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There are several equivalent ways for defining trigonometric functions, and the proofs of the trigonometric identities between them depend on the chosen definition. The oldest and most elementary definitions are based on the geometry of right triangles and the ratio between their sides.
Trigonometric functions and their reciprocals on the unit circle. All of the right-angled triangles are similar, i.e. the ratios between their corresponding sides are the same. For sin, cos and tan the unit-length radius forms the hypotenuse of the triangle that defines them.
The tangent half-angle substitution relates an angle to the slope of a line. Introducing a new variable = , sines and cosines can be expressed as rational functions of , and can be expressed as the product of and a rational function of , as follows: = +, = +, = +.
Similar right triangles illustrating the tangent and secant trigonometric functions Trigonometric functions and their reciprocals on the unit circle. The Pythagorean theorem applied to the blue triangle shows the identity 1 + cot 2 θ = csc 2 θ, and applied to the red triangle shows that 1 + tan 2 θ = sec 2 θ.
The sides of this rhombus have length 1. The angle between the horizontal line and the shown diagonal is 1 / 2 (a + b).This is a geometric way to prove the particular tangent half-angle formula that says tan 1 / 2 (a + b) = (sin a + sin b) / (cos a + cos b).
The diagram at right shows a circle with centre O and radius r = 1. Let two radii OA and OB make an arc of θ radians. Since we are considering the limit as θ tends to zero, we may assume θ is a small positive number, say 0 < θ < 1 / 2 π in the first quadrant.
In integral calculus, Euler's formula for complex numbers may be used to evaluate integrals involving trigonometric functions.Using Euler's formula, any trigonometric function may be written in terms of complex exponential functions, namely and and then integrated.
A natural "Lebesgue measure" on the unit circle S 1 (here thought of as a subset of the complex plane C) may be defined using a push-forward construction and Lebesgue measure λ on the real line R. Let λ also denote the restriction of Lebesgue measure to the interval [0, 2 π ) and let f : [0, 2 π ) → S 1 be the natural bijection defined by ...