Sines &Cosines of the Times Author(s): VICTOR J. KATZ Source: Math Horizons, Vol. 2, No. 4 (April 1995), p.

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J.KATZ VICTOR

mostly for Simpson's rule for numerical integration by parabolic approximation. Simpson was one of a group of private in England teachers who met the

Sines of
Why

& the

Cosines

in the Mathematical membership at Society Spitalfields, whose rulesmade

growing demand of the English middle class formathematical knowledge. The textbook grew out of Simpson's

Times
respect to the arc. century, thismeant

asked

does the derivative of the sine equal the cosine? Or the derivative of the tangent equal the square of the secant? One answer, that you learned early in your calculus course, is that these rules can be proved. In fact, your instructor probably proved the firstfrom the definition of derivative, lim (sin x)/x = 1, and proved the second by using the rule. But, after all, the quotient are defined functions trigonometric one geometrically; ought to be able to

having first convinced you that

In the eighteenth is able." thatwe would find manner he neither the ratio of the infinitesimal change of although Interestingly, = sin t to the infinitesimal nor t. in Newton Leibniz considered y change of the Now an infinitesimal change in the arc the derivatives explicitly can an t best be represented by drawing trigonometric functions, they did deal infinitesimal tangent line to the circle with their power series and their at the end of the arc labeled t. Ifwe For example, differential equations. consider this tangent as the hypotenuse of a right triangle, then the vertical leg represents dy, the infinitesimal change in the sine. Since the infinitesimal triangle is similar to the original large triangle, the laws of similarity show that = = cos t, as dy/dt x/l, or d(sin t)/dt Leibniz

it the duty of every member "if he be or mathematical any philo sophical question by another member, to instructhim in the plainest and easiest

their derivatives geo we look back at the as If well. metrically history of these functions and their relationship to the history of calculus, understand we can do exactly that. Today, we generally consider the sine and the other trigonometric functions
as numerical functions of real numbers,

used the same figure with its that differential triangle to conclude + dx2 - dt2, or, since x = and dy2 ^ll-y2 dx = y dy/^ll-y2, that dy2 + y2dt2= dt2. Assuming, then, that dt is a constant increment and therefore that its differential is 0, Leibniz applied his differential operator d to both sides of the equation to get d(dy2 + y2d?) = 0. Using the product rule for differentials on the left side, he simplified this into finally, into the familiar differential = = equation of y sin t. d2y/dt2 -y.Note that Leibniz's method ofmanipulating with second order differentials explains our seemingly strange placement of the 2's in themodern notation for second
derivatives.

= 0 or = 0 or, dt2 2dy(ddy)+2ydy d2y+ydt2

where

be But until the time of Euler in themid eighteenth century, sines were certain lines in circles of a given radius, the lines being generally associated not to (Hence the term angles but to arcs. = arc a arcsine of given sine for the inverse function of a sine.) Thus, in the = where t is the figure, we have y sin t,
measure X = cos of the arc and, t. for convenience,

the numbers in the domain can thought of as measures of angles.

x=vT~^"

desired.

we take the radius equal So

to 1; similarly,

suppose we want to take the derivative of the sine function with mathematician at VICTOR J. KATZ, visiting the MAA during the 1994-95 academic year,
Columbia. at the University His textbook, ematics: An Introduction, teaches of the District of History was published A Math of by

the argument analogous derivative of the tangent.) The geometrical arguments giving the derivatives of the sine and tangent firstappeared inprint in a posthumously published paper ofRoger Cotes (1682 1716), the editor of the second edition of Newton's The first Principia. of the sine appearance argument in a calculus text, however, was in A New Treatise ofFluxions (1737) by Thomas famous today (1710-1761), Simpson

(Exercise:

Develop to find

an

arguments using were replaced by arguments using limits in the early nineteenth century, theirheuristic value in the learning of calculus remains. And in recent decades, the work of Although infinitesimals
Abraham Robinson on non-standard

analysis has shown that these arguments can even be modified tomeet modern standards of rigor. Rigorous arguments notwithstanding, the history ofmany of the concepts of calculus helps us to develop an intuitive understanding of the basic ideas of the subject, an understanding necessary forus to apply to the solving of these techniques problems.

HarperCollins

in 1993.

MathHorizons April1995

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