidence of even earlier usage. The English form ''sine'' was introduced in
Thomas Fale's 1593 ''Horologiographia''.
The word ''cosine'' derives from an abbreviation of the Latin 'sine of the
complementary angle' as ''cosinus'' in
Edmund Gunter's ''Canon triangulorum'' (1620), which also includes a similar definition of ''cotangens''.
History

While the early study of trigonometry can be traced to antiquity, the
trigonometric functions
In mathematics, the trigonometric functions (also called circular functions, angle functions or goniometric functions) are real functions which relate an angle of a right-angled triangle to ratios of two side lengths. They are widely used in all ...
as they are in use today were developed in the medieval period. The
chord function was discovered by
Hipparchus
Hipparchus (; , ; BC) was a Ancient Greek astronomy, Greek astronomer, geographer, and mathematician. He is considered the founder of trigonometry, but is most famous for his incidental discovery of the precession of the equinoxes. Hippar ...
of
Nicaea
Nicaea (also spelled Nicæa or Nicea, ; ), also known as Nikaia (, Attic: , Koine: ), was an ancient Greek city in the north-western Anatolian region of Bithynia. It was the site of the First and Second Councils of Nicaea (the first and seve ...
(180–125 BCE) and
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...
of
Roman Egypt
Roman Egypt was an imperial province of the Roman Empire from 30 BC to AD 642. The province encompassed most of modern-day Egypt except for the Sinai. It was bordered by the provinces of Crete and Cyrenaica to the west and Judaea, ...
(90–165 CE).
The sine and cosine functions are closely related to the
and functions used in
Indian astronomy
Astronomy has a long history in the Indian subcontinent, stretching from History of India, pre-historic to History of India (1947–present), modern times. Some of the earliest roots of Indian astronomy can be dated to the period of Indus Valle ...
during the
Gupta period (''
Aryabhatiya'' and ''
Surya Siddhanta''), via translation from Sanskrit to Arabic and then from Arabic to Latin.
All six trigonometric functions in current use were known in
Islamic mathematics by the 9th century, as was the
law of sines
In trigonometry, the law of sines (sometimes called the sine formula or sine rule) is a mathematical equation relating the lengths of the sides of any triangle to the sines of its angles. According to the law,
\frac \,=\, \frac \,=\, \frac \,=\ ...
, used in
solving triangles.
Al-Khwārizmī (c. 780–850) produced tables of sines, cosines and tangents.
[Jacques Sesiano, "Islamic mathematics", p. 157, in ] 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°.
In the early 17th-century, the French mathematician
Albert Girard published the first use of the abbreviations ''sin'', ''cos'', and ''tan''; these were further promulgated by Euler (see below). The ''Opus palatinum de triangulis'' of
Georg Joachim Rheticus, a student of
Copernicus, was probably the first in Europe to define trigonometric functions directly in terms of right triangles instead of circles, with tables for all six trigonometric functions; this work was finished by Rheticus' student Valentin Otho in 1596.
In a paper published in 1682,
Leibniz proved that sin ''x'' is not an
algebraic function of ''x''.
Roger Cotes computed the derivative of sine in his ''Harmonia Mensurarum'' (1722).
Leonhard Euler
Leonhard Euler ( ; ; ; 15 April 170718 September 1783) was a Swiss polymath who was active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, logician, geographer, and engineer. He founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made influential ...
's ''Introductio in analysin infinitorum'' (1748) was mostly responsible for establishing the analytic treatment of trigonometric functions in Europe, also defining them as infinite series and presenting "
Euler's formula", as well as the near-modern abbreviations ''sin.'', ''cos.'', ''tang.'', ''cot.'', ''sec.'', and ''cosec.''
Software implementations
There is no standard algorithm for calculating sine and cosine.
IEEE 754
The IEEE Standard for Floating-Point Arithmetic (IEEE 754) is a technical standard for floating-point arithmetic originally established in 1985 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The standard #Design rationale, add ...
, the most widely used standard for the specification of reliable floating-point computation, does not address calculating trigonometric functions such as sine. The reason is that no efficient algorithm is known for computing sine and cosine with a specified accuracy, especially for large inputs.
Algorithms for calculating sine may be balanced for such constraints as speed, accuracy, portability, or range of input values accepted. This can lead to different results for different algorithms, especially for special circumstances such as very large inputs, e.g.
sin(10)
.
A common programming optimization, used especially in 3D graphics, is to pre-calculate a table of sine values, for example one value per degree, then for values in-between pick the closest pre-calculated value, or
linearly interpolate between the 2 closest values to approximate it. This allows results to be looked up from a table rather than being calculated in real time. With modern CPU architectures this method may offer no advantage.
The
CORDIC algorithm is commonly used in scientific calculators.
The sine and cosine functions, along with other trigonometric functions, are widely available across programming languages and platforms. In computing, they are typically abbreviated to
sin
and
cos
.
Some CPU architectures have a built-in instruction for sine, including the Intel x87 FPUs since the 80387.
