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/sci/ - Science & Math

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6475446 No.6475446[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

Can anyone tell me why sin, tan, cos, etc. do the things they do? My math book is just telling me: it's this way because of the general ratios of these triangles but it pisses me off to no end not knowing exactly how it works.

>> No.6475454
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6475454

they're rations of right angles

sin is the ratio of opposite/hypotenus for angle
cos is the ration of adjacent/hypotenuse for angle
tan is opposite/adjacent

>> No.6475456

>>6475446
You can express sin() and cos() functions as Taylor series.

I'm not really sure what you're asking.

>> No.6475464

>>6475454
why does it only work for right triangles?

>> No.6475470

>>6475464
>why does it only work for right triangles?
That's just the way the trigonometric functions were defined.
Why did we choose them to be that way? Because right triangles are the easiest kind of triangle to work with. If you take physics, you will understand this.

Of course, you can derive other kinds of trigonometric functions for more general kinds of triangles, not just right triangles.
But why would we? It would be more work for no extra gain.

>> No.6475473

>>6475454
WHERE THE FUCK WAS THIS GIF WHEN I WAS IN HIGH-SCHOOL!?!?

>> No.6475478

>>6475473
All "good" trig teachers show something like it to their students. Sorry you got shafted with a crappy education bro.

>> No.6475481

these are all just coefficients that allow one to calculate the opposite / adjacent / hypotenuse of a right triangle, depending on which you need (thus the different functions) and the reference angle (thus the angle input of the functions).