Trigonometry and Mensuration|pages=158159| BC.

[3] The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, written by the

quote=Trigonometry, like other branches of mathematics, Egyptian scribe Ahmes (circa 1680-1620 BC), contains the
Name:______________________________________ was not the work of any one man, or nation. Theorems on following problem related to trigonometry:[3]
ratios of the sides of similar triangles had been known to,
and used by, the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians. In "If a pyramid is 250 cubits high and the side of its base 360
view of the pre-Hellenic lack of the concept of angle cubits long, what is its seked?"
The history of trigonometry and of trigonometric measure, such a study might better be called
functions may span nearly 4,000 years. "trilaterometry," or the measure of three sided polygons Ahmes' solution to the problem is the ratio of half the side
(trilaterals), than "trigonometry," the measure of parts of of the base of the pyramid to its height, or the run-to-rise
Etymology a triangle. With the Greeks we first find a systematic study ratio of its face. In other words, the quantity he found for
of relationships between angles (or arcs) in a circle and the seked is the cotangent of the angle to the base of the
the lengths of chords subtending these. Properties of pyramid and its face.[3]
The term "trigonometry" derives from the Greek
chords, as measures of central and inscribed angles in
"" ("trigonometria"), meaning "triangle
circles, were familiar to the Greeks of Hippocrates' day, Greek mathematics
measuring", from "" (triangle) + "" (to
and it is likely that Eudoxus had used ratios and angle
measure).
measures in determining the size of the earth and the
relative distances of the sun and the moon. In the works of
Our modern word "sine", is derived from the Latin word Euclid there is no trigonometry in the strict sense of the
sinus, which means "bay" or "fold", from a mistranslation word, but there are theorems equivalent to specific
(via Arabic) of the Sanskrit word jiva, alternatively called trigonometric laws or formulas. Propositions II.12 and 13
jya.[1] Aryabhata used the term ardha-jiva ("half-chord"), of the Elements, for example, are the laws of cosines for
which was shortened to jiva and then transliterated by the obtuse and acute angles respectively, stated in geometric
Arabs as jiba (). European translators like Robert of rather than trigonometric language and proved by a
Chester and Gherardo of Cremona in 12th-century Toledo method similar to that used by Euclid in connection with
confused jiba for jaib (), meaning "bay", probably the Pythagorean theorem. Theorems on the lengths of
because jiba ( )and jaib ( )are written the same in chords are essentially applications of the modern law of
the Arabic script (this writing system uses accents instead sines. We have seen that Archimedes' theorem on the
of vowels and in some formats the accents are not written broken chord can readily be translated into trigonometric
to ease writing, so if the readers are not familiar with the language analogous to formulas for sines of sums and The chord of an angle subtends the arc of the angle.
language they might be confused between words with the differences of angles.}}</ref>
same letters but different phonetics). The words "minute" Ancient Greek and Hellenistic mathematicians made use of
and "second" are derived from the Latin phrases partes The Babylonian astronomers kept detailed records on the the chord. Given a circle and an arc on the circle, the
minutae primae and partes minutae secundae.[2] These rising and setting of stars, the motion of the planets, and chord is the line that subtends the arc. A chord's
roughly translate to "first small parts" and "second small the solar and lunar eclipses, all of which required perpendicular bisector passes through the center of the
parts". familiarity with angular distances measured on the circle and bisects the angle. One half of the bisected
celestial sphere.[3] Based on one interpretation of the chord is the sine of the bisected angle, that is,
Development Plimpton 322 cuneiform tablet (circa 1900 BC), some have
even asserted that the ancient Babylonians had a table of , and consequently the sine function is
Trigonometry is not the work of any one person or nation. secants.[4] There is, however, much debate as to whether
also known as the "half chord". Due to this relationship, a
Its history spans thousands of years and has touched every it is a table of Pythagorean triples, a solution of quadratic
number of trigonometric identities and theorems that are
major civilization. equations, or a trigonometric table. known today were also known to Hellenistic
mathematicians, but in their equivalent chord form.[5]
Early trigonometry The Egyptians, on the other hand, used a primitive form of
trigonometry for building pyramids in the 2nd millennium
Although there is no trigonometry in the works of Euclid
and Archimedes, in the strict sense of the word, there are
theorems presented in a geometric way (rather than a
trigonometric way) that are equivalent to specific
trigonometric laws or formulas.[6] For instance,
propositions twelve and thirteen of book two of the
Elements are the laws of cosine for obtuse and acute
angles, respectively. Theorems on the lengths of chords
are applications of the law of sines. And Archimedes'
theorem on broken chords is equivalent to formulas for
sines of sums and differences of angles.[6] To compensate
for the lack of a table of chords, mathematicians of
Aristarchus' time would sometimes use the well known
theorem that, in modern notation, sin / sin < / < tan
/ tan whenever 0 < < < 90, among other Later, Claudius Ptolemy (ca. 90 - ca. 168 A.D.) expanded
theorems.[7]
The first trigonometric table was apparently compiled by
Hipparchus of Nicaea (180 - 125 BC), who is now
consequently known as "the father of trigonometry."[8]
Hipparchus was the first to tabulate the corresponding
values of arc and chord for a series of angles.[1][8]
Although it is not known when the systematic use of the
360 circle came into mathematics, it is known that the
systematic introduction of the 360 circle came a little
after Aristarchus of Samos composed On the Sizes and
Distances of the Sun and Moon (ca. 260 B.C.), since he
measured an angle in terms of a fraction of a quadrant.[7]
It seems that the systematic use of the 360 circle is
largely due to Hipparchus and his table of chords.
