{"id":151920,"date":"2015-06-01T01:50:29","date_gmt":"2015-06-01T01:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/06\/01\/the-history-of-trigonometry\/"},"modified":"2015-06-01T01:50:29","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T01:50:29","slug":"the-history-of-trigonometry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/06\/01\/the-history-of-trigonometry\/","title":{"rendered":"The History of Trigonometry"},"content":{"rendered":"

medievalpoc<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

From LiveScience.com:<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Trigonometry follows a similar path as algebra<\/a>: it
\n was developed in the ancient Middle East and through trade and
\nimmigration moved to Greece, India, medieval Arabia and finally Europe
\n(where consequently, colonialism made it the version most people are
\ntaught today). The timeline of trigonometric discovery is complicated by
\n the fact that India and Arabia continued to excel in the study for
\ncenturies after the passing of knowledge across cultural borders. For
\nexample, Madhava\u2019s 1400 discovery of the infinite series of sine<\/a> was
\n unknown to Europe up through Isaac Newton\u2019s independent discovery in
\n1670. Due to these complications, we\u2019ll focus exclusively on the
\ndiscovery and passage of sine, cosine, and tangent.<\/p>\n

\n\tBeginning in the Middle East, seventh-century B.C. scholars of Neo-Babylonia determined a technique for computing the rise times of fixed stars<\/a> on
\n the zodiac. It takes approximately 10 days for a different fixed star
\nto rise just before dawn, and there are three fixed stars in each of the
\n 12 zodiacal signs; 10 \u00d7 12 \u00d7 3 = 360. The number 360 is close enough to
\n the 365.24 days in a year but far more convenient to work with. Nearly
\nidentical divisions are found in the texts of other ancient
\ncivilizations, such as Egypt<\/a> and the Indus Valley<\/a>. According to Uta Merzbach in \u201cA History of Mathematics<\/a>\u201d
\n (Wiley, 2011), the adaptation of this Babylonian technique by Greek
\nscholar Hypsicles of Alexandria around 150 B.C. was likely the
\ninspiration for Hipparchus of Nicea (190 to 120 B.C.) to begin the trend
\n of cutting the circle into 360 degrees. Using geometry, Hipparchus
\ndetermined trigonometric values (for a function no longer used) for
\nincrements of 7.5 degrees (a 48th<\/sup> of a circle). Ptolemy of Alexandria (A.D. 90 to 168), in his A.D. 148 \u201cAlmagest<\/a>\u201d, furthered the work of Hipparchus by determining trigonometric values for increments of 0.5 degrees (a 720th<\/sup> of a circle) from 0 to 180 degrees.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe oldest record of the sine function comes from fifth-century India
\nin the work of Aryabhata (476 to 550). Verse 1.12 of the \u201cAryabhatiya<\/a>\u201d (499), instead of representing angles in degrees, contains a list of sequential differences of sines of twenty-fourths of a right angle<\/a> (increments of 3.75 degrees). This was the launching point for much of trigonometry for centuries to come.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe next group of great scholars to inherit trigonometry were from the
\nGolden Age of Islam. Al-Ma’mun (813 to 833), the seventh caliph of the
\nAbbasid Caliphate and creator of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad,
\nsponsored the translation of Ptolemy\u2019s \u201cAlmagest\u201d and Aryabhata\u2019s
\n\u201cAryabhatiya\u201d into Arabic. Soon after, Al-Khw\u0101rizm\u012b<\/a> (780
\n to\u2009850) produced accurate sine and cosine tables in \u201cZ\u012bj al-Sindhind\u201d
\n(820). It is through this work that that knowledge of trigonometry first
\n came to Europe. According to Gerald Toomer in the \u201cDictionary of Scientific Biography 7<\/a>,\u201d while the original Arabic version has been lost, it was edited around 1000 by al-Majriti<\/a> of Al-Andalus (modern Spain), who likely added tables of tangents before Adelard of Bath<\/a> (in South England) translated it into Latin in 1126.<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For people looking for History of Mathematics resources!<\/p>\n

link submitted by grnephrite<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

medievalpoc: From LiveScience.com: Trigonometry follows a similar path as algebra: it was developed in the ancient Middle East and through trade and immigration moved to Greece, India, medieval Arabia and finally Europe (where consequently, colonialism made it the version most people are taught today). The timeline of trigonometric discovery is complicated by the fact that … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The History of Trigonometry”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[261,2139,17258,4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151920"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}