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Trigonometry Outline
Trigonometry Outline
Trigonometry Outline
Trigonometry is, of course, a branch of geometry, but it differs from the synthetic
geometry of Euclid and the ancient Greeks by being computational in nature. For instance,
Proposition I.4 of the Elements is the angle-side-angle congruence theorem which states
that a triangle is determined by any two angles and the side between them. That is, if you
want to know the remaining angle and the remaining two sides, all you have to do is lay out
the given side and the two angles at its ends, extend the other two sides until they meet,
and you've got the triangle. No numerical computations involved.
But the trigonometrical version is different. If you have the measurements of the two
angles and the length of the side between them, then the problem is to compute the
remaining angle (which is easy, just subtract the sum of the two angles from two right
angles) and the remaining two sides (which is difficult). The modern solution to the last
computation is by means of the law of cosines.
The prime application of trigonometry in past cultures, not just ancient Greek, is to
astronomy. Computation of angles in the celestial sphere requires a different kind of
geometry and trigonometry than that in the plane. The geometry of the sphere was called
"spherics" and formed one part of the quadrivium of study. Various authors, including
Euclid, wrote books on spherics. The current name for the subject is "elliptic geometry."
Trigonometry apparently arose to solve problems posed in spherics rather than problems
posed in plane geometry. Thus, spherical trigonometry is as old as plane trigonometry.
The Babylonians and angle measurement
The Babylonians, sometime before 300 B.C.E. were using degree measurement for angles.
The Babylonian numerals were based on the number 60, so it may be conjectured that they
took the unit measure to be what we call 60°, and then divided that into 60 degrees.
Perhaps 60° was taken as the unit because the chord of 60° equals the radius of the circle,
see below about chords. Degree measurement was later adopted by Hipparchus.
The Babylonians were the first to give coordinates for stars. They used the ecliptic as their
base circle in the celestial sphere, that is, the crystal sphere of stars. The sun travels the
ecliptic, the planets travel near the ecliptic, the constellations of the zodiac are arranged
around the ecliptic, and the North Star, Polaris, is 90° from the ecliptic. The celestial sphere
rotates around the axis through the north and south poles. The Babylonians measured the
longitude in degrees counter clockwise from the vernal point as seen from the north pole,
and they measured the latitude in degrees north or south from the ecliptic.
Some of Hipparchus' advances in astronomy include the calculation of the mean lunar
month, estimates of the sized and distances of the sun and moon, variants on the
epicyclical and eccentric models of planetary motion, a catalogue of 850 stars (longitude
and latitude relative to the ecliptic), and the discovery of the precession of the equinoxes
and a measurement of that precession.
According to Theon, Hipparchus wrote a 12-book work on chords in a circle, since lost. That
would be the first known work of trigonometry. Since the work no longer exists, most
everything about it is speculation. But a few things are known from various mentions of it in
other sources including another of his own. It included some lengths of chords
corresponding to various arcs of circles, perhaps a table of chords. Besides these few
scraps of information, others can be inferred from knowledge that was taken as well-known
by his successors.
The chord of an angle AOB where O is the center of a circle and A and B are two points on
the circle, is just the straight line AB. Chords are related to the modern sine and cosine by
the formulas
where r is the radius of the circle and t is an angle. Starting with crd 60° = r, Hippocrates
could by means of this half-angle formula find the chords of 30°, 15°, and 7 1/2°. He could
complete a table of chords in 7 1/2° steps by using crd 90°, the half-angle formula, and the
supplementary angle formula.
What other relations among the chords of various angles that Hippocrates would have
known remains speculation.
The earliest work on spherical trigonometry was Menelaus' Spherica. It included what is
now called Menelaus' theorem which relates arcs of great circles on spheres. Of course,
Menelaus stated his result in terms of chords, but
in terms of modern sines, his theorem reads
sin sin sin
CE CF BD
=
sin sin sin
EA FD BA
and
sin CA sin CD sin BF
=
sin EA sin FD sin BE
He proved this result by first proving the plane version, then "projecting" back to the sphere.
The plane version says
CE CF BD
=
EA FD BA
and
CA CD BF
=
EA FD BE
Ptolemy's Theorem
where O is the center of the circle and d the diameter. If we take a to be angle AOB and b
to be angle AOC, then we have
These, of course, correspond to the sum and difference formulas for sines.
Armed with his theorem, Ptolemy could complete his table of chords from 1/2° to 180° in
increments of 1/2°.
Trigonometry
Computational trigonometry could only begin after the construction of a good trig table, and
so Ptolemy proceeded. Although he did not systematically give methods for solving right
triangles and oblique triangles, solutions to specific problems are found in the Almagest.
Those solutions that we would find using sines or cosines are equally easy to solve with a
table of chords, but those that we would solve with tangents would require dividing a chord
by the supplementary chord, making for a more difficult solution. A typical example of that
would be finding the height of a pole given the length of its shadow and the angle of
inclination of the shadow.
Uses of trigonometry