Mathematica Notebook for This Page. All trignometric functions
sine, cosine, tangent, secant, cosecant, cotangent can all be
simply defined in terms of a single function sine. Sine, as
associated with trigonometry, began in early civilization as a
very important measuring science. When the function concept and
calculus and analytic geometry were introduced in about 1700,
sine became a function and has little to do with triangles. The
sine function appears unexpectedly throughout analysis, because
in essence it captures the idea of a wave, a fundamental concept
in physics. From Robert Yates: Trigonometry seems to have been
developed, with certain traces of Indian influence, first by the
Arabs about 800 as a aid to the solution of astronomical
problems. From them the knowledge probably passed to the Greeks.
Johann Müller (c.1464) wrote the first treatise: De triangulis
omnimodis; this was followed closely by others. See also:
History of trigonometric functions. Sine curve is the curve of
the sine function. It i