EXPLORING THE INVERSE HYPERBOLIC FUNCTIONS

MA201 - Special Topics in Algebra, Trigonometry, and Analytic Geometry

Charleymaine Venus A. Belmonte (MMATH-1)

Suppose you are standing, facing north, and holding the end of a 10-foot taut rope attached to
a heavy weight that is positioned directly east of you. As you walk north steadily pulling the heavy weight
(without jerking) along the ground’s smooth, level surface, and keeping the rope taut, the path the
weight makes as it moves from its initial position is a curve that has a well-known name in mathematics.
This curve also describes the path taken by the middle of the rear wheel axle of a tractor trailer as it
makes a turn perpendicular to its original direction of motion.

THE HYPERBOLIC FUNCTIONS

The first systematic consideration of hyperbolic functions was done by the Swiss mathematician
Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728 – 1777).

Hyperbolic functions were introduced in the 1760s independently by Vincenzo Riccati and Johann
Heinrich Lambert. Riccati used Sc. and Cc. ([co]sinus circulare) to refer to hyperbolic functions.
Lambert adopted the names but altered the abbreviations to what they are today.

Hyperbolic functions are analogs of the ordinary trigonometric, or

circular functions.

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 equilateral hyperbola.
The hyperbolic functions take a real argument called a hyperbolic
angle. The size of a hyperbolic angle is twice the area of its
hyperbolic sector. The hyperbolic functions may be defined in terms
of the legs of a right triangle covering this sector.

In complex analysis, the hyperbolic functions arise as the imaginary parts of sine and cosine. When
considered defined by a complex variable, the hyperbolic functions are rational functions of
exponentials, and are hence holomorphic.

Definitions of Hyperbolic Functions

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THE INVERSE HYPERBOLIC FUNCTIONS

The inverse hyperbolic functions are the inverse functions of

the hyperbolic functions.

For a given value of a hyperbolic function, the corresponding

inverse hyperbolic function provides the corresponding
hyperbolic angle. The size of the hyperbolic angle is equal to the
area of the corresponding hyperbolic sector of the hyperbola
𝑥𝑦 = 1, or twice the area of the unit hyperbola 𝑥 2 − 𝑦 2 = 1, just
as a circular angle is twice the area of the circular sector of the
unit circle.

Notation

The most common abbreviations are ar-, followed by the abbreviation of the corresponding
hyperbolic function (e.g. arsinh, arcosh, etc.). However, arc-, followed by the corresponding
hyperbolic function (e.g. arcsinh, arccosh, etc.) is also commonly seen by analogy with the
nomenclature for inverse trigonometric functions. Prefixes arc is the abbreviation for arcus, while
the prefix ar stands for area. Others prefer to use the notation argsinh, argcosh, and so on, where the
prefix arg is the abbreviation of argumentum.

The notation 𝑠𝑖𝑛ℎ−1 (𝑥), 𝑐𝑜𝑠ℎ−1 (𝑥), etc., is also used despite the fact that care must be taken to avoid
misinterpretations of the superscript -1 as a power as opposed to a shorthand for inverse.

Definitions

As the hyperbolic functions are rational functions of 𝑒 𝑥 whose numerator and denominator are of
degree at most two, these functions may be solved in terms of 𝑒 𝑥 , by using the quadratic formula;
then, taking the natural logarithm gives the following definitions.

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Graphs

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