§ 3.

Trigonometry and Spherical Astronomy

1. Plane Trigonometry; Table of Chords
It is a frequently repeated story told about Hipparchus that he wrote a work
on chords in 12 books.1 This number is obvious nonsense since 13 books sufficed
for the whole of the Almagest or of Euclid's" Elements" and none of Archimedes'
works occupies more than two books. Ptolemy's discussion of the mathematical
basis of the computation of chords covers one short chapter, followed by the
tables which require only 8 triple columns (including the difference columns).
Whatever clumsiness one may ascribe to Hipparchus in the presentation of the
computation of chords,2 12 books cannot have been filled. Even if one included
the whole oftrigonometry in the largest sense one should remember that Ptolemy's
spherical trigonometry with all preliminary material and all astronomical applications
and tables fills only two books. The only conclusion left is the usual one:
we know even less about the details of Hipparchus' work than one might assume
at first sight.
There are certain indications of a rather primitive level of Hipparchus' plane
trigonometry. In the Commentary to Aratus he measures arcs in "sections"
(r/l~/l(Xt(x) of 1/24 of the circumference,3 units which are well known in certain
sources of a more practical or elementary level and named "steps" (fJa.B/loi).4
These units of 15° and their parts seem to have been the units on which Hipparchus'
trigonometric tables were built and which also underlie the Indian sine tables,
known in the west by the name "kardaga" (derived from a Sanskrit term meaning
"half-chord ").5 Additional evidence for a connection between Indian trigonometry
and Hipparchus' astronomy can be found in the stellar coordinates
known as "polar longitudes" and "polar latitudes", or in the strange terminology
of expressing arc lengths on any circle in terms of "zodiacal signs". 6
The decisive step in proving that the Indian table of sines was derived from
the Hipparchian table of chords was made by G. J. Toomer who showed 7 that
the two tables not only agree in the steps of the argument but also in the basic
radius of 3438 "minutes". Ptolemy, in describing the method for determining
the radius r of the lunar epicycle (or the eccentricity e) not only gives his own
numerical results but he also reports the values found by Hipparchus for the
I E.g. Rehm in R.E. 8,2, col. 1669, 11 n: who then discusses the "Lebensperiode" into which this
work must have fallen. He takes from Theon's commentary to AIm. 1,10 (ed. Rome CA II, p.
451, 4f.)
as title lIBpi rij~ 1tpa;')IJla;rBia;~ rwv EV ,<:IJ/C).WI BMBIWV plp).ia; IP'. But Rome [1933],
p. 178 has pointed
out that the sentence in question does not contain a book title but has to be rendered as "a study
on
the chords was also made by Hipparchus in 12 books and so by Menelaos in 6." Cf. also Toomer
[1973], p. 19/20.
2 Theon indeed admires the conciseness of Ptolemy'S derivations (ed. Rome CA II, p. 451~
3 Aratus Comm., Manitius, p. 150,2; cf. above p.279.
4 Cf. below IV B 5.
5 Burgess, Sur. Siddh., p. 64; cf. also Nallino, Scritti V, p.220f.
6 Cf. above p. 278.
7 Toomer [1973].