SIN(3M)             UNIX Programmer's Manual		  SIN(3M)


NAME
     sin, cos, tan, asin, acos, atan, atan2 - trigonometric func-
     tions 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
     On a VAX, if |x| > 1 then asin(x) and acos(x) will return
     reserved operands and errno will be set to EDOM.

NOTES
     Atan2 defines atan2(0,0) = 0 on a VAX despite that previ-
     ously atan2(0,0) may have generated an error message.  The
     reasons for assigning a value to atan2(0,0) are these:


Printed 11/26/99	  May 12, 1986				1


SIN(3M)             UNIX Programmer's Manual		  SIN(3M)


     (1) Programs that test arguments to avoid computing
	 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 sys-
	 tems.

     (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 tri-
     gonometric 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 computa-
     tions.


Printed 11/26/99	  May 12, 1986				2


SIN(3M)             UNIX Programmer's Manual		  SIN(3M)


SEE ALSO
     math(3M), hypot(3M), sqrt(3M), infnan(3M)

AUTHOR
     Robert P. Corbett, W. Kahan, Stuart I. McDonald, Peter Tang
     and, for the codes for IEEE 754, Dr. Kwok-Choi Ng.


Printed 11/26/99	  May 12, 1986				3


 
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