In programming languages,
sin
and
cos
are typically either a built-in function or found within the language's standard math library. For example, the
C standard library
The C standard library, sometimes referred to as libc, is the standard library for the C (programming language), C programming language, as specified in the ISO C standard.International Organization for Standardization, ISO/International Electrote ...
defines sine functions within
math.h:
sin(double
Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to:
Mathematics and computing
* Multiplication by 2
* Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length
* A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1
* A ...
)
,
sinf( float)
, and
sinl( long double)
. The parameter of each is a
floating point value, specifying the angle in radians. Each function returns the same
data type
In computer science and computer programming, a data type (or simply type) is a collection or grouping of data values, usually specified by a set of possible values, a set of allowed operations on these values, and/or a representation of these ...
as it accepts. Many other trigonometric functions are also defined in
math.h, such as for cosine, arc sine, and hyperbolic sine (sinh). Similarly,
Python defines
math.sin(x)
and
math.cos(x)
within the built-in
math
module. Complex sine and cosine functions are also available within the
cmath
module, e.g.
cmath.sin(z)
.
CPython's math functions call the
C math
library, and use a
double-precision floating-point format
Double-precision floating-point format (sometimes called FP64 or float64) is a floating-point number format, usually occupying 64 bits in computer memory; it represents a wide range of numeric values by using a floating radix point.
Double pre ...
.
Turns based implementations
Some software libraries provide implementations of sine and cosine using the input angle in half-
turns, a half-turn being an angle of 180 degrees or
radians. Representing angles in turns or half-turns has accuracy advantages and efficiency advantages in some cases.
[MATLAB Documentation sinpi]
/ref>[R Documentation sinpi]
/ref> These functions are called sinpi
and cospi
in MATLAB, OpenCL, R, Julia, CUDA, and ARM. For example, sinpi(x)
would evaluate to where ''x'' is expressed in half-turns, and consequently the final input to the function, can be interpreted in radians by .
The accuracy advantage stems from the ability to perfectly represent key angles like full-turn, half-turn, and quarter-turn losslessly in binary floating-point or fixed-point. In contrast, representing , , and in binary floating-point or binary scaled fixed-point always involves a loss of accuracy since irrational numbers cannot be represented with finitely many binary digits.
Turns also have an accuracy advantage and efficiency advantage for computing modulo to one period. Computing modulo 1 turn or modulo 2 half-turns can be losslessly and efficiently computed in both floating-point and fixed-point. For example, computing modulo 1 or modulo 2 for a binary point scaled fixed-point value requires only a bit shift or bitwise AND operation. In contrast, computing modulo involves inaccuracies in representing .
For applications involving angle sensors, the sensor typically provides angle measurements in a form directly compatible with turns or half-turns. For example, an angle sensor may count from 0 to 4096 over one complete revolution.[ALLEGRO Angle Sensor Datasheet]
If half-turns are used as the unit for angle, then the value provided by the sensor directly and losslessly maps to a fixed-point data type with 11 bits to the right of the binary point. In contrast, if radians are used as the unit for storing the angle, then the inaccuracies and cost of multiplying the raw sensor integer by an approximation to would be incurred.
See also
* Āryabhaṭa's sine table
* Bhaskara I's sine approximation formula
* Discrete sine transform
* Dixon elliptic functions
* Euler's formula
* Generalized trigonometry
* Hyperbolic function
* Lemniscate elliptic functions
* Law of sines
In trigonometry, the law of sines (sometimes called the sine formula or sine rule) is a mathematical equation relating the lengths of the sides of any triangle to the sines of its angles. According to the law,
\frac \,=\, \frac \,=\, \frac \,=\ ...
* List of periodic functions
* List of trigonometric identities
In trigonometry, trigonometric identities are equalities that involve trigonometric functions and are true for every value of the occurring variables for which both sides of the equality are defined. Geometrically, these are identities involvin ...
* Madhava series
* Madhava's sine table
* Optical sine theorem
* Polar sine—a generalization to vertex angles
* Proofs of trigonometric identities
* Sinc function
* Sine and cosine transforms
* Sine integral
* Sine quadrant
* Sine wave
A sine wave, sinusoidal wave, or sinusoid (symbol: ∿) is a periodic function, periodic wave whose waveform (shape) is the trigonometric function, trigonometric sine, sine function. In mechanics, as a linear motion over time, this is ''simple ...
* Sine–Gordon equation
* Sinusoidal model
* SOH-CAH-TOA
* Trigonometric functions
In mathematics, the trigonometric functions (also called circular functions, angle functions or goniometric functions) are real functions which relate an angle of a right-angled triangle to ratios of two side lengths. They are widely used in all ...
* Trigonometric integral
In mathematics, trigonometric integrals are a indexed family, family of nonelementary integrals involving trigonometric functions.
Sine integral
The different sine integral definitions are
\operatorname(x) = \int_0^x\frac\,dt
\operato ...
References
Footnotes
Citations
Works cited
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External links
*
{{Trigonometric and hyperbolic functions
Angle
Trigonometric functions
no:Trigonometriske funksjoner#Sinus, cosinus og tangens