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what are the operations of the six main trig functions (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by jackpot@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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sorry for my layman terminology, but to my understanding as a coder a function has a name, parameters, arguments and operations. if sin is the name, and its parameters are side opposite and hypotenuse, and its arguments are context dependent, what is the operation itself? am i making sense?

def sin (hypotenuse, opposite):
     ??!?!?!!?

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[–] dmention7@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This is kind of a weirdly phrased question.

Mathematically, THE argument of the sine function is the angle in question. One definition of sine, using the sides of a right triangle, is the ratio of the opposite leg to the hypotenuse of said triangle: sin(theta)=opposite/hypotenuse.

Edit: it occurred to me that maybe what you're asking is how to compute the angle, theta, for which sin(theta) = a certain ratio of opposite/hypotenuse. There is an inverse sine function (often called arcsin) that does just that. Arcsin(opp/hyp)=theta. That's the case where it would make sense to take the side lengths as arguments.