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In mathematics, sine and cosine are trigonometric functions of an angle.The sine and cosine of an acute angle are defined in the context of a right triangle: for the specified angle, its sine is the ratio of the length of the side that is opposite that angle to the length of the longest side of the triangle (the hypotenuse), and the cosine is the ratio of the length of the adjacent leg to that ...
In the following definitions, the hypotenuse is the side opposite to the 90-degree angle in a right triangle; it is the longest side of the triangle and one of the two sides adjacent to angle A. The adjacent leg is the other side that is adjacent to angle A. The opposite side is the side that is opposite to angle A.
In contrast, by the Lindemann–Weierstrass theorem, the sine or cosine of any non-zero algebraic number is always transcendental. [4] The real part of any root of unity is a trigonometric number. By Niven's theorem, the only rational trigonometric numbers are 0, 1, −1, 1/2, and −1/2. [5]
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.
This geometric argument relies on definitions of arc length and area, which act as assumptions, so it is rather a condition imposed in construction of trigonometric functions than a provable property. [2] 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 ...
In radians, one would require that 0° ≤ x ≤ π/2, that x/π be rational, and that sin(x) be rational. The conclusion is then that the only such values are sin(0) = 0, sin(π/6) = 1/2, and sin(π/2) = 1. The theorem appears as Corollary 3.12 in Niven's book on irrational numbers. [2] The theorem extends to the other trigonometric functions ...
The spread between two lines is defined in rational geometry as the square of the sine of the angle between the lines. As the sine of an angle and the sine of its supplementary angle are the same, any angle of rotation that maps one of the lines into the other leads to the same value for the spread between the lines.
In trigonometry, the law of sines, sine law, sine formula, or sine rule is an equation relating the lengths of the sides of any triangle to the sines of its angles. According to the law, = = =, where a, b, and c are the lengths of the sides of a triangle, and α, β, and γ are the opposite angles (see figure 2), while R is the radius of the triangle's circumcircle.