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A trigonometric number is a number that can be expressed as the sine or cosine of a rational multiple of π radians. [2] Since sin ( x ) = cos ( x − π / 2 ) , {\displaystyle \sin(x)=\cos(x-\pi /2),} the case of a sine can be omitted from this definition.
These two starting trigonometric values are usually computed using existing library functions (but could also be found e.g. by employing Newton's method in the complex plane to solve for the primitive root of z N − 1). This method would produce an exact table in exact arithmetic, but has errors in finite-precision floating-point arithmetic
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The most direct method is to truncate the Maclaurin series for each of the trigonometric functions. Depending on the order of the approximation , cos θ {\displaystyle \textstyle \cos \theta } is approximated as either 1 {\displaystyle 1} or as 1 − 1 2 θ 2 {\textstyle 1-{\frac {1}{2}}\theta ^{2}} .
Mathematical 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 the 1970s, in order to simplify and drastically speed up computation.
An introduction to trigonometry; Benjamin Banneker's Trigonometry Puzzle at Convergence; Dave's short trig course; Trigonometric Delights, by Eli Maor, Princeton University Press, 1998. Ebook version, in PDF format, full text presented. Trigonometry by Alfred Monroe Kenyon and Louis Ingold, The Macmillan Company, 1914. In images, full text ...
A formula for computing the trigonometric identities for the one-third angle exists, but it requires finding the zeroes of the cubic equation 4x 3 − 3x + d = 0, where is the value of the cosine function at the one-third angle and d is the known value of the cosine function at the full angle.
Even with a calculator or computer, round-off errors make it advisable to use the sin 2 formula for small θ. Another historical advantage of the versine is that it is always non-negative, so its logarithm is defined everywhere except for the single angle ( θ = 0, 2 π , …) where it is zero—thus, one could use logarithmic tables for ...