Hipparchus may have taken the idea of this division from
Hypsicles who had earlier divided the day into 360 parts, a
division of the day that may have been suggested by
Babylonian astronomy.[9] In ancient astronomy, the zodiac
had been divided into twelve "signs" or thirty-six "decans".
A seasonal cycle of roughly 360 days could have
corresponded to the signs and decans of the zodiac by
dividing each sign into thirty parts and each decan into ten
parts.[2] It is due to the Babylonian sexagesimal number
system that each degree is divided into sixty minutes and
each minute is divided into sixty seconds.[2]
Menelaus of Alexandria (ca. 100 A.D.) wrote in three books The next significant developments of trigonometry were in
his Sphaerica. In Book I, he established a basis for India. Influential works from the 4th5th century, known
spherical triangles analogous to the Euclidean basis for as the Siddhantas (of which there were five, the most
plane triangles.[5] He establishes a theorem that is without complete survivor of which is the Surya Siddhanta[13]) first
Euclidean analogue, that two spherical triangles are defined the sine as the modern relationship between half
congruent if corresponding angles are equal, but he did an angle and half a chord, while also defining the cosine,
not distinguish between congruent and symmetric versine, and inverse sine.[14] Soon afterwards, another
spherical triangles.[5] Another theorem that he establishes Indian mathematician and astronomer, Aryabhata (476550
is that the sum of the angles of a spherical triangle is AD), collected and expanded upon the developments of
greater than 180.[5] Book II of Sphaerica applies spherical the Siddhantas in an important work called the
geometry to astronomy. And Book III contains the "theorem Aryabhatiya.[15] The Siddhantas and the Aryabhatiya
of Menelaus".[5] He further gave his famous "rule of six contain the earliest surviving tables of sine values and
quantities".[10] versine (1 cosine) values, in 3.75 intervals from 0 to
90, to an accuracy of 4 decimal places.[16] They used the
words jya for sine, kojya for cosine, utkrama-jya for
upon Hipparchus' Chords in a Circle in his Almagest, or the versine, and otkram jya for inverse sine. The words jya
Mathematical Syntaxis. The thirteen books of the and kojya eventually became sine and cosine respectively
Almagest are the most influential and significant after a mistranslation described above.
trigonometric work of all antiquity.[11] A theorem that was
central to Ptolemy's calculation of chords was what is still Other Indian mathematicians later expanded on these
known today as Ptolemy's theorem, that the sum of the works of trigonometry. In the 6th century, Varahamihira
products of the opposite sides of a cyclic quadrilateral is used the formulas[17]
equal to the product of the diagonals. A special case of
Ptolemy's theorem appeared as proposition 93 in Euclid's
Data. Ptolemy's theorem leads to the equivalent of the (a trigonometric
four sum-and-difference formulas for sine and cosine that equivalent to formulas known by Thales and
are today known as Ptolemy's formulas, although Ptolemy Pythagoras )
[17]
himself used chords instead of sine and cosine. Ptolemy
[11]
further derived the equivalent of the half-angle formula
.[11] Ptolemy used these (modern sine and cosine
results to create his trigonometric tables, but whether equivalent to a chord formula known to Ptolemy;
these tables were derived from Hipparchus' work cannot see above)
be determined.[11]
In the 7th century, Bhaskara I produced a formula for
Neither the tables of Hipparchus nor those of Ptolemy calculating the sine of an acute angle without the use of a
have survived to the present day, although descriptions by table. He also gave the following approximation formula
other ancient authors leave little doubt that they once for sin(x), which had a relative error of less than 1.9%:
existed.[12]
[edit] Indian mathematics

Later in the 7th century, Brahmagupta redeveloped the
formula
(also derived earlier, as mentioned above) as well as the
Brahmagupta interpolation formula for computing sine
values.[18] Another later Indian author on trigonometry was setting up two intersecting right triangles; by applying
Bhaskara II in the 12th century.
