TRIG(3M) TRIG(3M)
NAME
sin, cos, tan, asin, acos, atan, atan2 - trigonometric
functions and their inverses
SYNOPSIS
#include <math.h>
double sin(x)
double x;
double cos(x)
double x;
double tan(x)
double x;
double asin(x)
double x;
double acos(x)
double x;
double atan(x)
double x;
double atan2(y,x)
double y,x;
DESCRIPTION
Sin, cos and tan return trigonometric functions of radian
arguments x.
Asin returns the arc sine in the range -pi/2 to pi/2.
Acos returns the arc cosine in the range 0 to pi.
Atan returns the arc tangent in the range -pi/2 to pi/2.
On a VAX,
atan2(y,x) := atan(y/x) if x > 0,
sign(y)*(pi - atan(|y/x|)) if x < 0,
0 if x = y = 0, or
sign(y)*pi/2 if x = 0 != y.
DIAGNOSTICS
If |x| > 1 then asin(x) and acos(x) returns NaN.
NOTES
Atan2 defines atan2(0,0) = 0. The reasons for assigning a
value to atan2(0,0) are these:
(1) Programs that test arguments to avoid computing
Page 1 (last mod. 8/20/87)
TRIG(3M) TRIG(3M)
atan2(0,0) must be indifferent to its value. Programs
that require it to be invalid are vulnerable to diverse
reactions to that invalidity on diverse computer
systems.
(2) Atan2 is used mostly to convert from rectangular (x,y)
to polar (r,theta) coordinates that must satisfy x =
r*cos theta and y = r*sin theta. These equations are
satisfied when (x=0,y=0) is mapped to (r=0,theta=0) on a
VAX. In general, conversions to polar coordinates
should be computed thus:
r:= hypot(x,y); ... := sqrt(x*x+y*y)
theta:= atan2(y,x).
(3) The foregoing formulas need not be altered to cope in a
reasonable way with signed zeros and infinities on a
machine that conforms to IEEE 754; the versions of hypot
and atan2 provided for such a machine are designed to
handle all cases. That is why atan2(+0,-0) = +pi, for
instance. In general the formulas above are equivalent
to these:
r := sqrt(x*x+y*y); if r = 0 then x := copysign(1,x);
if x > 0 then theta := 2*atan(y/(r+x))
else theta := 2*atan((r-x)/y);
except if r is infinite then atan2 will yield an appropriate
multiple of pi/4 that would otherwise have to be obtained by
taking limits.
ERROR (due to Roundoff etc.)
Let P stand for the number stored in the computer in place
of pi = 3.14159 26535 89793 23846 26433 ... . Let "trig"
stand for one of "sin", "cos" or "tan". Then the expression
"trig(x)" in a program actually produces an approximation to
trig(x*pi/P), and "atrig(x)" approximates (P/pi)*atrig(x).
The approximations are close, within 0.9 ulps for sin, cos
and atan, within 2.2 ulps for tan, asin, acos and atan2 on a
VAX. Moreover, P = pi in the codes that run on a VAX. In
the codes that run on other machines, P differs from pi by a
fraction of an ulp; the difference matters only if the
argument x is huge, and even then the difference is likely
to be swamped by the uncertainty in x. Besides, every
trigonometric identity that does not involve pi explicitly
is satisfied equally well regardless of whether P = pi. For
instance, sin(x)**2+cos(x)**2 = 1 and
sin(2x) = 2sin(x)cos(x) to within a few ulps no matter how
big x may be. Therefore the difference between P and pi is
most unlikely to affect scientific and engineering
computations.
SEE ALSO
math(3M), hypot(3M), sqrt(3M)
Page 2 (last mod. 8/20/87)
TRIG(3M) TRIG(3M)
AUTHOR
Robert P. Corbett, W. Kahan, Stuart I. McDonald, Peter Tang
and, for the codes for IEEE 754, Dr. Kwok-Choi Ng.
ORIGIN
MIPS Computer Systems
Page 3 (last mod. 8/20/87)