Hrmm today I will search for r/sino in the google search engine (hexbear.net)

submitted 2 months ago by PointAndClique@hexbear.net to c/sino@hexbear.net

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monke-beepboop

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[-] cosecantphi@hexbear.net 20 points 2 months ago

Never understood why we're taught specific names for these trig functions rather than just expressing them all in terms of sine and cosine

[-] CarbonScored@hexbear.net 20 points 2 months ago

No need for cosine either, it's just sin(x-90)

[-] TraschcanOfIdeology@hexbear.net 11 points 2 months ago

90

Not using radians and pi smdh

[-] Abracadaniel@hexbear.net 4 points 2 months ago

pi

not using tau smdh

[-] TraschcanOfIdeology@hexbear.net 3 points 2 months ago

oooaaaaaaauhhh

[-] cosecantphi@hexbear.net 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Alternatively, one could just use cos(x-90) in place of sine. Since it's arbitrary which we throw out, I say keep them both (also it allows you to intuitively associate sine and cosine with the legs of a right triangle in the unit circle)

[-] CarbonScored@hexbear.net 6 points 2 months ago

I'm not sure why cos gets a pass but 'csc' doesn't. I'd absolutely argue the opposite in terms of intuitive associations.

[-] cosecantphi@hexbear.net 7 points 2 months ago

I'd say sine and cosine get priority because they are much more well behaved and easier to work with than their reciprocals full of asymptotes and discontinuities

[-] gay_king_prince_charles@hexbear.net 6 points 2 months ago

D*gree user 🤮

[-] CarbonScored@hexbear.net 4 points 2 months ago

I posted no units, maybe it is radians and I'm just bad at maths

[-] alexandra_kollontai@hexbear.net 3 points 2 months ago

What's wrong with degrees? Everybody understands them and they're whole numbers that are easy to work with.

[-] cosecantphi@hexbear.net 5 points 2 months ago

Nothing wrong with degrees, they are definitely more useful for engineering and practical applications in many cases. But while doing math for math's sake, radians feel much more elegant because pi is a fundamental result of our axiomatic system whereas degrees are totally arbitrary numbers picked for convenience.

[-] moondog@hexbear.net 13 points 2 months ago

Maybe it was back in the day people would rather remember shorthands for csc and such rather than having to write it out long form each time. (I agree with your point tho I'd rather not have to memorize those)

[-] driving_crooner 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Because before calculators, people used to had books with a buch of tables with the values of each function and their solution. So, having sen and csc given is easier than having to solve 1/sin

Edit: here's an excellent video about one of these books: https://youtube.com/watch?v=OjIwCOevUew