Madhava (c. 1400) made early strides in the analysis of
trigonometric functions and their infinite series
expansions. He developed the concepts of the power
series and Taylor series, and produced the power series
expansions of sine, cosine, tangent, and arctangent. [19][20]
Using the Taylor series approximations of sine and cosine, In the early 9th century, Muhammad ibn Ms al-
he produced a sine table to 12 decimal places of accuracy Khwrizm produced accurate sine and cosine tables, and
and a cosine table to 9 decimal places of accuracy. He also the first table of tangents. He was also a pioneer in
gave the power series of and the , radius, diameter,
and circumference of a circle in terms of trigonometric
functions. His works were expanded by his followers at the ibn Jbir al-Harrn al-Battn (Albatenius) (853-929)
Kerala School up to the 16th century.[19][20]
[edit] Islamic mathematics
The Indian works were later translated and expanded in
the medieval Islamic world by Muslim mathematicians of
mostly Persian and Arab descent, who enunciated a large
number of theorems which freed the subject of
trigonometry from dependence upon the complete
quadrilateral, as was the case in Hellenistic mathematics
due to the application of Menelaus' theorem. According to
E. S. Kennedy, it was after this development in Islamic
mathematics that "the first real trigonometry emerged, in
the sense that only then did the object of study become
the spherical or plane triangle, its sides and angles."[21]
In addition to Indian works, Hellenistic methods dealing
with spherical triangles were also known, particularly the
method of Menelaus of Alexandria, who developed
"Menelaus' theorem" to deal with spherical problems.[5][22]
However, E. S. Kennedy points out that while it was
possible in pre-lslamic mathematics to compute the
magnitudes of a spherical figure, in principle, by use of Ab al-Waf also established the angle addition identities,
the table of chords and Menelaus' theorem, the application e.g. sin (a + b), and discovered the law of sines for
of the theorem to spherical problems was very difficult in spherical trigonometry:[25]
practice.[23] In order to observe holy days on the Islamic
calendar in which timings were determined by phases of
the moon, astronomers initially used Menalaus' method to
calculate the place of the moon and stars, though this
method proved to be clumsy and difficult. It involved
Also in the late 10th and early 11th centuries, the
Menelaus' theorem it was possible to solve one of the six Egyptian astronomer Ibn Yunus performed many careful
sides, but only if the other five sides were known. To tell trigonometric calculations and demonstrated the following
the time from the sun's altitude, for instance, repeated trigonometric identity:
applications of Menelaus' theorem were required. For
medieval Islamic astronomers, there was an obvious
challenge to find a simpler trigonometric method.[24]
Al-Jayyani (9891079) of al-Andalus wrote The book of
unknown arcs of a sphere, which is considered "the first
treatise on spherical trigonometry" in its modern form.[28]
spherical trigonometry. In 830, Habash al-Hasib al-Marwazi It "contains formulae for right-handed triangles, the
produced the first table of cotangents.[25][26] Muhammad
general law of sines, and the solution of a spherical
triangle by means of the polar triangle." This treatise later
discovered the reciprocal functions of secant and had a "strong influence on European mathematics", and his
cosecant, and produced the first table of cosecants for "definition of ratios as numbers" and "method of solving a
each degree from 1 to 90.[26] He was also responsible for spherical triangle when all sides are unknown" are likely to
establishing a number of important trigometrical have influenced Regiomontanus.[28]
relationships, such as: [citation needed]
The method of triangulation was first developed by Muslim
mathematicians, who applied it to practical uses such as
surveying[29] and Islamic geography, as described by Abu
Rayhan Biruni in the early 11th century. Biruni himself
introduced triangulation techniques to measure the size of
the Earth and the distances between various places.[30] In
By the 10th century, in the work of Ab al-Waf' al- the late 11th century, Omar Khayym (10481131) solved
Bzjn, Muslim mathematicians were using all six cubic equations using approximate numerical solutions
trigonometric functions.[27] Abu al-Wafa had sine tables in found by interpolation in trigonometric tables. In the 13th
0.25 increments, to 8 decimal places of accuracy, and century, Nasr al-Dn al-Ts was the first to treat
accurate tables of tangent values.[27] He also developed trigonometry as a mathematical discipline independent
from astronomy, and he developed spherical trigonometry
the following trigonometric formula:[citation needed]
into its present form.[26] He listed the six distinct cases of a
right-angled triangle in spherical trigonometry, and in his
(a special case of On the Sector Figure, he stated the law of sines for plane
Ptolemy's angle-addition formula; see above) and spherical triangles, discovered the

law of tangents for spherical triangles, and provided
proofs for both these laws.[31]
In the 15th century, Jamshd al-Ksh provided the first
explicit statement of the law of cosines in a form suitable
for triangulation. In France, the law of cosines is still
referred to as the theorem of Al-Kashi. He also gave
trigonometric tables of values of the sine function to four
sexagesimal digits (equivalent to 8 decimal places) for
each 1 of argument with differences to be added for each
1/60 of 1. Ulugh Beg also gives accurate tables of sines
and tangents correct to 8 decimal places around the same
time.
