quote:Original post by Scheermesje
Sinus/cosinus are the dutch words I''m sorry 
But I''ve never had a real english math book so don''t know all the words in english. Thnx for the translation
And yes, I was describing a unit circle :D
Sinus is the Latin word for bay, as in a beach. Sin was originally called sinus. My maths teacher showed me why this was so, and I can''t remember now. Basically, if you draw a triangle in a circle, and do some things to it, you create the shape of a bay, and so Sinus was born, it''s also interesting to note that your sinus''s, above your nose are in the same shape.
Tangeant is a bit different, as you must draw tangeants on that circle to get the correct angle.
So, if you really want to be pedantic, Sinus, Cosinus and Tangeant are the correct terms.
quote:
I''m in 12th grade right now (in calc) and I want someone to show me an application of that stuff... lol... but anyway, I haven''t done a whole lot of programming but from what I understand, the trig functions are important for rotating things. I don''t really know enough about it to post, but I''ve definetly seen sin/cos used in rotation. I''m sure there are uses as well though.
I don''t know whether 12th grade is, but if it is equivalent to our first year of college (Year 12 in effect) then you will learn some application next year.
