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For example, the derivative of the sine function is written sin ′ (a) = cos(a), meaning that the rate of change of sin(x) at a particular angle x = a is given by the cosine of that angle. All derivatives of circular trigonometric functions can be found from those of sin( x ) and cos( x ) by means of the quotient rule applied to functions such ...
The sine and tangent small-angle approximations are used in relation to the double-slit experiment or a diffraction grating to develop simplified equations like the following, where y is the distance of a fringe from the center of maximum light intensity, m is the order of the fringe, D is the distance between the slits and projection screen ...
Ptolemy's theorem states that the sum of the products of the lengths of opposite sides is equal to the product of the lengths of the diagonals. When those side-lengths are expressed in terms of the sin and cos values shown in the figure above, this yields the angle sum trigonometric identity for sine: sin(α + β) = sin α cos β + cos α sin β.
For the sine function, we can handle other values. If θ > π /2, then θ > 1. But sin θ ≤ 1 (because of the Pythagorean identity), so sin θ < θ. So we have < <. For negative values of θ we have, by the symmetry of the sine function
That cos nx is an n th-degree polynomial in cos x can be seen by observing that cos nx is the real part of one side of de Moivre's formula: + = ( + ). The real part of the other side is a polynomial in cos x and sin x , in which all powers of sin x are even and thus replaceable through the identity cos 2 x + sin 2 x = 1 .
Point P has a positive y-coordinate, and sin θ = sin(π − θ) > 0. As θ increases from zero to the full circle θ = 2π, the sine and cosine change signs in the various quadrants to keep x and y with the correct signs. The figure shows how the sign of the sine function varies as the angle changes quadrant.
The sine and the cosine functions, for example, are used to describe simple harmonic motion, which models many natural phenomena, such as the movement of a mass attached to a spring and, for small angles, the pendular motion of a mass hanging by a string. The sine and cosine functions are one-dimensional projections of uniform circular motion.
The local maxima and minima of the unnormalized sinc correspond to its intersections with the cosine function. That is, sin(ξ) / ξ = cos(ξ) for all points ξ where the derivative of sin(x) / x is zero and thus a local extremum is reached.