Tangent half-angle formulaIn trigonometry, tangent half-angle formulas relate the tangent of half of an angle to trigonometric functions of the entire angle. The tangent of half an angle is the stereographic projection of the circle onto a line. Among these formulas are the following: From these one can derive identities expressing the sine, cosine, and tangent as functions of tangents of half-angles: Using double-angle formulae and the Pythagorean identity gives Taking the quotient of the formulae for sine and cosine yields Combining the Pythagorean identity with the double-angle formula for the cosine, rearranging, and taking the square roots yields and which, upon division gives Alternatively, It turns out that the absolute value signs in these last two formulas may be dropped, regardless of which quadrant α is in.
Pythagorean trigonometric identityThe 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 between the sine and cosine functions. The identity is As usual, means . Any similar triangles have the property that if we select the same angle in all of them, the ratio of the two sides defining the angle is the same regardless of which similar triangle is selected, regardless of its actual size: the ratios depend upon the three angles, not the lengths of the sides.
Casus irreducibilisIn algebra, casus irreducibilis (Latin for "the irreducible case") is one of the cases that may arise in solving polynomials of degree 3 or higher with integer coefficients algebraically (as opposed to numerically), i.e., by obtaining roots that are expressed with radicals. It shows that many algebraic numbers are real-valued but cannot be expressed in radicals without introducing complex numbers. The most notable occurrence of casus irreducibilis is in the case of cubic polynomials that have three real roots, which was proven by Pierre Wantzel in 1843.
Viète's formulaIn mathematics, Viète's formula is the following infinite product of nested radicals representing twice the reciprocal of the mathematical constant pi: It can also be represented as: The formula is named after François Viète, who published it in 1593. As the first formula of European mathematics to represent an infinite process, it can be given a rigorous meaning as a limit expression, and marks the beginning of mathematical analysis. It has linear convergence, and can be used for calculations of pi, but other methods before and since have led to greater accuracy.
Polar sineIn geometry, the polar sine generalizes the sine function of angle to the vertex angle of a polytope. It is denoted by psin. Let v1, ..., vn (n ≥ 1) be non-zero Euclidean vectors in n-dimensional space (Rn) that are directed from a vertex of a parallelotope, forming the edges of the parallelotope. The polar sine of the vertex angle is: where the numerator is the determinant which equals the signed hypervolume of the parallelotope with vector edges and where the denominator is the n-fold product of the magnitudes of the vectors, which equals the hypervolume of the n-dimensional hyperrectangle with edges equal to the magnitudes of the vectors ||v1||, ||v2||, .
Small-angle approximationThe small-angle approximations can be used to approximate the values of the main trigonometric functions, provided that the angle in question is small and is measured in radians: These approximations have a wide range of uses in branches of physics and engineering, including mechanics, electromagnetism, optics, cartography, astronomy, and computer science. One reason for this is that they can greatly simplify differential equations that do not need to be answered with absolute precision.
Pythagorean theoremIn 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 the right angle) is equal to the sum of the areas of the squares on the other two sides. The theorem can be written as an equation relating the lengths of the sides a, b and the hypotenuse c, sometimes called the Pythagorean equation: The theorem is named for the Greek philosopher Pythagoras, born around 570 BC.
Divine Proportions: Rational Trigonometry to Universal GeometryDivine Proportions: Rational Trigonometry to Universal Geometry is a 2005 book by the mathematician Norman J. Wildberger on a proposed alternative approach to Euclidean geometry and trigonometry, called rational trigonometry. The book advocates replacing the usual basic quantities of trigonometry, Euclidean distance and angle measure, by squared distance and the square of the sine of the angle, respectively. This is logically equivalent to the standard development (as the replacement quantities can be expressed in terms of the standard ones and vice versa).
CofunctionIn mathematics, a function f is cofunction of a function g if f(A) = g(B) whenever A and B are complementary angles. This definition typically applies to trigonometric functions. The prefix "co-" can be found already in Edmund Gunter's Canon triangulorum (1620). For example, sine (Latin: sinus) and cosine (Latin: cosinus, sinus complementi) are cofunctions of each other (hence the "co" in "cosine"): The same is true of secant (Latin: secans) and cosecant (Latin: cosecans, secans complementi) as well as of tangent (Latin: tangens) and cotangent (Latin: cotangens, tangens complementi): These equations are also known as the cofunction identities.