In the 16th century, Taqi al-Din contributed to
trigonometry in his Sidrat al-Muntaha, in which he was the trigonometry in his calculations to improve the calendar
first mathematician to extract the precise value of Sin 1. system and Chinese astronomy.[32][36] Along with a later
He discusses the values given by his predecessors,
explaining how Ptolemy used an approximate method to
obtain his value of Sin 1 and how Ab al-Waf, Ibn Yunus,
al-Kashi, Q Zda al-Rm, Ulugh Beg and Mirim Chelebi
improved on the value. Taqi al-Din then solves the
problem to obtain the precise value of Sin 1[citation needed]:
[edit] Chinese mathematics
In China, Aryabhata's table of sines were translated into
where Chinese mathematicians began to express greater
emphasis for the need of spherical trigonometry in
calendrical science and astronomical calculations.[32] The
polymath Chinese scientist, mathematician and official
Shen Kuo (10311095) used trigonometric functions to
solve mathematical problems of chords and arcs.[32] Victor
J. Katz writes that in Shen's formula "technique of
intersecting circles", he created an approximation of the
arc of a circle s given the diameter d, sagita v, and length
of the chord c subtending the arc, the length of which he
approximated as .[34] Sal Restivo writes that
Shen's work in the lengths of arcs of circles provided the
basis for spherical trigonometry developed in the 13th
century by the mathematician and astronomer Guo
Shoujing (12311316).[35] As the historians L. Gauchet and
Joseph Needham state, Guo Shoujing used spherical
17th century Chinese illustration of Guo's mathematical
proofs, Needham states that:
Guo used a quadrangular spherical pyramid, the basal
quadrilateral of which consisted of one equatorial and one
ecliptic arc, together with two meridian arcs, one of
which passed through the summer solstice point...By such
methods he was able to obtain the du l (degrees of
equator corresponding to degrees of ecliptic), the ji cha
(values of chords for given ecliptic arcs), and the cha l
(difference between chords of arcs differing by 1 degree).
[37]
discipline,[39] in his De triangulis omnimodus written in
1464, as well as his later Tabulae directionum which
included the tangent function, unnamed.
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 the 17th century, Isaac Newton and James Stirling
developed the general Newton-Stirling interpolation
formula for trigonometric functions.
In the 18th century, Leonhard Euler's Introductio in
analysin infinitorum (1748) was mostly responsible for
establishing the analytic treatment of trigonometric
functions in Europe, defining them as infinite series and
presenting "Euler's formula" eix = cosx + isinx. Euler used
the near-modern abbreviations sin., cos., tang., cot., sec.,
and cosec.
Also in the 18th century, Brook Taylor defined the general
Taylor series and gave the series expansions and
approximations for all six trigonometric functions. The
works of James Gregory in the 17th century and Colin
Maclaurin in the 18th century were also very influential in
the development of trigonometric series.

the Chinese mathematical book of the Kaiyuan Zhanjing,

compiled in 718 AD during the Tang Dynasty.[32] Although Despite the achievements of Shen and Guo's work in
the Chinese excelled in other fields of mathematics such trigonometry, another substantial work in Chinese
as solid geometry, binomial theorem, and complex trigonometry would not be published again until 1607,
algebraic formulas, early forms of trigonometry were not with the dual publication of Euclid's Elements by Chinese
as widely appreciated as in the earlier Greek , Hellenistic, official and astronomer Xu Guangqi (15621633) and the
Indian and Islamic worlds.[33] Instead, the early Chinese Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci (15521610).[38]
used an empirical substitute known as chong cha, while
practical use of plane trigonometry in using the sine, the [edit] European mathematics
tangent, and the secant were known.[32] However, this
embryonic state of trigonometry in China slowly began to Regiomontanus was perhaps the first mathematician in
change and advance during the Song Dynasty (9601279), Europe to treat trigonometry as a distinct mathematical