<p><pre><code>  Java and Python are actually doing all of the work to compute their 
  trigonometric functions
</code></pre>
Not true in the case of CPython.  It uses the underlying C implementation.  See line 270 onwards.<p><a href="http://www.google.com/codesearch/p?hl=en#2T6lfGELm_A/trunk/Modules/mathmodule.c" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.com/codesearch/p?hl=en#2T6lfGELm_A/trunk/M...</a>