VersineThe versine or versed sine is a trigonometric function found in some of the earliest (Sanskrit Aryabhatia, Section I) trigonometric tables. The versine of an angle is 1 minus its cosine. There are several related functions, most notably the coversine and haversine. The latter, half a versine, is of particular importance in the haversine formula of navigation. The versine or versed sine is a trigonometric function already appearing in some of the earliest trigonometric tables.
Haversine formulaThe haversine formula determines the great-circle distance between two points on a sphere given their longitudes and latitudes. Important in navigation, it is a special case of a more general formula in spherical trigonometry, the law of haversines, that relates the sides and angles of spherical triangles. The first table of haversines in English was published by James Andrew in 1805, but Florian Cajori credits an earlier use by José de Mendoza y Ríos in 1801. The term haversine was coined in 1835 by James Inman.
Proofs of trigonometric identitiesThere are several equivalent ways for defining trigonometric functions, and the proof of the trigonometric identities between them depend on the chosen definition. The oldest and somehow the most elementary definition is based on the geometry of right triangles. The proofs given in this article use this definition, and thus apply to non-negative angles not greater than a right angle. For greater and negative angles, see Trigonometric functions.
ExsecantThe exsecant (exsec, exs) and excosecant (excosec, excsc, exc) are trigonometric functions defined in terms of the secant and cosecant functions. They used to be important in fields such as surveying, railway engineering, civil engineering, astronomy, and spherical trigonometry and could help improve accuracy, but are rarely used today except to simplify some calculations.
Spherical law of cosinesIn spherical trigonometry, the law of cosines (also called the cosine rule for sides) is a theorem relating the sides and angles of spherical triangles, analogous to the ordinary law of cosines from plane trigonometry. Given a unit sphere, a "spherical triangle" on the surface of the sphere is defined by the great circles connecting three points u, v, and w on the sphere (shown at right).
Mathematical tableMathematical tables are lists of numbers showing the results of a calculation with varying arguments. Trigonometric tables were used in ancient Greece and India for applications to astronomy and celestial navigation, and continued to be widely used until electronic calculators became cheap and plentiful, in order to simplify and drastically speed up computation. Tables of logarithms and trigonometric functions were common in math and science textbooks, and specialized tables were published for numerous applications.
Exact trigonometric valuesIn 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. The trigonometric functions of angles that are multiples of 15°, 18°, or 22.5° have simple algebraic values. These values are listed in the following table for angles from 0° to 90°.
Trigonometric substitutionIn mathematics, trigonometric substitution is the replacement of trigonometric functions for other expressions. In calculus, trigonometric substitution is a technique for evaluating integrals. Moreover, one may use the trigonometric identities to simplify certain integrals containing radical expressions. Like other methods of integration by substitution, when evaluating a definite integral, it may be simpler to completely deduce the antiderivative before applying the boundaries of integration.
Law of cosinesIn 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 Fig. 1), the law of cosines states: The law of cosines generalizes the Pythagorean theorem, which holds only for right triangles: if is a right angle then and the law of cosines reduces to The law of cosines is useful for solving a triangle when all three sides or two sides and their included angle are given.
Law of tangentsIn trigonometry, the law of tangents or tangent rule is a statement about the relationship between the tangents of two angles of a triangle and the lengths of the opposing sides. In Figure 1, a, b, and c are the lengths of the three sides of the triangle, and α, β, and γ are the angles opposite those three respective sides. The law of tangents states that The law of tangents, although not as commonly known as the law of sines or the law of cosines, is equivalent to the law of sines, and can be used in any case where two sides and the included angle, or two angles and a side, are known.
Hyperbolic functionsIn mathematics, hyperbolic functions are analogues of the ordinary trigonometric functions, but defined using the hyperbola rather than the circle. Just as the points (cos t, sin t) form a circle with a unit radius, the points (cosh t, sinh t) form the right half of the unit hyperbola. Also, similarly to how the derivatives of sin(t) and cos(t) are cos(t) and –sin(t) respectively, the derivatives of sinh(t) and cosh(t) are cosh(t) and +sinh(t) respectively. Hyperbolic functions occur in the calculations of angles and distances in hyperbolic geometry.
